The "H" denotes ash pits in archaeological excavations. Ash pits are pits that the ancients used abandoned cellars, wells or pits after production and living soil, and were named because the soil turned gray by dumping garbage. According to the shape, characteristics and relics contained in the pit, the nature and age of the ash pit can be determined, which is an important data for studying ancient economic life. In the Chinese archaeological community, there is a conventional name, and all the sunken pit-like remains in the site can be called "ash pits". To this day, I have personally excavated hundreds of ash pits, but the H21 at the Site of Boxing Longhua Temple is one of the most memorable ash pits I have excavated. Because of the excavation of this ash pit, I actually believed in karma. Of course, this cause is not the Buddhist teachings of "the leading edge arises, the cause is also; the present helps each other, and the cause is also." "It's more about opportunity and the meaning of fate in old Chinese." The discovery of H21 was tortuous, because the location of this ash pit was inside the gate of the fence of the excavation area, and it was walked from here every day to work, and hundreds of trips were made in more than five months, but I did not pay attention to the soil under my feet. This pit has also undergone twists and turns from discovery to excavation to characterization. Of course, this pit also gave me infinite surprises, and it was on the eve of the end of the construction site. So when I think about it today, I am still excited.
1 Confusion after the spring rains
Narrating a thing is like singing a big play, before singing, you have to ring the gong and drum to go through a "door", then start from the beginning. In 2018, after the excavation of the Song Jinyezhu Site in Zhangqiu Xingxingdi for 5 months, the leaders of the hospital arranged for me to accompany Director Li Zhenguang to Boxing County to excavate the ruins of Longhua Temple. This 1.2 million square meters site is by far the largest known Northern Dynasty site in Shandong Province, named after the Sui Dynasty "Monument to the Longhua Temple" excavated from the site during the Republic of China. In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, several batches of cellared statues were excavated, counting hundreds of pieces. In particular, the cicada crown bodhisattva unearthed in the 1970s has attracted attention because of its exquisite and unique shape, the legendary experience of three bodies collected and put together three times, and it has attracted people's attention because of the tortuous story of theft, loss and return. Director Li Zhenguang has been immersed in the ruins of Longhua Temple for many years, is an expert in the archaeology of Shandong Wei Jin to Song and Yuan Dynasties, and I am also studying the archaeology of the Northern Dynasty, Sui and Tang Dynasties, and being able to work with Mr. Lao is a kind of karma. I was able to come to the largest Northern Dynasty site in the province to do archaeological excavations, which is also a kind of karma.
Ruins of Longhua Temple
Excavation site of Longhua Temple site
Since entering the construction site in September 2018, the five-month excavation has been intense and happy, and the Sui Dynasty platform foundation on the site of Building No. 4 has begun to emerge. The brick wells outside the pedestal are still filled with clear water. The excavation of some sporadic statue fragments also made me very excited, and I sometimes wondered in my heart when I could make a cellar pit or a few statue tablets with inscriptions. Sometimes I joked with Director Li about this, and Director Li squinted his eyes and smiled, saying, "Look at your boy luck." "On April 10, 2019, the excavation of the 2018-2019 year was basically over. That year, Lubei was dry, there was no rain in the spring, and on April 10, it suddenly met Ganlin. The green ribbons on the side of Longhua Temple sway, and the hundred fangs are competing. It rained for a day, and it was a rare day off for archaeologists who only had rainy and sunny days, and no Saturdays or Sundays. After a busy spring, some team members sneaked back to their homes for a long time. There was only me and two technicians left on the construction site, and there was nothing to do for a day, and in the afternoon, local friends came to visit and drank together until the evening. On the morning of the 11th, the first day after the rain, the breeze of late spring blew on the cheeks, cool but not harsh, very comfortable. Me and the technician went to the construction site to arrange for the migrant workers to take advantage of the wet "scraping" after the rain. Teacher Yan looked at the south end of the excavation area, and Teacher Ma looked at the north head. The scratch was carried out step by 10:30 a.m. I was wandering around the edge of the expedition, thinking about scraping this time, sprinkling the edge line of the ruins with white ash, taking