Master Archaeologist

Chapter 53
"Time is something that catches people off guard. Sometimes it's sunny, sometimes it's windy, sometimes it's raining..."

Archaeological work is a very time-consuming thing.

Before we knew it, everyone from the Institute of Archaeology, Academy of Social Sciences, had arrived in Jingzhou for more than three months.

The time has also unknowingly reached the end of December 2018.

Generally speaking, archaeological work is concentrated in spring, summer and autumn, and field archaeology is basically not carried out in winter.

This is because when Chinese archeology first started, archaeological work was often carried out in the north.

After all, the Central Plains is the birthplace of Chinese civilization, and there are many ruins and tombs.

In winter in the north, the land will be frozen, and there will be heavy snowfall, which is very unsuitable for archaeological work, so no excavations in winter.

But Jingzhou is different here.

Jingzhou is located in the Yangtze River Basin in the south. Although its geographical location is relatively close to the north, the temperature in December is still around 12°C.

The coldest time will be at the end of January and the beginning of February next year, when the temperature will drop below zero.

Therefore, archaeologists from the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Social Sciences and the Hubei Institute of Archaeology are still stepping up the archaeological excavation of the Han Tombs in Fenghuang Mountain in order to catch up with the progress.

The archaeological excavation of the Lajia site has also been carried out for half a year.

Just as Chen Han and the others were busy cleaning up the funerary objects in the coffin chamber of tomb No. 168 in the freezing cold weather.

The excavation project of the Lajia ruins in Qinghai has finally made the first phase of the results report.

After more than half a year of cleaning and excavation by archaeologists from half of China, the first phase of the Lajia site has excavated nearly 4000 square meters.

Among them, including the first bowl of noodles discovered by Chen Han and others 4000 years ago, and the high-level tomb area where the suspected tribal leader was buried, as well as a large part of the altar area, residential area, pottery area and square. .

Accumulatively, more than 6000 pottery and stone wares of various types, and nearly [-] jade wares and semi-finished jade wares have been unearthed!

A series of archaeological excavation briefings, as well as geological research and archaeological site inspection reports on the reasons for the destruction of the Lajia site, have been published in domestic archaeological journals one after another.

The "Archaeology in Progress" program also made a special program for this purpose.

However, when the programs and results reports were fermented on the Internet one after another, the public opinion generated somewhat deviated from the original intention of doing science popularization work.

On mainstream social networking sites such as Zhihu, Weibo, Douban, etc., the entries of #拉家研究#, under the guidance of the official, are on the front row of the hot search position.

Various popular science articles and videos about the excavation results of the Lajia site appeared below the entries, sparking heated discussions.

It can be seen that this should be a conscious hype hotspot in the Chinese archaeological circle.

In this Internet age, if you don't hype some hot spots to attract attention, you will be forgotten by the public.

However, what the officials leading the hype on this topic did not expect.

The announcement of the excavation results of the Lajia site this time not only did not arouse the public's enthusiasm for archaeology, but ushered in a lot of complaints and "debates"!
It is different from when Chen Han and his team announced the research results of "Lajia Site Noodles".

At that time, the research results of Lajia millet noodles were announced, and there was a whole set of millet noodles restoration process!
Moreover, there is unearthed physical evidence, and the ironclad evidence is as strong as a mountain.

No one can doubt that Huaxia unearthed the world's earliest bowl of noodles.

So after the topic exploded at that time, most of the public opinion was overwhelmingly cheering and proud.

But this time the overall excavation results of the Lajia site were announced, and the discussions it triggered were not as intense as usual.

"A Neolithic site about 4000 years ago? And it was destroyed by earthquakes and floods?"

"People who have been dead for thousands of years are going to be dug up for exhibition? Is there any humanity left?"

"It really makes the death of the ancients uneasy!"

"I don't know whose ancestors were dug out, and they are still extinct."

"Have so many corpses been dug up, hundreds of them? How detrimental is this?"

"Isn't this desecrating the corpse? No, desecrating the bones!"

"What kind of archaeological excavation? It's just an official tomb robbery!"

"Hey, this Lajia tribe is really miserable. It has escaped the tomb robbers for more than 4000 years, and in the end it has not escaped the so-called archaeological experts."

"Damn, more than 4000 square meters, isn't this a blatant tomb robbery?"

A large number of netizens, who don't know whether they are anti-criminal or really ignorant, appear under the relevant reports and news of the Lajia site, criticizing and abusing wantonly.

At the beginning, there were some professionals and semi-professionals who were already concerned about the field of archaeology, and refuted them below these comments.

However, there are far fewer people who truly understand and understand the meaning and function of archaeological work than ignorant people.

Soon, these rational netizens who popularized and explained archaeological work were drowned in the comments.

Comments critical of archaeologists quickly occupied the hot comments of major related news.

Ordinary people are more likely to follow the crowd, and it is easier to follow what others say.

In the traditional concept of Chinese people, digging graves is definitely not a good thing.

What's more, ordinary people who don't have any special views on archaeology, or do not understand archaeological work, after seeing these criticisms, they naturally feel that these words are very reasonable, and then echoed them.

That's fine.

After all, the general public does not know much about archaeology, the difference between archaeology and tomb robbery, and how important archaeology is to the development of anthropology.

People in the circle already knew that there was still a long way to go for the science popularization of archaeology.

It is obviously not possible to change the public's views and impressions of archaeology.

This is also the reason why the authorities hyped up the excavation results of the Lajia site this time, because they want to popularize and popularize the meaning and importance of archaeology to the public.

but!

An even more troublesome scene happened.

On social platforms such as Weibo and Douyin, a group of influential so-called folk historians and big V marketing accounts jumped out one after another, conducting various distorted analyzes of the excavation results of the Lajia site.

What "The great flood discovered at the Lajia ruins confirms the authenticity of the "Shan Hai Jing", which records the lost civilization of China!"

There are also some marketing accounts that swear that the Lajia site is the tribe of Emperor Yao, which was submerged by the flood, so Dayu later came to control the flood.

Some people even made a serious video, linking the Lajia ruins with the ancient tribe with a lifespan of [-] years in the myths and legends of Shan Hai Jing.

It is said that the Lajia tribe was condemned by God because of their life expectancy of 500 years, and was wiped out by earthquakes and floods from the sky. This is why we have ordinary people with a life span of only [-] years in future generations!

These seemingly outrageous marketing account videos and articles, but anyone who has read a little bit of the report on the excavation results of the Lajia site will laugh and sneer.

But what's ridiculous is that.

Zhengerba has been carefully investigated by scientists and carefully demonstrated. Not many people read the official report full of dry goods and full of scientificity.

These marketing account videos and articles full of myths and legends are messy and messy, and only intended to be dramatic and gimmicks, but they often have millions of views and clicks.

Moreover, it has captured a large number of fans and readers!
These so-called "science popularization" and "decryption" videos that are [-]% true and [-]% false have become hot topics on the Internet and have become the "truth" of the Lajia site!
This absurd situation completely blinded the official staff.

Don’t netizens in this class even have the most basic ability to distinguish between true and false information?

This matter of occupying the high ground of public opinion and carrying out popular science work, whoever wants to do it, they really can't do it anymore!

(End of this chapter)