The history of sarcophagus use is much longer than that of wooden coffins. It can be traced back to the late Neolithic culture. At that time, after death, people would use stones to build a rectangular storage space. This was the earliest prototype of sarcophagus. Later, in the ancient Shu era, sarcophagi such as
Burial tools gradually matured and were used in subsequent dynasties.
Why do ordinary people see so few sarcophagi? Or is it because they are rare? In ancient times, it would take an ordinary family several years of savings to build an exquisite sarcophagus.
This kind of ancient large sarcophagus has always been tepid in the domestic buyer circle, but it is very popular abroad! As long as you have the ability to transport it! A foreigner can grab one! One can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, easily!
Let’s talk about the tomb-suppressing spirit. There is an old rule in the northern sect. If you see a human-shaped tomb-suppressing spirit in a tomb, you must cover its eyes with clothes! Otherwise, it will be very troublesome for it to remember human faces and bring bad luck.
It's light, and you might die accidentally! Anyway, this kind of thing is very evil.
Brother Yu and I took off our coats and put them on the heads of the two grave spirits so that they couldn't see us.
Dou Sprout also bowed and said, "I don't mean to disturb your rest. We will leave after taking our things. Don't be surprised."
Dou Yazai likes to hug the Buddha temporarily, and Brother Yu said to him: "Dou Yazai, do you want to offer incense sticks to these two?"
Brother Yu was joking, but Dou Sprout took it seriously and did it for real.
With no incense at hand, Bean Sprouts lit a cigarette and used the cigarette to burn a hole in the clothes covering the tomb-keeper's face. Then he slowly stuffed the cigarette in his hand into the hole in the clothes.
Green smoke curls up.
Looking at it this way, it looks like two tomb-goers smoking with cigarettes in their mouths, which looks a little funny.
Dou Sprout was very satisfied with his masterpiece. He clapped his hands and said with a smile: "You two, please use it slowly."
"Yunfeng! Come and take a look!" Baotou suddenly called me.
The huge sarcophagus in front of us weighs more than a thousand pounds. It is made from a single block of granite. In ancient times, granite was a very precious material. The birth chart in Water Margin was made of granite.
I saw that the whole body of the sarcophagus was covered with various patterns using intaglio techniques. I wiped off the dust with my hands and took a quick look with a flashlight. The patterns roughly depicted flying apsaras, stars, messengers, mandala flowers, etc.
, Datura flower is the flower of hell. It is not common to use it as a decorative pattern carved on a coffin like this.
The workmanship of the sarcophagus is extremely exquisite, and there is a blank space in the middle of the mandala pattern, with four clearly visible official script characters engraved in the middle.
"Whoever opens it will die."
The first thing is to show me these four words.
Brother Yu frowned and said: "My head, my back is sweating. You said there can't be any thousand-year curse here, right?"
"Brother Yu! Don't scare yourself! Nothing is wrong! This is what the tomb owner is trying to do to scare people!" I spoke loudly to gain courage.
There is a similar sarcophagus in the Xi'an Museum, and it is also engraved with the four words "Whoever opens it will die." The archaeological team was afraid at that time, so they found several famous farmers on the construction site in Xi'an and gave each of them a gas mask.
Mask, it turned out that nothing happened to these migrant workers after they opened the coffin.
Brother Yu frowned and said, "It's better to be careful. This coffin always gives me a feeling of panic."
Douyazai said loudly: "I'm afraid of hair! Lu Wende has been dead for at least seven hundred years! His bones are rotten to pieces! He can still jump up and bite us! Let's just pry open the coffin and get the burial objects! Then leave here quickly.
Damn place!"
What Douyazai said was what I wanted to say. We discussed it again and decided to open the coffin.
"It's so tight! You can't get it in!" Dou Sprout said, sweating profusely.
After trying it twice, we found that the huge sarcophagus fit perfectly, and there was not even a gap for inserting a crowbar.
Putting his head flat on the sarcophagus with the flashlight, he circled around the sarcophagus and knocked on the head and end of the coffin with a short crowbar. The sound he made was: "Da da! Da da da!"
"Start from here, it's the thinnest here, change the tip of the pry!" the leader commanded.
We tinkered for a while, and when the pointed crowbar went in, suddenly! Visible to the naked eye! A thick black and red liquid slowly flowed out! It didn't stink! It had a sour smell.
"Blood! Blood!"
