Master Archaeologist

Chapter 58 So It Was An Official Master!

This set of treasures of the study is still very complete and relatively well preserved.

Chen Han almost didn't spend too much time cleaning it out.

Among them is a pen with a bamboo body, 24.8 cm in length and 0.3 cm in diameter.

The upper end is sharpened, the lower end is slightly thicker, 0.5 cm in diameter.

It can be seen that the brushes of the Western Han Dynasty are quite different in size from the more common brushes nowadays, the main difference being that the pen barrel is very thin.

It's as thin as a ballpoint pen refill.

It is a pity that the bristles of this brush have decayed and were bald when it was unearthed.

Moreover, when this writing brush was unearthed, it was carefully inserted into the pen cover. The pen cover is made of a thin bamboo tube with an 8 cm hollow in the middle, which is convenient for taking the brush and can also protect the writing brush from being broken due to external force.

When Mo was found, it had been broken into five pieces, and the color was still pure black.

One of the relatively complete ink sticks looks like a melon seed, 1.5 cm long, 1.1 cm wide, and 0.4 cm thick.

The stone inkstone is round, with a bottom diameter of 9.8 cm and a thickness of 1.8 cm. On the inkstone there is also a grinding stone with a height of 3.5 cm.

Moreover, there are ink marks on both the surface of the inkstone and the bottom of the ink stone, which shows that this stone inkstone should not be newly made for burial, but was often used by the owner of the tomb during his lifetime.

The style of the stone inkstone is very simple, it is just a piece of stone that has been smoothed and sunken, and there are no redundant decorative patterns. It is incomparable with those beautiful inkstones of later generations, but it has a kind of primitive beauty.

In addition, there are six wooden calves without characters, four of which are larger, measuring 23.1 cm long and 5.8 cm wide, and two smaller ones, measuring 11.4 cm long and 5.8 cm wide.

But the small one is enough to write a few crosses on it, and it is definitely enough for simple letter communication.

The last piece to be sorted out is the sharpening knife, which is 22.8 cm long.

This sharpening knife is not made of bronze, but iron, which has been corroded very badly.

The iron smelting industry in the Western Han Dynasty was already very developed. Ironware was mostly used for agricultural tools in the Warring States Period, and it has generally entered all aspects of people's lives in the Western Han Dynasty.

This rusty sharpening knife is a strong proof.

"This set of clerical tools strongly proves that the records of these clerical tools in historical documents are all credible!"

After cleaning out this set of clerical tools, Chen Han's heart was full of pride.

Since the founding of New China, Chinese archaeologists have successively discovered many documents and tools from the Warring States, Qin, and Han periods across the country.

For example, in 1954, writing brushes and copper sharpening knives were discovered in the Warring States Tomb of Zuojiagong in Changsha.

In 1955, a stone inkstone and a research stone were discovered in a Western Han Dynasty tomb in Guangzhou.

However, this is the first time that pens, inks, inkstones, wordless wooden tablets and sharpening knives have been unearthed in the same tomb like Tomb M-168 this time!
Especially this piece of ink!

Ink is easy to be wet and soluble in water, so it is difficult to preserve for a long time underground and in tombs.

In particular, there is still water in the coffin chamber of tomb No. M-168 all the year round!

It is a miracle that it can survive in such an environment!
Kong Jianwen, who watched Chen Han clean up the treasure of the study all the time, stretched out his hand to touch and look at it with unconcealed excitement.

"This pen is completely different from the Warring States pens I discovered before. The entire pen barrel and barrel are exquisitely made and unique!"

"There is also this piece of ink, which has been in the past 2000 years, and it still maintains a pure black ink color, and the texture is still delicate. I am afraid it can still be used for writing!"

"These few wordless wooden tablets are also amazing. Not to mention the well-proportioned size, the two sides and four sides are so smooth and flat, which is very convenient for writing!"

"It takes a lot of effort to polish just to make this wooden tablet!"

"The only thing is that the stone inkstone and the research stone are a bit ordinary. Colleagues from the Hubei Institute also found one in tomb M-10."

Kong Jianwen cocked his eyebrows proudly, and smiled: "But we don't have all the clerical tools unearthed from Tomb No. 10, only the inkstone! Hahaha!"

Kong Jianwen was originally busy pondering over the relocation of the coffin with several other senior researchers.

Although the coffin in tomb M168 is well preserved, its "posture" is not very good.

When cleaning and pumping water, everyone found that the coffin in the coffin box was placed on its side.

The coffin was turned down sideways, with the coffin cover facing north, two sets of hemp ropes were wrapped around the coffin, a bamboo curtain was laid on the cover, and a layer of black paint was applied to the coffin body.

Under normal circumstances, when the owner of the tomb was buried at that time, he should have been put into the coffin chamber from the top of the tomb through the two sets of hemp ropes, and it was impossible to put it in sideways.