aerial panoramic photos and then evacuating the construction site. I was thinking about it, listening to Teacher Yan calling me, I took a few steps to run to him, and at a glance I saw that a regular rectangular pit line appeared on the flat and dust-free wetland surface after being scraped, and Teacher Yan called me the same. This location is just outside the east of a Tang Dynasty building platform in the south of the construction site, less than 10 meters from the fence gate of the construction site. I circled around the pit a few times, thinking in my heart, such a regular pit line, the formation is the same as the foundation, and on the outside of the foundation, in this excavation has not encountered a pit of this shape, it should not be a tomb. I told him to take a probe shovel and punch a few holes, look at the soil color below, and then judge. Unfortunately, due to the immediate withdrawal of the construction site, the tools were packed back to the station. Although I didn't explore it immediately, I muttered in my heart, such a regular, must have been intentional by people at the time, what will be the following? Outside the platform foundation, large square pits, statues? Statues? These words flashed in my head and kept chanting. I unconsciously touched the phone and called Ma Chao, the director of the Boxing Museum, telling him to come to the construction site in the afternoon, in case it was a statue pit, I had to coordinate the security problems through the museum. At lunchtime, I reminded Teacher Yan not to forget to bring a shovel in the afternoon, rest after dinner, I am still pondering the nature of this pit, looking forward to finding out early in the afternoon. I went to work at two o'clock in the afternoon and first explored the hole. The four corners of the rectangular pit plus a plum hole (exploration term) are punched in the middle, and four of the holes hit the brick at a depth of about half a meter. At this time, I held my breath, how I hoped that the crisp sound of touching the stone could be heard below (generally the cellar or burial is a stone statue, and experienced archaeologists can listen to the sound and feel the approximate material of the object by hand). But the dull popping sound was clearly the sound of bricks, and they all laughed. At this time, the director of the ma museum also arrived at the construction site, and when he saw it, he first quipped and asked me what about the Buddha statue I had dug? I also laughed bitterly, hoping that it was about to fail. But a moment's thought, this pit is outside the foundation, there are bricks, it may also be related to the foundation, even if there is a new understanding of the foundation. I made a plan, grasped the cleanup, Teacher Yan sat down, transferred the meticulous migrant workers to dig down one-half of the way down. The soil was dug out with a shovel and pushed away, and it was 3:30 p.m. during the conversation, and finally the bricks were cleared. When the soil was cleaned, the bricks lay there irregularly, and my heart suddenly became cold. This has little to do with the base. But the brick space is still filled with soil, a cut, or filled with soil, then it proves that it is not yet the end, open the brick, dig again, or soil. Another shovel was planed down, and at the moment when the shovel lifted the soil forward, Lao Gao felt that the leading edge of the shovel touched the stone, and I also heard it standing at the edge of the pit, and quickly let Lao Gao pull the shovel back to the original road, I took the hand shovel and flew down the pit, and slowly scraped the loose soil that had just been shoveled to the side with the hand shovel. After a few clicks, the stone revealed a corner of the true appearance, a regular square stone corner, I quickly cleared down one side, just when shoveling the ashlar on the soil, on the side of the stone saw the bulging lotus petals, Oh my God, it is a lotus seat. Then use the brush brush to wipe the side of the lotus pedestal that has just been exposed, revealing a few lines of clear inscriptions. I still clearly remember the inscription: "Great Qi Wuping 6th July 15th Ding Wei Qin Xiang made a stone statue for the dead daughter Ah Hua Jing ..." Afraid of touching this lotus seat, my hand shovel cleaned up as far as possible to go to the outer soil of the lotus seat first, and as a result, it was scraped twice, revealing a small round lotus seat, and then scraped, next to it. I realized that the dude had gone lucky, which must have been a statue pit. Later, after excavation, I also figured out that there was an earlier platform foundation building under the foundation site of this Tang Dynasty building, when digging this statue pit, it destroyed the bricks on the outside of the foundation below, and after putting the statue into the pit, the original damaged platform foundation bricks were pressed on the statue, and then the upper part was filled to the ground. That's why I got bricks first.
