To be honest, seeing the dead bodies in the strange coffin in this gloomy tomb is completely different from the dead bodies outside. Although Zhuang Rui is an atheist, he can't help but feel a little creepy.
Zhuang Rui was probably the only person in the room who was participating in an on-site archaeological excavation for the first time. Apart from him, everyone else turned a blind eye to the bones. Professor Meng even wore gloves and had already begun to examine the teeth of the bones.
Already.
Seeing Professor Meng take out a magnifying glass and almost put his face on the dead man's skull, Zhuang Rui's hair almost exploded. Zhuang Rui asked himself, I'm afraid he can't be so dedicated.
Archaeologists have to cover a wide range of knowledge, not only in history and chemistry, but also in medical anatomy. At the very least, after seeing a dead person, they can know whether they died normally or abnormally.
"Looking at the wear and tear on this woman's teeth, she must be young, no more than thirty years old at most. Could it be that she was buried as a sacrifice?"
After examining the bones, Professor Meng's face became a little solemn. Everyone present knew that it was a common custom in ancient funerals to bury living people. Some of the deceased's wives, concubines, and servants were buried with them. This was called human sacrifice.
The burial of living people can be said to be a cruel and barbaric system in ancient China. After the Qin and Han Dynasties, it was restrained and often replaced by wooden figurines and pottery figurines. After the Qin and Han Dynasties, few people were buried with sacrifices.
However, in the Ming Dynasty, the practice of human sacrifice revived. Taizu of the Ming Dynasty was the first to set a precedent. Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty ended the burial system of sacrifice. After Emperor Taiji of the Qing Dynasty and Shunzhi, burial sacrifice existed. It was only during Kangxi that the system of burial burial in the feudal era was ended.
"Teacher, could it be that those who died later were reburied?"
Dr. Ren has a slightly different opinion. People who died before the Qin and Han Dynasties were not buried so generously. Most of them were buried alive in a burial pit, or they were driven into the tomb, closed the tomb door, and let them die.
inside.
Only in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the concubines were allowed to commit suicide, and then they were placed in coffins and buried in the tombs on both sides of the emperor. However, it was obvious that these would never be the tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
What Dr. Ren said about reburying the queen after death was also a common practice in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, especially in the Qing Dynasty. After the emperor built the mausoleum, if the queen died early, she would be placed in it first. After the emperor died, the tomb door would be opened and reburied.
It is precisely because of this that the location of the tombs of the Qing emperors is the clearest and widely known to the world. Otherwise, Sun Dianying would not have robbed the tombs of Cixi and Qianlong so easily.
Professor Meng shook his head and said: "Impossible. It is difficult to open this cliff tomb after it is sealed. She must have been buried as a sacrifice. But to have such a sarcophagus, this woman must have a very high status..."
The tombs of ancient emperors, especially those of the Qin, Han and Yuan dynasties, are extremely secretive. Generally only the royal family knows about them. The records are also incomplete and only have rough directions. Once a tomb is closed, it will never be opened again.
After Professor Meng finished speaking, he carefully searched the coffin. He wanted to find some objects that could illustrate the identity of the owner, but unfortunately, apart from the funerary objects, there was no writing on it.
"Okay, take out all the jade plugs in the nine orifices. These objects are the favorites of tomb robbers..."
With the discovery of this woman's bones, Professor Meng became even more interested in this ancient tomb. He was now certain that there was a main tomb inside, and there were even many accompanying tombs like this. After all, as the owner of the tomb,
, it is impossible to have only one wife.
In layman's terms: "nine orifices" refers to the two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, mouth, front vaginal urethra and back vaginal anus of the human body. Basically, the jade plugs at the head of the corpse have fallen into the coffin.
Picked it out quickly.
As for the jade plug at the vagina and anus, two staff members collected the bones into a bag and then took out the jade plug.
Zhuang Rui took a mouthpiece and looked at it. It was a jade cicada. The jade cicada was also called "Wang Han", thinking it was the mouthpiece of the emperor after his death.
This is a jade cicada with a big head and eyes, narrow body wings that form a slender inverted trapezoid, and exquisite knife skills. When the jade cicada is held upside down, it looks vaguely like a figure of eight, which is a typical Han eight-sword carving.
There are no holes in the head of the jade cicada. It is purely used as a burial jade. The jade material is high-quality white jade, but there is blood on it. The entire body of the jade cicada is slightly red. The color has penetrated deep into the jade. Hold it in your hand.
The blood and light flowed inside, and it was obvious at first glance that it was not ordinary.
"What's the matter, Zhuang Rui, if you see it in your heart, you can't get it out, haha..."
After Dr. Ren packed up the things in the coffin, he saw Zhuang Rui fondly playing with the jade cicada. He couldn't help but said, he knew that Zhuang Rui developed from antiques to archaeology. After seeing these things, he and the teacher saw the ancient tomb.
