For a long time after the Luoyang shovel was born, it was used to rob tombs.
The tombs on the Mang Mountain in Luoyang, Henan are rugged and there is almost no place for cows to lie down. The underground burial objects are extremely rich. Before liberation, almost every corner of the mountain had been explored by Luoyang shovels, and a large number of unearthed cultural relics were lost abroad.
In 1928, the famous archaeologist Wei Juxian, after witnessing tomb robbers using Luoyang shovel, used it in archaeological drilling in the excavation process of China's famous Yin Ruins, Yanshi Mall and other ancient city sites.
, played an extremely important role.
In the 1950s, Luoyang became a key construction city. Ancient tombs were often encountered when selecting factory sites. Drilling and sampling with machines was time-consuming and labor-intensive. Therefore, construction workers used this concave exploration shovel to accurately detect
More than a thousand ancient tombs.
Today, the Luoyang shovel is a symbol of China's archaeological drilling tools and, of course, an essential piece of equipment for tomb robbers.
Learning to use the Luoyang shovel to identify soil quality is a basic skill for every archaeological worker. Professor Meng did not stop Zhuang Rui from exploring the soil quality with his two disciples, because he wanted him to get in touch with it first and become familiar with the use of the Luoyang shovel.
"Xiao Fan, why are these Luoyang shovels so different?"
Zhuang Rui followed the two of them and walked to the place where the Luoyang shovels were placed. At first glance, he found that there were more than ten small shovels on the ground, about 20 to 40 centimeters in length and 5 to 20 centimeters in diameter.
Some have a blunt bottom, and some look like a crescent shovel, which is a little different from what I heard.
"Brother Zhuang, this is used to detect different tombs. This one is called a heavy shovel, and it is specially used to detect Han tombs. Since a horse-treading flying swallow was unearthed here, the teacher suspected the existence of a Han tomb, so he brought it here."
Fan Cuo then pointed to the shovel that was shaped like the crescent shovel used by Lu Zhishen in Water Margin and said: "This is called a flat shovel, which is what we often call Luoyang shovel. This is what Tang tombs must use."
As Fan Cuo explained, he and Ying Ning selected two Luoyang shovels, and then handed one to Zhuang Rui.
Seeing Zhuang Rui looking over and over at the Luoyang shovel in his hand, Yingning explained: "Brother Zhuang, don't look at it like a shovel. It looks very simple. In fact, it is very troublesome to make. It needs to be made.
, calcination, heat treatment, molding, sharpening and other nearly twenty processes.
The most important thing is to create the curvature during molding. It needs to be hammered carefully. If you are not careful, the shovel will not be able to carry the soil, and it will be useless. It can only be made by hand. The one you have in your hand is treasured by the teacher.
The rest are provided by the cultural relics department here..."
After Zhuang Rui took it over, he found that it was just a shovel head. On the head of the shovel, there were hollow internal threads, which must have been used to connect the wooden poles.
For the convenience of carrying, these Luoyang shovels are detachable. Even the wooden poles can be selected according to your height. These wooden poles are specially made and are generally high-quality white wax poles with extremely strong toughness.
It can be bent easily without breaking.
"Brother Zhuang, use this. The teacher asked someone to make it specially for his Luoyang shovel."
When Zhuang Rui was about to bend down to choose a wooden pole, Fan Cuo handed over a leather case about 60 to 70 centimeters long. Zhuang Rui reached out and took it, feeling a little heavy. When he opened it, it turned out that there was a half-length leather case inside.
Meters long hollow threaded steel pipe.
After taking out the steel pipe, Zhuang Rui discovered that there was more than one steel pipe inside, but there were layers of steel pipes inside. It was a bit like a fishing rod that could be extended at will. There was a buckle at the head of the steel pipe, and a rope as thick as a thumb was tied to it.
, very neatly coiled on top.
How to use it is not something that needs to be taught by others. Zhuang Rui pulled out three sections of steel pipe, aligned it with the threaded opening and tightened it. He gestured and found that it is about two meters long. Considering the weight, it is not very heavy. There should be no problem in using it.
, Zhuang Rui put the remaining steel pipe back into the leather case and carried the leather case diagonally on his shoulder.
Zhuang Rui took the Luoyang shovel with a pewter pole that Ying Ning had connected. Compared with the one in his hand, it was about twice as light. However, the pewter pole was more than two meters long, and when carried, it was far lighter than the one in his hand.
The tools on the market are more convenient. In fact, there are now many types of Luoyang shovels, such as the electric Luoyang shovel that has only recently appeared, just like a small drilling machine.
"Brother Zhuang, let's go a little further. The two to three hundred meters around here have been explored."
Fan Cuo and Ying Ning each held a Luoyang shovel and wore a straw hat on their head. If you didn't look at their clothes, they were no different from farmers who worked all year round.
"Within a few hundred meters around, is this the only place where there is mature soil?" Zhuang Rui was a little confused. It's possible that a mausoleum could be built under that soil.
