Master Archaeologist

Chapter 40 Bronze, Dollars!

When excavating at the archaeological site, the overall feeling is still very pleasant.

Whether it's the surprise of unearthed cultural relics, or the satisfaction of hard work and reaping, it's very refreshing.

There are more than 30 funerary objects, and cleaning up is not something that can be done in a day or two.

It took more than three days before Chen Han and the others cleared out a dozen pottery.

Most of these pottery are everyday utensils. In modern terms, they are pots and pans.

Except for the slightly unusual pottery well, other funerary objects are common in Han tombs.

But common does not mean ordinary, every cultural relic of the Han Dynasty that can be preserved to the present is a rare treasure!
Although it is said that things like pottery, especially pottery before the Tang Dynasty, are basically not very popular in the field of collection.

Regardless of whether it is a public auction or a private high-end cultural entertainment circle, it is rare to see pottery before the Tang Dynasty shine.

Auctions or private sales cannot sell for a price.

Most of the more popular collection circles and art circles are porcelain, especially porcelain from the Ming and Qing Dynasties!

Even Tang Sancai pottery, which has a long reputation in the Tang Dynasty, is rarely circulated in private collection circles.

Why?

Because 99.9% of the existing pottery, whether it is from the Western Zhou Dynasty or the Han and Tang Dynasties, are all unearthed funerary objects dug out of the soil!

There is no such thing as handed down from ancestors, or left over from normal generations.

The Han and Tang Dynasties and even the Spring and Autumn and Warring States were too far away from modern times.

And pottery is very difficult to preserve, and it will be broken with a single bump. It is impossible to preserve it for thousands of years.

Furthermore, pottery, after all, is not as exquisite as porcelain, which is more beautiful.

In addition, Chinese traditional collections generally do not accept ghost objects, and it is believed that the unearthed funerary objects are very dark and should not be placed and played.

Therefore, pottery is of low value in the field of collectibles, and few people care about it.

If in a Wenwan store or those Wenwan markets, you see someone take out a very simple pottery, which looks like a pottery just dug out of the soil, saying that this thing is from the Western Zhou Dynasty, and its value is very high.

Don't look at it, it can't be the Western Zhou Dynasty, it can only be from last week, and it's used to deceive newcomers.

However, pottery is worthless in the field of collectibles, which does not mean that these cultural relics are not treasures.

For archaeologists and historians, these pottery are a door to understand and contact the ancient times.

Through these pottery, scholars and researchers were able to restore the living conditions of the society at that time. Although it cannot be said 100%, there are still [-]% to [-]%.

The significance and importance of the research is still very high.

Chen Han and the others were very serious when cleaning these pottery, as serious as putting film on the mobile phone under the overpass.

It was not until all the pottery was cleared and registered and archived that they started to move towards the second largest category of funerary objects.

Bronze!
This thing is different from pottery. The country prohibits any private trading.

Anyone who dares to buy and sell this thing openly will have to go to the police station to drink tea.

If ordinary people want to see bronzes, the public museums in various places are the only choice.

As for wanting to touch and touch in person, feel the feel and charm of bronze ware?

Unless you are bold enough to rob tombs, and you have to rob the right place, the only way to go is to learn archaeology.

Now Chen Han is very lucky to be able to touch and play with these bronzes from 2000 years ago.

After 2000 years of vicissitudes, these bronzes have changed from golden when they were first produced to blue.

"Many people have misconceptions about bronze ware, thinking that bronze ware is blue when it is cast."

Playing with a five baht coin just picked up from the mound, Chen Han complained to Su Sa helplessly:

"My cousin asked me two days ago why the bronze ware was blue. All the copper she saw was yellow."

Su Sa grinned, and said unsurprisingly: "What's the matter, when I was in high school, I thought the bronze ware was originally blue."

"It wasn't until I went to university that I realized that the bronzes were originally golden when they were cast, and that they gradually rusted and changed color because of the erosion of the years."

"Speaking of which, the Yue King Goujian sword has no rust, and it was still golden when it was unearthed. It is known as the thousand-year-old stainless sword."

"I went to the museum to see it last year. It's really beautiful. No wonder bronze was called dollars and gold in ancient times!"

Chen Han nodded: "The King Goujian Sword of Yue is indeed beautiful, I have also seen it, it is worthy of being a national treasure!"

It's just a pity that they didn't have the blessing this time, and they were able to find some thousand-year-old bronze ware.

In addition to more than 100 pieces of five baht coins, the bronze wares buried with him included washing machines, mirrors, and chariots and horses, but all of them have been rusted and turned green.

Chen Han carefully picked up a round bronze vessel from the north of the cemetery, and said with a sigh:
"The literature before the Han Dynasty mostly called bronze "gold", and pure and beautiful bronze was called auspicious gold."

"These precious bronze objects cast a golden light and look very auspicious."

"You can imagine how beautiful these bronzes were when they were first made."

"At that time, these bronze wares should be the same as the current copper, exuding golden light or rose gold, which is extremely gorgeous."

"It's a pity, no matter how beautiful the bronzes are, they can't resist the corrosion of time."

What Chen Han held in his hand was a bronze mirror. People in the Han Dynasty generally had the habit of burying mirrors with them when they were buried.

Moreover, the mirror is usually placed on the side where the head of the tomb owner is facing.

Therefore, the position of the head and tail of the owner of the tomb can usually be judged by the position of the mirror in the tomb.

For example, in this tomb, the mirror is placed at the north end of the tomb chamber, which means that the owner of the tomb should face the head north and the feet south.

In this way, when the coffin is opened, it is possible to know the "posture" of the owner of the tomb, which is convenient for archaeologists to operate.

You must know that not all tombs can be well preserved by the owner of the tomb, and some of them are worryingly preserved, and there may even be only a few teeth left, or only some powder left.

At this time, it is very important to rely on the position of the bronze mirror to locate the direction of the owner of the tomb.

In order not to reverse the head and tail of the owner of the tomb, it will affect the judgment of the situation in the coffin.

While lamenting that the bronze mirror was no longer as beautiful as it was when it was first cast, Chen Han looked at the bronze mirror carefully.

Although it is already "green", rust will not hide its beauty.

The mirror as a whole presents a perfect circle with a diameter of about 10 centimeters.

On the north side of the mirror, there are a bunch of carved patterns, most of which are continuous arc patterns common on bronze wares.

The main pattern in the middle of the pattern is a circle of inscriptions.

Chen Han leaned closer to identify it carefully.

The archaeological expertise the system had given him played a role.

He easily recognized that the circle of inscriptions was in seal script.

The twelve seal scripts that have been eroded by the years and are still deep on the back of the mirror are read softly from Chen Han's mouth.

"Inner Qing is bright, and the brilliance is like the sun and the moon."

(End of this chapter)