Master Archaeologist

"Is this a jade belt hook?"

"It's jade again!"

"Not the golden seal?"

Chen Han and Zhuang Yunpeng gathered around the test bench, discussing with regret.

A large box with a small box, the two of them originally thought that such a precious practice should have a gold seal.

But I didn't expect that it was not a golden seal.

It's a jade belt hook.

Logically speaking, the jade belt hook should be hung directly on the waist of the owner of the tomb. How could it be solemnly packed in a lacquered wooden box?
The belt hook is generally used to hang sabers and book knives.

The book knife is actually a carving knife, which is used to engrave characters when writing bamboo slips.

In the Western Han Dynasty, on important occasions, wearing a sword on the left and hanging a knife on the right was the etiquette that a "gentleman" must do.

This is why it is said that Confucianism, at least in the time of Confucius, is not a rotten Confucian who only reads poetry and books, but a gentleman with a sword in his left hand and poetry in his right.

However, for Liu He, he was deprived of even the qualification to return to Chang'an to worship his ancestors by Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty.

It seems that there is no "important occasion" that can make him attach so much importance to etiquette.

Chen Han rubbed his chin, thought about it and said, "This jade belt hook should have a very special meaning to Liu He."

"So he didn't wear it himself, but put it in a box and put it solemnly in the inner coffin."

"Perhaps, this is a jade belt hook left behind by Liu He's father, the former king of Changyi?"

"For Liu He, is this a precious item that enshrines the relationship between him and his father and is used to reflect on others?"

"So after he died, he solemnly put it in the box and buried it with him?"

In tombs, it is quite common to find belongings of relatives and friends of the owner of the tomb.

Generally, this kind of item is also very important to the owner of the tomb.

For example, an important memento left by your father, an important memento left by your mother, or a precious gift from a friend.

Wasn't it just in the tombs of Marquis Zeng, in the tomb of Sima Zeng, that a halberd sent by Prince Wu was found!

"It's also possible that this is a more important jade belt hook with special meaning? For example, it was given by the emperor?" Zhuang Yunpeng also speculated.

He pointed to the jade belt hook that Wei Lai held in his hand and said, "This looks like a top-quality Hetian jasper. It has a unique design and exquisite workmanship. It is not ordinary."

"Even in the Western Han Dynasty, it's not something that ordinary nobles can have. Even Liehou wouldn't have a few pieces, right?"

Chen Han looked at it carefully, and it was exactly as Zhuang Yunpeng said.

This jade belt hook is made of the finest Hetian jasper.

At first he thought it was ordinary sapphire.

High-quality Hetian jasper is even rarer than Hetian white jade.

When Qin Shihuang unified China, Hetian jade was called "Kunshan Jade" because it was produced in Kunlun Mountains, and later it was called "Khotan Jade" because it was located in the territory of "Khotan Kingdom".

It was not officially named "Hetian jade" until Hetian Zhili Prefecture was established in the ninth year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1883).

However, during the period of Qin Shihuang, many Hetian jades had already entered the Central Plains Dynasty.

The most famous one is the "Queen's Seal", a national treasure of the Western Han Dynasty collected in the Shaanxi History Museum. Its texture is XJ Hetian sheep fat jade, and it is the only empress's seal of the Han Dynasty so far.

In Hetian jade, suet jade is of course the most valuable, but the value of jasper is also not low.

Jasper is more valuable among various jade varieties. It is a Hetian jade variety with more minerals, also known as Hetian jasper. The color is mostly dark red, green or variegated, and the transparency is generally opaque, slightly transparent or semi-transparent. transparent.

As for the jade belt hook in Chen Han's hand, the Hetian jasper used is still the best among jaspers.

Just transporting it from XJ to Chang'an is not an easy task, let alone falling into the hands of Haihunhou and being forged into a jade belt hook.

However, Chen Han still doesn't quite agree with Zhuang Yunpeng's idea.

The jade discs laid on the upper layer of the coffin before were not made of Hetian jade, but sapphire produced in the interior.

However, in the inner and outer outer chambers, many jade wares made of Hetian jade were unearthed.

There are also many jade wares made of Hetian jade in the inner coffin. Why can this jade belt hook be solemnly placed in the inner coffin box?
Presumably, this should be a jade belt hook that Liu He himself has important concerns about, not just because of the material.

But this question, for a while, I can't figure it out.

Chen Han put the jade belt hook back into the lacquered wooden box, together with the lacquered wooden box, and kept it in the cultural relic box.

The research on this lacquer box has come to an end for the time being.

There are quite a lot of lacquer boxes in the coffin.

One after another, six or seven lacquered wooden boxes were also extracted.

Some boxes were easy to open, but they were opened on the spot, but the golden seal that everyone was thinking about did not appear inside.

However, some lacquer boxes were really difficult to open, so they were sent to cultural relic restoration personnel, waiting to be opened in the future.

It took half a month to clear out all the lacquer boxes in the coffin, and there were some scattered jade wares in front of the archaeologists.

These jade articles should have been hung on the waist of the owner of the tomb.

There are jade belt hooks and jade pendants.

Chen Han was involved in the extraction and cleaning of a goose-shaped pendant.

Compared with those lacquered wooden boxes that are seriously stuck together with the rotten substances in the coffin, jade articles are relatively easy to extract.

Because jade, to put it bluntly, is actually a kind of stone.

And stone is definitely not like wood, which is so easy to soften, change texture, and rot under the influence of time.

Stones are still stable even after tens of thousands of years.

Therefore, when extracting these jade articles, for Chen Han, it was more like picking up stones in the mud.

The difficulty is definitely very low.

It is a matter of patience to remove the silt attached to these jade articles.

However, what archaeologists lack most is patience.

Some archaeologists have even experienced only one archaeological project in their lifetime, but this archaeological project lasts a lifetime.

For example, the excavation of the Yin Ruins has basically spanned three generations of archaeologists from the last century to the present, but excavations are still continuing.

Day after day, year after year, these archaeologists were in the Tan Fang of Yin Ruins, holding brushes and bamboo sticks, and cleaning the Tan Fang bit by bit.

It's all workable, and it's a joy to behold.

Naturally, Chen Han would not be a little impatient to clean up this bit of silt.

This quilt-shaped pendant jade is warm and unique in shape. In the dragon pattern depicted on it, the longan is used with a knife method to make the eye sockets protrude, showing its majesty.

According to the system, such a goose-shaped pendant is a fine jade pendant that only emperors can wear!
It stands to reason that Liu He wore the scorpion shape that showed the concept of the emperor, which was inconsistent with his status as a "hou" when he was buried.

But thinking about Liu He's identity, it doesn't seem to be a big deal.

He used to be a vassal king and an emperor, and he took this visor-shaped pendant into the coffin, and Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty would not say much.

Death is dead, just be extra special.