Dou Sprout looked horrified and shouted: "Look at your head! Why is the coffin bleeding?"
When Baotou saw this, he was shocked and said: "Damn it! How could there be coffin fluid!"
I saw that the black-red liquid continued to flow out along the gaps in the sarcophagus, and fell to the ground drop by drop! At this time, the sour smell in the air became even more obvious!
Before we could figure out the situation, our head seemed to realize something, and we heard him shouting urgently: "Quick! Get out! Hurry!"
We hurried to the cave entrance.
It only took a few minutes! I felt a little dizzy and nauseated! I quickly asked Brother Yu, and Brother Yu also said he was dizzy!
At this time, he said loudly with a dark face: "There is mercury in the coffin liquid! The sour smell is the reason why the metallic mercury volatilizes when it encounters the air! It's amazing! I didn't expect! The sealing of a seven or eight hundred year old sarcophagus can be so good.
Such a level!"
I wiped the sweat from my face and said to myself that it was a close call, thanks to my quick reaction!
Mercury poisoning and carbon dioxide poisoning have caused many colleagues to suffer! Every year, there are reports of tomb robbers suffocating to death in tombs! This thing is colorless and odorless, and it really kills people invisible! By the time you react, it is usually too late!
Although the sarcophagus is strong and immortal, its sealing performance is generally poor! We have never found coffin fluid in the sarcophagus before! This is the first time we have encountered it!
It is possible to polish a sarcophagus weighing several tons to the point where it fits tightly and cuts off the air! I believe that even modern people cannot do it! This shows how powerful the masons in the Southern Song Dynasty were!
After calming down for a while, my head was no longer so dizzy. I asked my head what to do now? Should I go up first and wait for the mercury in the tomb to evaporate before coming down, or was there any other way?
He thought for a while, frowned and shook his head: "This place is not ventilated! It may take several months for all the mercury to evaporate! The nights are long and there are many dreams, and we don't have the time to wait slowly!"
Dou Sprout said loudly: "Then what should we do? How about we go to the city and buy some gas masks!"
"Need not."
Looking in the direction of the sarcophagus, there was a hint of anger in his eyes.
"Go find some dry firewood, the more the better." said the head.
"What to do?" I asked.
He turned his head and said: "Burn the coffin! Refining the corpse!"
I was stunned and immediately realized that this method was feasible.
Stones can conduct heat! As long as we boil the coffin liquid and let it evaporate quickly! We will be relatively safe when opening the coffin!
Douyazai said excitedly: "No way, boss! That way the valuable funerary objects in the coffin will be burned together! Let's find another way!"
"Stop talking nonsense! Just do what I tell you!"
The leader's tone was stern, as if he had made up his mind, and Dou Sprout didn't dare to speak anymore.
Why was Boss so angry about the sarcophagus? I couldn't figure it out at the time. It was only after a long time that I found out that when Boss was following Master Wang Pingping, a very young female support staff member of their team died in the tomb. The cause of death was...
Poisoning by poisonous gas.
We found dry firewood and lit a fire under the sarcophagus.
The fire was so fierce that it burned the sarcophagus directly, and we watched from a distance.
Once we observed that the fire had weakened, Dou Sprout and I took turns covering our mouths and noses with our clothes and quickly rushed over to add firewood.
The fire kept burning like this, and he looked forward calmly with his head and eyes, wondering what he was thinking of.
In the end, the entire bottom of the sarcophagus was baked red!
That scene was so shocking, it was like a pressure cooker was boiling! A large amount of coffin liquid was boiled to waste! The gurgling sound kept ringing!
The temperature in the entire tomb rose. Dou Sprout wiped his sweat and whispered to me: "Fengzi, if this Lu Wende is not rotten yet, then he will definitely become a dish."
"What dish?"
"What other dish could there be? Boiled meat slices! Could it be that the corpse is wet in a dry pot?"
I cursed: "Fuck you! Then when the coffin is opened, you can take the first bite! Taste the saltiness!"
The fire continued to burn for a long time, and the fire gradually became smaller. We stopped calling for more firewood. After the fire was extinguished, we waited for an hour for the sarcophagus to cool down naturally, and then went forward to check.
"Head, I think it's okay, open?"
He nodded with a cold face and said goodbye.
We directly put on the crowbar and pressed it with all our strength!
Accompanied by the sound of squeaking stones rubbing against each other! The gap gradually becomes larger!
The next second, a large amount of white gas came out of the sarcophagus.