The literature in it is average, I wish I could take it home and study it slowly.
"Haha, Brother Ren, it's really just such a gadget. Do you know how much it costs?"
Zhuang Rui smiled. This jade cicada was the best jade he had ever seen, both in terms of carving and quality. If the identity of the owner of this tomb could be verified, I'm afraid it would only be
This one object can fetch a sky-high price.
"One hundred thousand? About right?"
After Dr. Ren heard Zhuang Rui's words, he was also a little curious. He usually focused his attention on academics. Although he could also identify the authenticity of some cultural relics, he didn't know much about the prices of antiques in the market.
So it was the one hundred thousand that Dr. Ren shouted to Gao Li. When he thought about it, this jade was not cultured white jade, and the quality of the jade was soaked with blood, so it probably wouldn't fetch much.
"One hundred thousand? Brother Ren, one hundred thousand dollars can't even buy Yuchan's knife skills..."
Zhuang Rui laughed when he heard the words, rubbed the jade cicada with his thumb, and then said: "The color is natural blood Qin, the white jade is red, and it is made by a famous Han Eight Sword carver. If such a jade cicada is put up for auction
For every auction, the starting price must be above 2 million..."
"Two...two million? This...such a small gadget can...be worth that much?"
Ren Chunqiang almost thought that he heard wrongly. He followed Professor Meng and excavated many ancient tombs. Almost as long as the bones were intact, jade vessels could be unearthed. There were at least dozens of them by now, but he did not expect that such a
The price for something inconspicuous can be so high.
"Haha, Brother Ren, 2 million is just the starting price, and it's normal to end up with five or six million..."
But ordinary jade is not that valuable, and most can be bought for more than 100,000 yuan, but this one is very beautiful in color, and the knife work is very good, and the jade quality is also good, so it is a little more expensive..."
Burial jade is also of different quality. The price of burial jade in the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties was actually very low, because those burial jade were not pure jade, almost all of them were half stone and half jade, and more than half were stone, so naturally they were not worth much.
Therefore, the price of burial jade in the market is also very unstable. Good-quality burial jade is frighteningly expensive, while poor-quality burial jade may be priced so low that no one wants it.
But the jade cicada in Zhuang Rui's hands is definitely the best among burial jade. If he were to see such a beautiful jade cicada at the auction house, he would definitely buy it regardless of the cost.
Listening to Zhuang Rui's words, Dr. Ren was dumbfounded. Now he really understood why those tomb robbers dared to take risks to dig out ancient tombs.
It's extremely rich.
Looking at the jade cicada in Zhuang Rui's hand, Dr. Ren's eyes have become a little different. He only earns more than 100,000 or 200,000 yuan a year, but this small object can almost make him live in poverty all his life.
Worried.
"Alas, money and silk touch people's hearts. Xiao Ren, Xiao Liu, remember, these things belong to the national historical inheritance and are reference objects to witness history. You must not be greedy..."
Professor Meng was listening to the conversation between Zhuang Rui and Ren Chunqiang, and suddenly interjected. This sentence made Ren Chunqiang and several staff members present clear their minds and nodded repeatedly.
Professor Meng's words are by no means aimless. Among the many museums in the country, there are some bad apples who sell precious cultural relics in the museum to cultural relic smugglers. This kind of thing has not happened once or twice. There have been many cases.
Already.
The harm done by these people is even more unforgivable than those of tomb robbers. They know the law and break the law. At the same time, they have also caused some national treasure-level cultural relics to be lost abroad, which is basically difficult to recover.
When it comes to mentality, Zhuang Rui may have the best mentality among these people. He just simply likes these objects that carry history. As for money, it no longer means much to him.
"Okay, it's noon now. Let's seize the time to find the tomb door leading to other tombs, then go out to eat and rest for a while, and continue working in the afternoon..."
After Zhuang Rui returned the jade cicada, Professor Meng began to assign tasks. Everyone, including Zhuang Rui, took a small wooden hammer and started beating on the surrounding walls.
"Here, teacher, the sound sounds a little empty to me..."
Three or four minutes later, Zhuang Rui's voice rang out. In fact, as soon as he entered the tomb, he saw where the tomb door was. Now it was just a show.
This tomb door is made of two large bluestones, with patterns carved on them. It is integrated with the surrounding stone walls. It would be difficult to find it unless you hear a hollow echo behind it.
It is difficult to open the tomb door from the outside, but it is very easy to open it from the inside out. This is a trap door with three grooves in the ground. In the innermost groove is a long sealing stone. Zhuang Rui places the stone.
After the strips are lifted out, the tomb door can be opened directly.
"Okay, everyone, let's go out. There is still a corridor behind. Everyone should be careful before coming in after eating. If no one walks through this corridor, it is very likely that there is an agency..."
After opening the tomb door, the smell of decaying earth came out, making everyone retreat.
