The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

"Is this the oracle bone dug out of the big oracle bone pit?" Wang Wenlong came to the warehouse of the Oracle Bone Society and looked at a large piece of soil in front of him that was made up of oracle bones and soil. His face was full of curiosity. This thing Much bigger than he imagined.

Fan Yunlin introduced at the side: "This pit was discovered in January. At that time, the weather was cold and the members were ready to rest. They suddenly dug up this oracle bone pit at dusk. At first, my colleagues didn't take it seriously. However, just before dinner, I and others Thousands of tortoise shells were dug out of this pit less than three feet square, and the cleaning was far from complete. I knew at that time that I had dug something big, so I asked people to light torches and work overtime for four days and nights. , and then the large lump of turtle plate in the center of the oracle bone pit was cleaned out. The bone plate and soil were mixed together and it was difficult to separate, so we had to find someone to take it back to the warehouse and clean it slowly. "

Wang Wenlong asked curiously: "How much does this piece of mud weigh?"

Dong Qichang introduced at the side: "It weighs nine thousand kilograms. We set up a large winch next to the pit, and used a large amount of hemp rope and straw to wrap the cultural relics. We first built a ramp to pull it out, and laid rolling logs on the ramp. It took three cows and more than 20 people to transport it to the warehouse. Fortunately, it was still winter and there was not much rain, so the cultural relics were not damaged at all. It is a blessing from God that I will be able to unearth the oracle bones in the Ming Dynasty. "

Wang Wenlong nodded repeatedly. After listening to these descriptions, he was already sure that this was the YH127 oracle bone pit, the largest discovery in the previous Yin Ruins oracle bone excavations.

"Besides oracle bones, is there anything else unearthed in this tunnel?" He continued to ask.

"There is also a human skeleton in the pit, and there is also a large amount of green dust." Dong Qichang said.

When human bones were first discovered in the oracle bone pits, the people of the Oracle Bone Society thought it was bad luck and even concealed it. However, as more and more oracle bone pits were excavated, they found that a large number of oracle bone pits were accompanied by human bones, and gradually began to Realizing that this seemed to be a common practice among the Shang Dynasty people when burying oracle bones, I also began to feel that the customs of the Shang Dynasty people were very different from the ancient records they were used to.

"We rarely disclose the news of the discovery of human bones to the outside world," Fan Yunlin said. "Jianyang, you also understand that if people think it is a grave theft, it will be difficult for us to continue the excavation."

Wang Wenlong nodded to express his understanding. In fact, he knew that pit YH127 had long been identified as an "ash pit" in later studies. It was a pit used by the ancestors of Anyang during the Yin and Shang Dynasties to dump domestic garbage, bury oracle bones, and bury people. Strictly speaking, It doesn't really count as a tomb, but the Oracle Bone Society researchers at this time obviously hadn't studied it to such an in-depth level, and didn't even have the concept of an ash pit.

After the oracle bones were dragged from the scene to the warehouse, personnel from the Oracle Bone Society cleaned them. However, such cleaning was very laborious. In order to avoid damaging the oracle bones, the literati could only use bamboo sticks or Scrape off the connection between the oracle bones and the soil bit by bit with the cork piece, and then slowly sweep away the floating soil with a soft-bristled brush. It takes most of a day to clean out each piece of oracle bone. The number of oracle bones in this pile is probably not close to 10,000. The cleaning work has been intermittent, and so far less than 10% of the bones have been cleared.

Wang Wenlong saw a shelf next to the large pile of oracle bones. There were already some cleaned oracle bone fragments on the shelf, but they were all scattered, which obviously did not meet the standards of archaeological research. This was obviously not available to people in the Ming Dynasty. Corresponding thinking.

He said to Dong Qichang: “Mr.

Dong Qichang shook his head and said: "The people who help clean the oracle bones in our Oracle Bone Society are all highly respected figures in the society. I can guarantee their integrity. If they need bone fragments for research, they can ask directly from the society and never steal them for themselves." The deeds of hiding oracle bones.”

Dong Qichang felt that Wang Wenlong's method of numbering oracle bone fragments and recording the location of excavations was just to prevent people in the oracle bone society from stealing things, and he disagreed with this. Wang Wenlong shook his head and said: "It's not that I don't believe in the integrity of the colleagues in the Oracle Bone Society. The purpose of classifying the locations of oracle bone excavations is to better record information."

"The oracle bones in this pit were placed in the pit by people during the Yin and Shang dynasties. No one has touched them for thousands of years. When we excavated, the location where the oracle bones were placed by the earliest people in the Shang Dynasty was still preserved. ”

Wang Wenlong asked Dong Qichang: “Mr. Interpretation…”

Dong Qichang's face gradually became surprised.

Fan Yunlin on the side couldn't help but exclaimed in surprise: "Indeed, such trivial matters may not be recorded in history books, but by looking for patterns in the process of digging oracle bones, it is indeed possible to discover! Oh my, why didn't we invite Jianyang before? Come? I don’t know how many remains in the oracle bone pit have been destroyed!”

Wang Wenlong said: "It is better to start marking it from today. It is best to summarize it into a working method."

Wang Wenlong knew that many of the oracle bones unearthed by the Oracle Bone Society did not exist in the original history. Most of them had been used by local people to make medicinal materials as early as the Ming and Qing dynasties. From now on, he would start to make corresponding archaeological site records. What can be left behind There will also be far more information than in the original history.

After walking around the archaeological site of the Oracle Bone Society twice, Wang Wenlong discovered that people of this generation have no idea about archeology. Even the excavation of the Oracle Bone Society was only to take out the oracle bones for research, and they had no idea about much of the historical information at the excavation site. To make records, Wang Wenlong can only enlighten step by step.

He continued: "There should also be relevant ways to record the strata where the oracle bones were excavated."

"Just imagine, you two, the strata where the oracle bones are buried must first bury a layer of oracle bones, then fall the corresponding ashes or covering soil, and then bury the second layer. The interval between two adjacent layers of oracle bones may be tens or even hundreds of years. ”

"The soil quality must have changed over the past hundred years. The oracle bones that appear in the strata of a certain era correspond to that period. Through this method, we can completely identify the age of an oracle bone."

Wang Wenlong pointed to the large pile of oracle bones in the warehouse and said: "Take these oracle bones as an example. It can be seen that the bottom layer is green dust, the middle is a mixture of white dust and oracle bones, and the upper layer is white dust. It can be seen that this oracle bone pit It was excavated in the era when green ash soil was produced. If we can find a second oracle bone pit mainly filled with green ash soil, then that pit of oracle bones should be an earlier cultural relic than this pit. "

(End of this chapter)