Master Archaeologist

Chapter 272 How to Open the Inner Coffin?

It took half a month to extract the cultural relics between the inner and outer coffins.

Most of the cultural relics are extracted as a whole.

As a result, many cultural relics actually don't even know what they are, or they are stacked together, making it difficult to distinguish them.

What can be distinguished is the batch of gold wares, jade wares such as jade rings and jade bi, and some lacquered wood wares.

Most importantly, there are a few iron swords with jade accessories!

Overall, the funerary objects between the inner and outer coffins are still very rich.

Not to mention anything else, this batch of gold wares alone is already luxurious enough.

Those gold plates had been weighed.

The lightest piece is more than 800 grams, and the heaviest is more than 1100 grams.

The number of gold plates is 20 in total, adding up to more than 20 kilograms!

What are these gold plates used for? The archaeologists and the scholars in the rear will not be able to give an answer for a while.

Because, in all the archaeology of Han tombs, this is the first time that a gold plate has appeared.

There is no record of provenance in historical documents, and the cultural relics themselves have no characteristics or written records.

In this case, it is really difficult to figure out what the gold plates are used for.

The simplest explanation is that it is only for convenience of preservation, so it is made into this shape.

But this reason is hard to convince.

According to the archaeological experience of Han tombs in the past dynasties, in the Western Han Dynasty, the preservation method of gold was to make gold cakes, not to make gold bars, gold nuggets and other shapes.

This is supported by many unearthed cases.

The fact that only the gold plate of this case was unearthed cannot be used as evidence.

It can be said that these 20 gold plates will become one of the unsolved mysteries of Haihunhou's tomb.

"How to say?"

"So far, we haven't found any direct evidence that can conclusively prove that the owner of the tomb is Haihunhou Liu He."

"But as long as the inner coffin is opened, everything should be revealed."

Standing next to the main coffin that had already been cleaned up, Kong Jianwen stroked his chin and looked at the lonely inner coffin inside the main coffin, feeling a little excited.

After half a month of cleaning, the inner coffin has been fully revealed.

Now it is only necessary to open the coffin to determine who the identity of the owner of the tomb is.

Regardless of everyone in the archaeological team, they are already very sure that the owner of this tomb must be Haihunhou Liu He, because apart from Liu He, there is no second person who can build such a luxurious tomb in Nanchang during the Western Han Dynasty.

Not even the second and third Haihunhou!

However, there is a lack of key evidence that can directly prove that the owner of the tomb is Haihunhou.

And the easiest place to find this kind of evidence is the inner coffin of the owner of the tomb.

Perhaps, the seal with the words "Haihun Hou Liu He" was quietly lying in the inner coffin.

Perhaps, it was in the mouth of Haihunhou's corpse, or it might be hung around his waist, or it might be packed in a lacquer box and placed next to the pillow.

However, no matter where the seal is, it cannot be known until the coffin is opened.

Everyone in the on-site archaeological team was eager to open the inner coffin of the owner of the tomb.

But archaeological excavations cannot tolerate any loss.

The method of opening the coffin has yet to be determined.

Many archaeologists are still looking forward to the well-preserved corpse of the owner of the tomb, and maybe another wet corpse from the Western Han Dynasty will be discovered.

Chen Han, who had already participated in Mr. Sui's excavation work, was not so excited about it.

But the archaeologists at the Jiangxi Institute are really looking forward to this.

Because, the preservation of this Haihunhou tomb is really very good.

The situation is very similar to Mr. Sui's Fenghuangshan Han Tomb and Mrs. Xin Zhui's Mawangdui Han Tomb.

They are all submerged by groundwater for a long time, they are all in a saturated state, and they are all strictly sealed with anaerobic soil.

This made many archaeologists of the Jiangxi Institute, including Wen Yuangen, the director, look forward to it.

You know, a well-preserved ancient corpse from the Western Han Dynasty has much higher significance than the study of wrecks!
Because of this, Wen Yuangen and several archaeologists from the Jiangxi Institute disagreed with the practice of opening the coffin on the spot.

They all believed that the inner coffin should be packed and extracted, and then sent to the archaeological laboratory at the rear, and then the coffin should be opened.

The archaeological excavation of the tomb of Marquis Haihun in Nanchang is a shocking discovery.

After the project was mentioned as the "National Character Head", the construction of the archaeological base built with advanced scientific and technological concepts was started next to the tomb.

Among them, there are many purpose-built modern laboratories.

For example, a low-oxygen laboratory will be filled with a lot of inert gas when it enters the working state. Putting anaerobic cultural relics such as silk fabrics indoors can ensure the safety of cultural relics.

During the excavation of Haihunhou's tomb, once some fragile and easily oxidized cultural relics were found, they would be immediately put into a mobile hypoxic storage cabinet and then sent to this hypoxic laboratory.

Then let the laboratory staff carry out the follow-up archaeological clean-up and extraction work.

Of course, in addition to this hypoxic laboratory, there are many other laboratories.

There is a low-temperature sterile laboratory, which is very suitable for opening the inner coffin.

After Wen Yuangen and Kong Jianwen discussed it, they finally decided to pack the inner coffin into a box and extract it, then send it to the laboratory of the archaeological base, and then open the coffin.

Although it is said that there may not be a well-preserved ancient corpse in the coffin.

However, silk fabrics are bound to appear.

After all, Haihunhou couldn't be buried naked.

And the inner coffin generally has a lot of silk fabrics.

All of these need to be opened in the laboratory to be the best.

Otherwise, if the coffin is opened directly on the spot, some silk fabrics that were not oxidized may also be oxidized very quickly once the coffin is opened.

This is a very serious loss to the country!
In order to transport the inner coffin, even a mobile low-oxygen gas workstation was transferred from above.

It is said to be a workstation, but it is actually a large truck with a compartment.

The compartment is the hypoxic gas workstation.

Archaeologists, need to send this inner coffin to the carriage.

Then, this hypoxic workstation will start to work, injecting a large amount of inert gas into the compartment to protect the inner coffin from oxidation due to long-term exposure to oxygen.

With advanced scientific research equipment, transferring the inner coffin is naturally not a problem.

With the help of some mechanical equipment.

Soon, the inner coffin of the owner of the tomb was covered with two protective covers, one made of wood and the other made of iron.

After packing the inner coffin with two layers of boxes, a cart similar to a coffin bed was pushed out of the tomb through the tomb passage that had been completely cleared.

And outside the tomb passage, the low-temperature protection station parked there quietly.

Unloading, loading, all in one go.

In less than 10 minutes, the entire inner coffin was transported from the inside to the outside, and loaded on a car to send it away, preserving the condition of the inner coffin to the greatest extent.

After watching the cryogenic workstation leave, Kong Jianwen and Wen Yuangen also planned to take Chen Han and the others to the nearby archaeological base to open the coffin.

However, at this moment.

A staff member of the Nanchang Archaeological Institute ran over panting, stopped the two big leaders, and said out of breath: "The two directors."

"A money bank was found in the tomb, and it was full of five baht coins, estimated to be dozens of tons!"

"We can't handle it at all!"

(End of this chapter)