Master Archaeologist

Chapter 39 A glimpse of the beauty of painting 2000 years ago
"Book of the Later Han Dynasty Guangwu Benji" says: "A thick burial is a virtue, and a thin end is contempt."

What is a thick burial?

Chen Han, who has not personally excavated the tombs of high-level nobles such as princes and princes of the Han Dynasty, did not feel much about it before.

However, just this tomb of a low-ranking nobleman in the Han Dynasty was enough for him to get a glimpse of the extravagance of the rich burials in the Han Dynasty.

A tomb that is only 3.1 meters long and 1.9 meters wide does not have much space except for a coffin that is nearly 0.7 meters long and [-] meters wide.

However, in the one-meter-long and one-meter-wide area at the northern end of the tomb, Chen Han and his team cleared out more than 30 funerary objects.

Among them, there are a total of 26 pieces of pottery, 6 pieces of bronze, and 2 pieces of jade!
Most of the pottery is daily utensils, including pots, pots, warehouses, mills, and stoves!
In particular, the two sets of pottery stoves have complete accessories, including kettles, chimneys, retorts, pots, spoons, and bowls.

Even in the corner, Chen Han found a pottery well!
Among all the dynasties, only the people of the Han Dynasty had such complete funerary objects, which completely restored the living environment of the owner of the tomb.

"Tsk tsk, this set of pottery wells is too complete. Well curbs, derricks, well pavilions, pulleys, water buckets and paddy field models are all complete."

"In modern times, this must be a high-quality model restored in equal proportions."

Chen Han squatted in front of the pottery well, and carefully brushed away the dirt adhering to the pottery well with a soft brush.

Following his movements, some patterns gradually emerged on the paddy field model in front of Tao Jing.

After observing carefully for a while, Chen Han said uncertainly: "This seems to be two pictures of a chef."

Su Sa, who was cleaning the pottery stove, turned her head when she heard the sound, and also looked at the pattern on the paddy field carefully.

On the left is a Confucian scholar wearing a headband, wearing a Confucian shirt with a waist and knees, with his sleeves rolled up, holding a basket in both hands, and bending over to work.

Behind him, there is a rack like a clothes hanger, on which two fish hang.

On the right, there is a man wearing a scarf, a short shirt, and trousers, holding a stick in his left hand and catching a vicious dog in his right hand.

Looking at the shape, it seems to be a scene of a farmer killing a dog.

The two pictures are separated in the middle by three convex strings that are common on bronze and pottery.

Su Sa said with no surprise: "The craftsman who made the pottery well seems to have painted two Confucian scholars and farmers who are cooking by the well."

"In the concept of Han people, the soul is eternal, and the dead world is the same as the living world."

"That's why people with a little money will ask craftsmen to paint people's living conditions on the funeral objects when they arrange funerals."

"Trying to let the deceased live in the ground, but still live the same life as before."

It is normal for funerary objects unearthed in the Han Dynasty to draw people working on paddy field models, or people who are busy processing food by the well.

After all, death is like life, what the world was like before life, should be like the world after death.

The emperors and princes have money and power, so they can build underground palaces for themselves and place clay figurines to be buried with them, so as to fully restore the situation in their palaces before they were alive.

He even brought thousands of terracotta warriors to guard him, and everything was the same as before.

The little nobles at the bottom can't do this, so they can only settle for the next best thing.

It is also a kind of consolation to use painting to restore the world of the past in the ground.

After all, in the concept of the Han Dynasty, the soul of a person is immortal after death and will continue to live underground.

So what kind of things you buried with you and what you buried with you represent what you will be like when you live underground.

Relatives of the owner of the tomb prepared a pottery well for him, indicating that the owner of the tomb may have preferred this kind of rural life during his lifetime.

I hope that after death, I can also see the leisurely scene of this idyllic countryside.

And that's not all!
When Chen Han cleaned up the other side of the paddy field model, two more paintings appeared before his eyes.

It is also two pictures with one left and one right separated by three convex strings.

On the left is a steed, and on the right is a bull. One horse and one cow stand facing each other, and many typical cloud patterns of the Han Dynasty are painted around them.

These are another two paintings that reflect the pastoral life of the Han Dynasty.

The surprises continue.

When the sides of the paddy field model were also cleaned up, there were two small pictures again.

On the left side is a phoenix bird with outstretched wings, with a sharp beak and thin neck, long and thin tail feathers, surrounded by clouds, a picture of a phoenix bird flying into the sky.

The painting on the right side is a person leading a sheep walking forward, also surrounded by auspicious clouds, which seems to have a bit of fantasy.

Just the exquisite paintings on the four sides of this paddy field model has already amazed Chen Han.

Perhaps because of a layer of paint, even after 2000 years, the paintings on the paddy field models are still vivid.

The Han Dynasty was a dynasty that used lacquer extensively.

Raw lacquer is the blood of lacquer tree, and its wood oil has self-healing function.

Therefore, applying raw lacquer to the surface of the utensils can protect the service life of the utensils.

If the outer paint layer is not damaged, the painted utensils can be preserved for thousands of years under the right temperature and humidity!
This is also the reason why cultural relics unearthed in the Han Dynasty, especially lacquerware, are still exquisite after simple restoration.

Lacquer, like amber, has the magic power of freezing time.

When the entire Taojing was cleared out, everyone in Chen Han's team surrounded the Taojing and couldn't hide their excitement.

It is certain that the most important unearthed cultural relics in this tomb is this pottery well.

Derricks, pulleys, water buckets, and exquisite well pavilions (well covers) with roof tile ridges, as long as they are slightly restored, a well that was 2000 years ago can be reborn.

Moreover, the exquisite paintings on the paddy field models can also allow modern people to see the beauty of artistic paintings 2000 years ago.

"The only pity is that the wooden derrick has decayed." Chen Han said regretfully with his waist in his hands.

When it was unearthed, the well pavilion had collapsed and completely covered the wellhead.

The four wooden derricks erected above the wellhead and used to support the well pavilion have long since rotted away because they have not received special anti-corrosion protection, leaving only a few bent and black rotten wood.

"The head of the well is 24.2 cm long, 16.4 cm wide, and the shaft is 22 cm long, 9.2 cm wide, and 12.5 cm high."

Holding a soft ruler, Wang Weida carefully measured the size and specifications of the unearthed pottery well.

"The paddy field is 21.2 cm long, 9.2 cm wide, and 1.8 cm deep. Such a small paddy field model can still draw eight exquisite paintings. The artist's skills are amazing!"

No feeling, no amount, everyone was a little surprised.

Most of the paintings that appear in Han tombs are murals or screen paintings, and they are relatively large in size.

It is relatively rare to paint on such a small "canvas" that is less than 20 centimeters long and less than 10 centimeters wide, and can paint so beautifully.

In other words, Chen Han and the others are newcomers in the archaeological world, and they have never seen it before.

"Okay, after recording the data, file it as soon as possible."

"There are still a lot of things waiting for us to be busy. We will slowly appreciate this paddy field painting later."

　This chapter says that there will be pictures.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)