Ying Ning heard Zhuang Rui's question and turned around and replied: "That's it. In other places, when drilling down more than ten meters, a rock layer appears, as well as under the soil sealing layer. We detected it very carefully, except for the mature
Earth, nothing else."
"Maybe the mausoleum is not that deep. I heard that in ancient times, mausoleums seven or eight meters deep were rare."
As soon as Zhuang Rui said these words, he felt that something was wrong. Tombs seven or eight meters deep were definitely not suitable for royal tombs. He didn't know that the underground palace of the Ming Tombs was tens of meters deep.
"We basically dig a hole every three to five meters. If there is something down there, we will definitely bring it up..." Ying Ning knew that Zhuang Rui knew nothing about archaeological excavation, so she explained it to him.
After hearing Ying Ning's words, Zhuang Rui realized that Ganqing's Luoyang shovel could not only identify the soil quality underground, but could also bring up objects from tombs.
If when digging a hole, you encounter ceramic burial objects such as cups, bowls, plates, pots, or iron, gold, wood, etc., you can bring them up, and you can judge whether there is a tomb underneath.
Archaeological excavations can use these items to infer the nature and layout of underground collections.
What's more, those experienced tomb robbers can judge the underground conditions by relying on the different sounds made by the Luoyang shovel hitting the ground and the feeling on the hands. For example, the tomb passages are naturally very different between solid walls and hollow tomb chambers.
Some tomb robbers, with a Luoyang shovel, can accurately dig holes into the main tomb chamber where the coffins are placed. When it comes to the use of Luoyang shovels, I am afraid that most archaeologists are far behind those
Tomb robbers passed down from family.
"Which direction are we going?"
Zhuang Rui asked the two of them. He had previously stood on the soil layer and looked around. It seemed that the only place he was digging now was a geomantic treasure. Going further towards the mountains, he saw the tail of the dragon vein. It tilted upward and there was a small
Logically speaking, it shouldn't be the mountain bag, because generally when choosing a tomb with dragon veins, one usually chooses a thick Feng Shui treasure spot at the head and tail that can gather Qi, rather than cutting off the dragon veins, which is a Feng Shui taboo.
"Let's go take a look at that hilltop. It's the only place near here that hasn't been explored yet..."
"Wait, wait for me, I want to go too!"
A voice came from behind the three of them, but it was the little girl Meng Qiuqian who followed, holding a Luoyang shovel in her hand.
"Aren't you afraid of getting tanned? Like Africans?" Fan Cuo was used to fighting with the little girl and couldn't help teasing her.
"Don't be afraid, I have sunscreen..."
Meng Qiuqian waved his small fist at Fan Cuo proudly, and the few people watching were relatively speechless. This lover was on vacation, and he even brought sunscreen.
Meng Qiuqian did not talk to Fan Cuo anymore, but came closer to Zhuang Rui and said: "Brother Zhuang Rui, you are going to take the postgraduate entrance examination of my grandfather soon. I will be your senior sister by then. Do you think I can let you do that?"
Tibetan Mastiff, please be affectionate to me?"
Zhuang Rui's head suddenly got big after hearing this. This girl actually had the idea of White Lion. Not to mention her, even Liu Chuan, the guy who grew up watching White Lion, has never received the White Lion's good looks, let alone
This girl is here.
"What's that? It's a swing. It's not that Brother Zhuang Rui won't help you. You also know that Tibetan Mastiffs have a bad temper. They don't buy it except for me. I think you should stay away from it, otherwise you are so petty.
Those with thin arms and legs will be in trouble if they are bitten off."
Zhuang Rui was afraid that the girl would tease the white lion, so he deliberately exaggerated it to scare her.
"Hey, that's not right, girl, you are not Professor Meng's student, you are just here to play. Then again, we are still twice as far apart. You should call me uncle. Why do you ask me to call you senior sister?
?”
Zhuang Rui suddenly thought of this question, opened his mouth and said it.
"If you don't want to help, you won't help. You want me to call you uncle, but there is no way..."
The little girl pouted and glared at Zhuang Rui fiercely. Then she dug into the bag behind her for a while and took out a bag of beef jerky. She wanted to feed the white lion, but she didn't dare to look at the size of the white lion.
He got close and when he was still three or four meters away from the white lion, he threw the beef over.
Unexpectedly, the white lion didn't even look at it, and ran to the front immediately after Zhuang Rui, while the angry little girl stomped her feet behind.
This hilltop is not far from the excavation site, only four to five hundred meters away. The hilltop is covered with kiwi trees. It is the flowering season, and the entire hilltop is covered with small yellow flowers. It looks very beautiful from a distance.
When a few people walked in, they discovered that someone had actually built a circle of railings around the hilltop, with wires tied to them. This should have been to prevent wild beasts in the mountains from harming the fruit trees.
"Woof... woof woof..."
Before he even got close to the railing, fierce dog barking could be heard inside, and then two sturdy wolfdogs jumped out from the forest.
"Roar……"
The white lion that was originally following Zhuang Rui let out a low roar, and the two wolf dogs immediately tucked their tails between their legs and burrowed into the orchard.
"What do you call it? Damn stupid dog, it can't bite you!"
