Master Archaeologist

September 2022, 4.

The weather is not beautiful, and it is raining heavily.

On the construction site of Nanchang Haihunhou's tomb, it rained heavily.

Although a large shed has been built above Haihunhou's tomb, which can well shield the direct sunlight and the intrusion of rainwater.

However, the entrance to the tomb of Haihunhou's tomb was a bit unbearable from the impact of the rain.

As we all know, the entrance to the tomb is dug down obliquely, just like the entrance to an underground garage.

However, the ancients dug the tomb passage, unlike the modern people who repaired the underground garage, they also knew how to raise the entrance of the tomb to take waterproof measures.

In other words, when the tomb passage was dug in ancient times, waterproof measures were taken, but after the tomb passage was backfilled and buried, it naturally disappeared.

And when archaeologists re-excavated the tomb passage, they couldn't do any waterproof measures.

Fortunately, with the gradual approach of the rainy season, the archaeological base also made preparations in advance. At the entrance of the tomb, a "dam" was built with bags of sand and gravel to raise the entrance of the tomb.

It's just that I didn't expect the rainy season to be so turbulent this time.

It rained continuously for four or five days, even though the tomb of Marquis Haihun was located on a very high terrain, the rainwater spreading outside seemed to pour back into the tomb passage.

Not to mention, after the rain wetted the soil, it relied on the soil to continuously seep into the tomb.

After all, the tomb of Haihunhou is a tomb deep in the underground soil.

It has been raining continuously, and it is difficult not to let the soil become saturated and muddy.

At this time, the archaeologists were walking in the tomb, and each foot was a mud pit. Every step was very difficult, as if the soles of their feet were sucked.

But even so, none of the archaeologists neglected, and the archaeological work was still carried out in an orderly manner.

With the arrival of the rainy season, the heavy rain in Jiangxi will only increase in the next few months.

Taking advantage of the current situation is not bad, the archaeological excavation can only be accelerated, there is no way to slow it down!
However, Chen Han and the others escaped this wave of rainy season excavation.

They are still in the archaeological base at the moment, cleaning and extracting Liu He's main coffin.

As a high-ranking aristocrat in the Western Han Dynasty comparable to an emperor, the situation in Liu He's main coffin was very complicated, and it took a lot of time to clean it up.

Not long after discovering the glazed mat under Liu He's remains, everyone found some traces of the glazed mat at Liu He's feet.

However, unlike the glazed mat under Liu He's upper body, the glazed mat under Liu He's feet has completely decayed into mud, leaving only a few fragments, and the original appearance of the glazed mat can be vaguely recognized.

This situation puzzled Chen Han and the others.

Also in the inner coffin, the glazed mat under Liu He was fairly neatly preserved, with its basic shape and appearance preserved.

But why is the glazed mat under his feet so rotten?

The same material, the same placement, how can there be such a big gap between the two?
"There is a possibility."

After thinking for a long time, Chen Han put forward his own guess: "Liu He's coffin has collapsed, and it's getting worse from north to south."

"And the more severe the collapse, the stronger the airtightness, so the glazed mat in the airtight space is not easy to decay."

...

After the coffin collapsed, the more severely the collapsed area, the more the coffin cover and the space inside the coffin were squeezed together, and there would be less space for circulation in the middle.

This will naturally passively create a space with a lower oxygen concentration.

In places where the collapse is not serious, because there is still a hollow area in the coffin, oxygen can still flow, so after a long period of exposure to oxygen, these cultural relics are more likely to decay.

It's kind of like a vacuum area and a non-vacuum area.

According to the position of the coffin, it can be seen that the upper body of the owner of the tomb has collapsed more seriously.

And the further you go down, the less serious the collapse will be.

This is also why Liu He's teeth were crushed, because the upper body was always pressed by the coffin lid.

For Liu He himself, this is an unfortunate thing.

But for archaeology, this is another lucky thing.

At least half of the glazed mat under Liu He was preserved due to the collapse of the coffin.

The conjecture given by Chen Han has attracted many colleagues to agree with it, and it has been recorded in written form, which will be compiled into the excavation report later.

The situation in the coffin is now very clear.

The seven pieces of jade on Liu He's body were almost extracted, revealing the condition of Liu He's body.

However, there is still a very important piece of jade, which has not been extracted.

That was a piece of jade under Liu He's crotch.

The location where the jade bi was placed was just under Liu He's crotch, which was where the genitals were.

The archaeologists were all looking forward to discovering new things after extracting this jade bi.

Because, in the Han Dynasty, there was a theory of nine orifices.

That is, two ears, two eyes, two nostrils, mouth, anus, and genitals.

And when the emperor was buried, the nine orifices were blocked with jade.

Simply put, it is to plug the nine orifices with jade.

The one that plugs the mouth is called Yuhan, the one that plugs the genitals is called Yumiao, and the one that plugs the anus is naturally called anal plug.

Will there be a jade mask and butt plug under the jade bi under the crotch?

All archaeologists are looking forward to it.

Not everyone has a bad taste.

But it's not clear what level of talent can definitely use this kind of behavior of breaking the nine orifices.

It is rumored that the Jade Nine Orifices Plug is a jade burial system belonging to the emperor, and it seems that only the emperor and princes can use it.

But there is no conclusive record in the history books.

However, the complete jade nine-orifice system, in the early Western Han Dynasty, was still limited to covering the eyes with jade pieces, holding the jade in the hands, and holding the jade in the mouth.

According to historical data and archaeological evidence, it should have been in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty that the Jade Nine-Aperture Plug was completely perfected.

That is to say, the deceased had jade cicadas in his mouth, octagonal prism-shaped jade plugs in his nostrils, ears, anus, and nipples, and a jade pig in each hand.

According to archaeological evidence, princes and kings usually use jade clothes, jade nine-hole plugs, jade pigs, and jade-inlaid pillows and coffins to form a complete set of Han Dynasty jade coffins.

but!

This is only the case of princes and kings.

At present, the tombs of the princes and kings of the Han Dynasty have been unearthed, but a few are well preserved.

Although many burial objects in the tomb were stolen, the inner coffin was well preserved, allowing modern archaeologists to explore the complete jade coffins of the princes and kings of the Han Dynasty.

However, will the nobles below the princes and kings, and even the nobles such as the Guanneihou, also use the whole set of jade nine-hole plugs?

This is still a blank in the field of Chinese and Western Han archaeology.

Because there are not enough unearthed examples, there is no way to prove it.

At this time, the appearance of Haihunhou Liu He is very important.

Whether Liu He used the whole set of Jade Nine-Aperture Plugs is of great significance in proving whether the Western Han Dynasty princes could also use the Jade Nine-Aperture Plugs.

If Liu He is useful, then there is a high probability that in the Western Han Dynasty, the jade nine-orifice plug was a jade coffin that at least high-ranking nobles could use.

If Liu He is useless, it is obvious that there are special regulations for this thing, and it can only be used by princes and emperors.

Master Archaeologist