Because the hemp rope is tied on the coffin cover, not on the side of the coffin.

Now that the coffin is showing a sideways situation, there is only one possibility.

The coffin was "overturned" by the intrusion of groundwater.

Judging from the water marks in the inner coffin, the highest water accumulation in the inner coffin reached more than 132 centimeters, while the height of the inner and outer coffins was only 0.97 meters.

Obviously, after the internal water completely submerged the coffin, the coffin turned over because of the buoyancy of the water.

How to get the coffin turned upside down from the coffin chamber and send it to the laboratory to open the coffin is a technical task.

It certainly couldn't just hang up from the tomb while maintaining this overturned shape.

Otherwise, if one is not careful, if the coffin cover falls off during the process of hoisting the coffin, it can be regarded as a major archaeological accident!
Therefore, the coffin must be straightened and then hung up to be safe.

But overthrow is easy, but righting is hard!
The coffin has been soaked in water for 2000 years, so it is soft and brittle.

Moreover, it is not known how the funerary objects and corpses in the coffin were preserved, and how much water was accumulated.

How to ensure that the situation in the coffin is not damaged, and how to turn the coffin over safely, has made several senior researchers such as Kong Jianwen and Professor Li very distressed.

At this time, Chen Han cleared out a set of study treasures from the side box, which can be regarded as allowing Kong Jianwen to have some fun.

"That's right. This set of documents and tools is very rare. Keep them properly as soon as possible and hand them over to the cultural relics restoration personnel."

After the excitement, Kong Jianwen encouraged Chen Han a few more words, and immediately went back to Professor Li and the others, continuing to worry about how to get the coffin.

Chen Han also quickly moisturized these newly unearthed instruments, put them in the cultural relic box, and continued to attack this big bamboo truss!

The blind box is not finished yet!

This bamboo box is more than 40 centimeters long, 30 centimeters wide, and more than ten centimeters high, but it contains more than a set of paperwork!
Soon, he cleared out some half taels and counting chips from it.

Among them, the counting chips are very inconspicuous. From the appearance, they are just inconspicuous little sticks.

But 2000 years ago, this thing was Huaxia's original creation and the most effective computing tool!
The early development and continuous development of ancient mathematics all depended on this calculation.

It was not until the abacus appeared that the counting chip was eliminated.

It is not surprising that Suanchou appeared in the funeral objects of Tomb No. 168.

If the owner of the tomb was indeed a bureaucrat during his lifetime, it would be quite normal to have countermeasures.

The bureaucrats in the Western Han Dynasty were not talkers, they were "civil officials" who could only read the Four Books and Five Classics.

The officials and gentlemen in the late feudal society, with the help of a huge staff group, basically made a clay statue without delaying "government".

But local officials in the Western Han Dynasty could not enjoy this kind of treatment.

There were few people with "knowledge" in the Western Han Dynasty!
Only the bigwigs in the central court have staff and followers who can share their worries.

The bureaucrats at the grass-roots counties simply cannot find many educated people to help them handle government affairs.

In many cases, everything has to be done by yourself and go into battle by yourself.

To be a grassroots official, one must have excellent mathematical ability.

If you don't have excellent mathematical ability, how can you know the population, food, and tax situation in the area under your jurisdiction, and how can you handle all kinds of official affairs involving taxation and food?
Don't expect peasants who can't even do arithmetic to figure out how much food and taxes they should pay!
All these have to be calculated by the officials themselves, and then collected from door to door, and the accounting is clear!
Therefore, every local official in the Western Han Dynasty must have a fairly good arithmetic ability.

Otherwise, if the tax and food are not collected in full, how can this official title be kept?

At this time, you need to use calculation chips.

The appearance of countermeasures in the funeral objects made Chen Han more convinced that the owner of tomb M-168 was most likely an official during his lifetime.

And judging from the format of the tomb and the number of objects buried with him, this person must be a county magistrate or magistrate!

The county magistrate is not considered a petty official, he has the power to control the life and death of hundreds of thousands of people in a radius of hundreds of miles!

This can be called Bailihou in ancient times!
And the half taels that were cleared out along with the counting chips are even more important archaeological discoveries!

Half two coins were made in the Qin Dynasty, and they were replaced by five baht coins after the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

In this way, at least it can be confirmed that the time of death of the owner of the tomb must not exceed the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty!

The specific age range of this tomb, directly from the Western Han Dynasty, has been narrowed down to Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty!
Directly shorten the burial year of the owner of tomb M-168 to between 202 BC and 113 BC!
This is so important!

　The beginning of the last chapter has been modified a bit, and I made a mistake in a place and a wrong knowledge point.

　　The unearthed bamboo box is called "Zanqi". Those who have read the previous chapter can look back.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)