Judging from where Zhuang Rui was standing, the wood used for the coffin had no trace of splicing at all. It seemed to be made of a single piece of wood. Zhuang Rui could not imagine how big a cypress tree was used for this?
The coffin lid and the coffin fit together so seamlessly that someone took a piece of paper and tried it, but they couldn't fit it in. There was almost no gap in the fit.
"This... is a bit difficult..."
Professor Meng walked around the coffin several times, frowning. He originally thought that the coffin was made of mortise and tenon structure, but after taking a closer look at the coffin, he found that there was not a single mortise nail on the coffin, which made Professor Meng feel a little incredible.
Generally, the protruding part on ancient wooden furniture is called tenon, and the recessed part is called mao. This form has reached a very high level of craftsmanship in traditional Chinese furniture, and the same is naturally true for coffins, but this huge coffin seems a little different.
"Teacher, this seems to be a hole filled with molten copper juice..."
Zhuang Rui used his spiritual energy to observe the outer structure of the coffin and found that in eight places of the coffin, the structure was completely different from the wood. After gently wiping it with sandpaper, he found that the hole in the coffin was about two centimeters in diameter.
The material is completely different from the material of the coffin itself.
After Professor Meng heard Zhuang Rui's words, he came over and took a knife, scraped off a layer of substance on the coffin, and after carefully distinguishing it, he said: "Yes, it was burned and injected with copper juice. I want to open it from the mortise and tenon joints."
It’s impossible to open it…”
This can make the sealing of the coffin better, but it also increases the difficulty of opening the coffin. It is almost impossible to open the coffin lid intact.
Professor Meng wandered around the coffin for a long time, but there was no good solution. In the end, he had no choice but to have people make gaps in different places in the coffin to prepare for the crowbar to be used to open the coffin.
"Xiao Liu, you are in the back, and there are two people on the side. Zhuang Rui, you go to the front of the row. Okay, let's take the crowbar, be careful, don't use too much force, and pry up the coffin lid together..."
Professor Meng directed everyone and stuck the crowbar into the gap cut in the coffin lid. With an order, everyone exerted their strength together, and the huge coffin made an unpleasant "click" sound.
"Get up, get up..."
"Use a little more force and the handle will pry open..."
"Everyone, please stay away, be careful there are traps inside..."
The sounds of various shouts resounded in the tomb. In such a large coffin, there might be some life-threatening hidden weapon inside. Professor Meng loudly reminded everyone to pay attention to safety.
Being injured in these thousand-year tombs is definitely a very unpleasant thing, because after being sealed underground for thousands of years, many substances and bacteria will deteriorate. Once infected, it is difficult to cure even with modern medical methods.
.
Fortunately, after the heavy cypress coffin lid was opened, there seemed to be no movement inside. At the end of the coffin, two people took iron hooks and pulled down the coffin lid.
The coffin with the lid removed and the heavy base was over 1.8 meters tall. It was not possible to see the situation inside the coffin. People with ladders around them had already climbed up the ladder and looked into the coffin.
"There is also a coffin..."
"Professor Meng, there is also a copper coffin..."
"Grandma, whose tomb is this? Is it so complicated?"
People who saw the situation in the museum started shouting. It turned out that there was a copper coffin inside the cypress coffin. Under the light, a few simple stripes were revealed on the copper coffin lid, making it even more obvious.
Mysterious.
"That's not right. Huangchangtizuo usually has cypress coffins. Why is there a copper coffin?"
Professor Meng also climbed up the ladder and took a closer look, frowning, obviously unable to figure out the joints involved.
You must know that the ancients understood death as ascension to heaven, and would continue their lives in another world in another form. Therefore, after death, they prepared a coffin for themselves and buried them in the hope that they could bring these things into another world.
in the world.
Since the human body belongs to wood among the five elements, the ancients were very particular about the choice of coffin, and believed that if they were buried in an iron coffin, the person's soul would not be able to enter reincarnation.
Therefore, in history, it was extremely rare to use copper coffins with five elements of gold.
"Prepare the pulley to open this copper coffin..."
After observing for a long time, Professor Meng made a decision. Only by opening the coffin can these secrets be revealed and the identity of the owner of the tomb be known.
Due to limited conditions, everyone used two alloy ladders to stand on both sides, then reinforced the pulleys on the ladders, and used ropes to lower them from both sides of the copper coffin. Fortunately, the bottom of the copper coffin did not exactly match the cypress coffin. This made
The two ropes successfully tied the copper coffin.
"One, two, three...harder..."
If an outsider saw this situation, it would be difficult to imagine that these people, who are usually well-dressed scholars, are like migrant workers at this moment, pulling the rope and relying on the power of the pulley to lift the copper coffin, which weighs at least several hundred kilograms.
