Master Archaeologist

Chapter 336

Xie Dafei took a shovel and drew lines one by one on the inner wall of the Tanfang.

From the top modern cultivated soil layer, to modern times, and then to Song Dynasty, Shang and Zhou Dynasties.

Soon, the upper soil layer of about fifty or sixty centimeters was divided into four cultural layers.

These four cultural layers, when viewed with the naked eye, are actually not obvious. Although there is a slight difference in earth color, it is still difficult to distinguish them accurately.

Only Xie Dafei, an expert who has been focusing on field archeology for more than ten years, can be so golden.

However, when the cultural level was divided into the lower level, even Xie Dafei hesitated.

Further down, you have already entered the cultural layer of Sanxingdui.

It is very difficult to stratify the cultural layers of Sanxingdui.

From the naked eye, the soil color of the soil layer below is almost the same, and it is difficult to make a distinction based on the soil color alone.

But it is clear that Sanxingdui, as a civilization spanning 2000 years, cannot be divided into cultural layers.

At the bottom of the excavation, pottery and stone tools have been unearthed, indicating that it should be around the late Neolithic period, which is the earliest origin of the Sanxingdui culture.

And there are three periods of bronze culture in the middle, and the uppermost layer is the layer of late Shang culture.

"This has already reached the Sanxingdui period, which is the period below the Sanxingdui period, so I don't understand it very well." Deng Xin said sincerely.

Although she majored in botany and archaeology, it's not that she doesn't know how to stratify cultural layers.

She can also distinguish the upper cultural layers, but after entering the Sanxingdui period, it is a bit too complicated.

"Let's scratch and see first." Xie Dafei also nodded solemnly, not as casual as before.

He took a hand shovel and scraped on the wall of the pit.

The meaning of this is very simple, it is to hang up the layer of soil that has been dried outside to see the color of the soil layer inside.

The newly exposed soil layer is the best to identify.

However, after scraping off a layer of soil on the surface, it is still difficult to distinguish the Sanxingdui cultural layer when standing up and looking at it.

At least, Chen Han and Deng Xin really couldn't tell the difference.

"I can't tell the difference."

"Is it possible that this is the same layer? It's just that different things are poured, so different things are formed, so it is more difficult to distinguish."

Both Deng Xin and Chen Han were discussing.

However, Xie Dafei didn't think so.

It may be difficult for other people to distinguish this kind of cultural layer, and the construction site cannot be dug.

But Xie Dafei can.

Throughout the Sanxingdui ruins, there is a saying that if you want to distinguish the stratum clearly, you must find Xie Dafei.

As long as he touches it, he can immediately tell which issue is which!
In everyone's eyes, the soil is similar, but in Xie Dafei's hands, there are roughness and fineness.

Even if the color is the same, if you touch it with your hands, you can still feel the difference in the soil layers of different ages.

This is a unique skill!
Now, Xie Dafei is using this unique skill.

He stretched out his hand and stroked the freshly scraped soil layer. He felt it up and down, and he knew it in his heart. He took the shovel and began to draw lines on the soil layer.

The first phase, the second phase, the third phase, and the fourth phase which is currently being excavated at the bottom of the pit.

All the soil layers were divided by him.

"Excellent, thank you, brother!"

"It has to be Brother Duffy."

Both Chen Han and Deng Xin gave thumbs up.

Let's not talk about whether this cultural layer is right or not.

At least it can be distinguished, it is already very awesome.

Let Chen Han and Deng Xin come, and they will be helpless with a shovel, and there is no way to draw the line.

"Okay, let's divide the cultural level first. Are there any other difficulties on the construction site?" Xie Dafei smiled quite complacently.

Deng Xin hurriedly pulled him, went up to Tanfang, and walked to the side where a lot of pottery fragments were piled up.

"Brother, help me see if these pottery fragments are the same artifact. I'm a botanical archaeologist, so I don't know much about pottery."

Chen Han hurriedly followed behind.

One of Xie Dafei's main tasks is to help young archaeologists and solve various intractable diseases on the construction site.

Carrying a few small mats, sitting in front of a pile of pottery sherds that had just been dug out and still covered with soil, Xie Dafei fiddled with these pottery sherds at will.

"Hey, garbage sorting starts with the ancient Shu people."

"Little Deng, you said before that the few expeditions you were in charge of might be the garbage dump of the ancient Shu people. I think this guess may be correct."

"The broken and broken pottery is estimated to be concentrated and thrown here during the first and second phases of Sanxingdui."

With just a quick glance, Xie Dafei could see that these pottery fragments obviously did not belong to one pottery, but fragments of several pottery pottery.

Chen Han is also very professional in this point. After a rough identification, he can see that there are fragments of pots, urns, and basins.

And they are not complete, it seems that there is no way to form a complete pottery with each other.

Maybe the debris hasn't been completely cleared out, or maybe what was originally buried here was a pile of incomplete debris.

It's no wonder that Deng Xin complained before, feeling like he was digging a garbage dump.

It's just that these things were garbage in the era when the ancient Shu people lived, but now they are precious cultural relics.

After tidying up these pottery fragments, Xie Dafei said with satisfaction: "This recipe can almost be completed. Once you collect all the pictures and data, you can let the workers backfill them."

The job of digging out the square is not really endlessly digging down.

Generally, after a cultural layer is cleaned up, the data can be drawn and collected to form a square, and another square can be dug again during the excavation season of the next year.

What we pay attention to is a covering excavation, excavating tens of square meters a year, sooner or later all the cultural layers of the same period in the Sanxingdui site area will be excavated, and the source and composition of the Sanxingdui culture will be clarified.

Of course, Deng Xin's construction site is not just such a search party.

And the depth of each probe is different.

With his hands behind his back, Xie Dafei continued to lead the two of them around the construction site.

Soon, a relatively shallow Tanfang caught his attention.

The depth of this probe is only twenty or thirty centimeters.

However, on the low soil layer, there are several long strips of ruins marked out with hand shovels.

"You can focus on digging this hole next!"

Standing in front of the pit, Xie Dafei said in surprise: "This is a boat coffin burial!"

"However, the wood has completely decayed and fused with the soil, leaving only such long traces."

Deng Xin nodded in agreement.

The so-called boat coffin burial, as the name suggests, is to use some relatively thick wood to dig a long vacancy in the middle, and use it as a "boat" to bury the dead.

This is a burial custom of ancient tribes in southern China.

Because the boat-shaped coffin is used as the burial utensil, it is named boat coffin burial.

This kind of burial custom is divided into two types: open-air burial and burial in the ground. It was popular in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties to the Western Han Dynasty.

Apparently, what was found in Moon Bay was a type of burial.

(End of this chapter)