golden ear

Chapter 313 Banqing Treasure
"It's a pity! It's so annoying to see that the two secret rooms can't be dug!"

Sun Yuyao comforted with a smile: "Forget it, after all, you can't openly dig in India. There are a lot of treasures, and this time it's not in vain. The 500-ton red sandalwood import quota is not a small fortune. "

There is no way to say anything now, even if Wu Tianyuan knows where the secret room is, there is no way to dig it.Fortunately, the last two chambers are not near the temple, they are quite far away.The Indians probably won't be able to find a place for a while, and when the limelight passes, they can discuss it with the polar bear and see if there is a chance to get it out?
"Go and help me collect some antiques from Southeast Asian countries. I didn't expect that there are treasures worth hundreds of billions of dollars in poor India!"

This time, Wu Tianyuan was also an eye-opener. He had always looked down on India as a poor place, but he didn't expect that when he came out, it would cost hundreds of billions of dollars!I have been busy for two years and have not made much money from a single transaction.

"You should have paid more attention to the small countries around you, such as Myanmar, Thailand, and even Cambodia!" Sun Yuyao sneered: "These countries are all ruled by kings. The people are poor, but the ruling class is very rich. Several countries also produce gold and gold. Gem, I don’t even know what to say about you!”

This time Wu Tianyuan really has a long memory, he wants to go to Europe to hunt for treasure all day long, thinking that it is the territory of the invaders and there are many treasures.But he didn't figure out a reason why the invaders came to Southeast Asia, not because there are so many treasures here!
Gold and precious stones are produced, and Myanmar also has jadeite and huanghuali. Ruby is also famous all over the world. I didn't expect it?

Two days later, Wu Tianyuan found a new clue, Ban Qing's treasure!
In 1962, an employee of the Ministry of Arts of the Kingdom of Thailand kicked out a pottery shard with a picture while walking on a weedy path in the small town of Ban Chiang.Out of professional habit, he brought the fragments back to Bangkok.He inferred from the color of the pottery that it was a prehistoric product, but Ban Chiang was too small to attract attention.

In 1966, Stephen, the son of the US ambassador to Thailand, came to Ban Chiang. When passing by a road construction site, he saw many broken pottery dug out by bulldozers in the place where stones were piled up.He was attracted by the patterns on it, so he picked up a large and beautiful pottery pot and brought it to Princess Chanhe of Thailand.

Although the pot has been damaged, on the light yellow background, there is a crimson pattern that the artist created at will, as well as a well-conceived and precise geometric pattern.This kind of color matching is not only eye-catching but also quite pleasing to the eye. Coupled with the beautiful patterns, the pottery has a strong artistic appeal.

Princess Chanhe noticed that this pattern was different from any that had been found in Thailand, but rather resembled ancient Greek pottery patterns.Sensitive to cultural relics, the art-loving princess went to Ban Chiang herself.She collected cultural relics from house to house, and in the end, not only brought back a large amount of pottery, but also a lot of bronze products.

Knowing that it is difficult to get royal approval for large-scale excavation of tombs in Thailand, where Buddhism is prevalent, the princess decided to use foreign power.She took photos of all the pottery and compiled them into a book for distribution abroad. After the photos were published, the whole world became a sensation, because such pottery had never been unearthed in other parts of Asia, and archaeologists from at least a dozen countries gathered. Ban Chiang, hoping to find out the origin of these pottery.

In 1968, the famous American art historian Elizabeth sent some pottery fragments to the Archaeological Research Center of Philadelphia University. It was determined that Ban Chiang pottery was made around 400 BC, almost as old as the Mesopotamian Civilization.

This is unbelievable, and it is generally believed that Thailand's testable history is at most 1500 years.After that, I tested the Banqing pottery several times, and the result was the same.Could it be that Ban Chiang was once one of the cradles of ancient civilizations in the world?

In 1974, under the funding of the United Nations, the excavation of ancient tombs in the small town of Ban Chiang began.On the first day of excavation, expectations were not high.It is hard to imagine that this small town with a population of less than 5000 people who has been farming rice for generations has a long history.

When digging to a depth of 5 meters, however, a layer of soil familiar and coveted by archaeologists emerges, six well-defined layers of burials, the deepest dating to 6 BC and the shallowest dating back to 4000 BC. By 250 BC, more than the testable history of Thailand.

By 1986, Ban Chiang had unearthed 18 tons of various cultural relics, including a large number of bronzes and gold and silver ornaments.Some people say that the treasures of Ban Chiang are inexhaustible, because there are thousands of ancient tombs here, more than the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.The geographical scope of this unknown civilization far exceeds the Mayan civilization, no less than the Indus civilization.

The most striking thing about Ban Chiang culture is the bronze products, and there are continuous innovations in production techniques.In the early tombs, the unearthed bronze adzes and bronze hand pots contain only 1.3% tin and are relatively rough in production, strictly speaking, they can only be regarded as red copper products.The Ban Chiang people made various exquisite bronze bracelets, necklaces, rings and ladles as early as around 1000 BC.

In addition to bronze wares, a small number of iron wares were also unearthed from the underground of Banqing, including iron anklets, iron bracelets, bimetallic spearheads and axes.Among the early bronze products, there were collars forged from bronze with a tin content of up to 20%.Because the copper content is so high that it is easy to break, it must be forged into multiple strands and then twisted. As for how the Ban Chiang people mastered this important technology, it is still a mystery.

"Go to Ban Chiang town!"

Wu Tianyuan immediately decided to set off and go to Banqing to hunt for treasures. This time they were all ancient civilizations, especially bronze wares. The Tianyuan Ancient Civilization Museum was just right for the exhibition. Even if it was the first shot, it would be a good start!

With the help of polar bears, a group of people sneaked into the vicinity of Banqing. Wu Tianyuan locked the location of the treasure through a bronze fragment, and soon discovered an ancient civilization site. After excavating overnight, they collected more than 200 pieces of bronze, as well as some gold and silver ornaments.

In this way, he stayed in Banqing for half a month, collected a total of thousands of ancient cultural relics, and finally returned with a full load, and finally added the first batch of collections to the new museum!
"It's finally open!"

Hu Jianmin sighed: "I thought you were not going to look for ancient civilization collections? There has been no movement, and today is considered to be an opening!"

"Nonsense, don't you see that I run around every day? Is it easy to get something back?"

Wu Tianyuan rested for a few days before recovering. The number of ancient civilizations is too small. Every country is a treasure. It is displayed and studied in the largest museum, and money cannot buy it!

Human beings are very interested in prehistoric civilizations and hope to obtain mysterious powers through research, such as the Mayan civilization, Atlantis, ancient Babylon, and ancient India. Even China has many unsolved mysteries that cannot be explained by current technology.

Originally, Wu Tianyuan really didn't think about collecting ancient civilization relics, he was quite satisfied with some antiques, at most he would buy some western artworks, oil paintings and sculptures.As a result, three landowners built a 15-square-meter art center at once, and there were only three museums!
Now the China Pavilion has been basically completed. The West Pavilion only has two Van Gogh paintings, which are the Sunflower Pavilion. As for the Ancient Civilization Pavilion, it is even worse. It took a lot of effort to get some Banqing bronzes, which are also the first batch of collections.

(End of this chapter)