, hung from the coffin of yellow intestine cypress.
When the height of the copper coffin exceeded that of the cypress coffin, someone immediately moved the ladder carefully and moved the coffin little by little above the open space. This work alone lasted almost two hours.
"I wonder what's in it?"
"Yes, there are coffins within coffins, so there must be a lot of funerary items..."
"It seems like there is water inside? When I lifted it up just now, I seemed to feel water sloshing inside..."
"Impossible, this tomb is at least two thousand years old, and any moisture has evaporated..."
Although tired, everyone looked excited after successfully taking out the coffin. For archaeologists, uncovering secrets hidden in the long history one after another is undoubtedly the most exciting thing.
"Take a rest and prepare to open the coffin..."
Professor Meng also looked happy. He had been working here for a week, and the identity of the owner of the tomb was finally revealed. He told everyone to rest, but he himself kept walking around the copper coffin, looking at the copper coffin.
How to open a coffin.
Zhuang Rui sat aside, looking at the copper coffin, and frowned, because although he could feel that there were a large number of antiques hidden in the copper coffin, there was indeed moisture inside as a researcher just said.
However, Zhuang Rui's aura can only detect the type of object through the aura contained in the object itself, so he doesn't know what the auraless water is. All this may not be known until the coffin is opened.
Perhaps because sufficient anti-theft measures had been taken before, the copper coffin opened very smoothly. After pulling on the four live buckles on both sides that had experienced thousands of years of corrosion, the copper coffin could be opened upwards.
However, even the coffin lid is not light in weight. Professor Meng selected a few strong people to stand at the four corners and work together to lift the coffin lid away from the copper coffin.
"What's this?"
Zhuang Rui was one of the four people carrying the coffin lid. While lifting the coffin lid, he turned sideways and took a look inside the coffin. He discovered that there seemed to be a layer of water-like substance seven or eight centimeters from the edge of the coffin.
, as the coffin moves, it is swaying gently.
However, the layer of water was full of dust, and it was impossible to see clearly what the substance was. The people who had been waiting nearby gathered around, squeezing Zhuang Rui and several other workers outside.
"Mercury, it's mercury..."
"Oh my god, no wonder it's so heavy. The whole coffin is full of mercury..."
"Let me go in and have a look..."
Listening to the words coming from inside, Zhuang Rui squeezed in hard. He saw Professor Meng holding a wooden stick and stirring the coffin.
The dust on the surface disappeared with the flow of mercury. Under the refraction of the light, the bright mercury was like a mirror, reflecting endless light.
Zhuang Rui once read a piece of scientific research information. Traces of mercury were found in a ceramic coffin in a Han tomb in Shandong. However, the tomb had been robbed, but no more traces were left.
Clues and information.
The scientific name of mercury is mercury, and there are many records in historical materials. Ancient Taoists used it to make elixirs for longevity. Although mercury is indeed medicinal, it can kill insects, attack poisons, treat scabies, malignant sores and other diseases, but it is also extremely harmful to the body.
big.
At least three emperors died of mercury poisoning in history. This emperor seemed to have believed in the so-called Taoist theory and believed that the body would become immortal if soaked in mercury.
Professor Meng lifted the wooden stick, and a few drops of mercury dripped down the wooden stick back into the coffin. After thinking for a moment, Professor Meng said: "There is something in the coffin, it must be the owner of the tomb, but the mercury will evaporate quickly when it meets the air."
It fell, and the gas is also highly toxic. Close the lid of the coffin first..."
After Zhuang Rui and others closed the coffin lid again, Professor Meng discussed with several experts and decided to ask the relevant departments for some gas masks to scoop out all the mercury.
The work could no longer continue, so everyone retreated to the mountain. By the time the gas masks and related equipment were delivered, it was already early the next morning.
"Xiao Zhuang, be careful not to let mercury get on your skin later..."
There were only eight people in total who went down to the tomb. Apart from Zhuang Rui and Dr. Ren, the other few people were also experts in the domestic archaeological field.
After opening the coffin lid, Zhuang Rui and Dr. Ren, wearing shoulder-length leather gloves, began to carefully scoop the mercury in the coffin into several buckets. The mercury would later be sent for research and testing.
Verify the manufacturing process of mercury more than 2,000 years ago.
To be honest, after this archaeological excavation, Zhuang Rui has become a lot more courageous. The saying that the environment trains people is absolutely true. How could he dare to fight in the coffin of a dead person before?
As ladles of flowing silver-white liquid were scooped out of the coffin, the objects in the copper coffin gradually emerged.