H21 Is the first excavated corner of the Qin Xiang statue seat
Qin Xiang statue seat
2 thrilling inside and outside the pit
The statues in the pit are like elves that have been sleeping for a thousand years, and at the moment of knocking on the earth, they all naughtily want to jump out and see the world after a thousand years. But at this moment, I had to calm down, suppress the excitement in my heart, straighten up, and wipe my sweat. Thinking about the next step of the plan and plan, today's clean-up work is definitely not completed, then what to do if it can't be completed? How to solve the problem of cultural relics safety? Such an important relic, has there been any omission in the cleaning method just now? Information can not be retained to the greatest extent possible. I sat on the edge of the pit, their eyes all fixed on me, the cigarettes in my hands smoking one after another, thinking about the problems one by one. First arrange for Director Ma to report to the county government through the museum and the county cultural and tourism bureau to contact the public security bureau, and send public security cadres and police officers under the jurisdiction to support us on duty at night. Call Director Li, tell him the latest progress of the construction site, and ask him to come to the site from the unit early tomorrow morning. Look at the methods and ideas just cleaned up, thank goodness, according to the method of cleaning the ash pit half of the way to do, the filling section is regular and clear, the original position of the buried statue has not moved. Take the felt to cover it for the time being, and first implement what you just thought. About half an hour later, Director Ma told me that the matter had been reported to the county, and that the secretary of the county party committee, Li, was on a business trip in the field and entrusted the governor of Lu County to deal with it quickly. Governor Lu attached great importance to it and paid close attention to coordinating the leaders of the county public security bureau, propaganda department, and cultural and tourism bureau to rush to the construction site, dispatch and coordinate on the spot, and ensure the safety of cultural relics. Speak fast, reality has to have a process. It was already five o'clock in the evening, and when the work was finished after dark, I and two technicians stood by the pit, not daring to move. First, Zhang Shumin, director of the county museum, accompanied the governor of Tian County, who was in charge of culture, to arrive. Before he could say a few words, Liu Zhaomin, director of the street police station, arrived. Another moment later, the governor of Lu County, the director of the public security bureau, and the political commissar arrived. The construction site has never been so lively, and in the dark field, some have flashlights, some have their mobile phone lights on, shaking like stars. The lights on the road in front of the construction site stretched out into a ray of light that shot into the distance. Governor Lu asked me at the headlights if there were any difficulties, but the county absolutely supported it. I said that we need to strengthen the duty force to ensure the safety of cultural relics. The county magistrate immediately arranged for the public security bureau to implement it, and the public security cadres and policemen were all good, and under one order, the soldiers were divided into several roads, some went to drag the mobile duty room, some went to pull the emergency generator, and some erected iron poles outside the construction site and hung lighting. As soon as the motor rings, the lights on the construction site are bright. Governor Lu and his party have been watching the site to see their placement, and from time to time asked me how to cooperate and some matters related to the excavation of the site. On the spring night in Lubei, it had just rained again, and there was some chill, and they all insisted on being hungry in the cold wind for more than two hours, and I was touched in my heart. Everything that night, I think, is also a kind of karma, and I will remember it for the rest of my life. Later, I once said, "I am glad to be prosperous, the leadership is good, the sleep is a thousand years, and the dragon is bright." "The next morning Director Li came from Jinan, I had the main backbone, all the excavation and cleaning step by step, recording, taking pictures, drawing, each performing their duties. A moment to clear out a statue seat, a moment under the statue seat revealed a small Buddha foot, below, next to it, the technicians said to themselves in the surprise. It took two days and was cleaned up. Finally, more than 20 statues and debris were cleaned up, which is the first scientific excavation of a complete statue pit at the site of Longhua Temple, which is of great significance.
The authors recorded in H21 cleanup
After cleaning up, the data information is also done, and the final step is to extract the cultural relics. Everything came in order and in order. Unexpectedly, in the end, it was the icing on the cake and gave me a big surprise. When the last unit is extracted, it is a thick stone slab of about 40×60 cm that is flat at the bottom of the pit, and the surface is also considered to be smooth, but it is obviously rough. At first, I still thought that it was a piece of stone or semi-finished products for processing the statue, because of its large size, Teacher Ma and I each grabbed the four corners, shouted the trumpet to lift up, it was at the bottom, the bottom of the stone slab was stained with mud, when lifted to the pit, the original top was turned over to the bottom, and the original bottom became the top. I was thinking of going to the soil on it, to put the label well, not to use a bamboo stick just scraped, as a piece of soil peeled off, a line of small characters appeared. The excitement of these days has been numb, but this is the end, I did not expect that the most important thing is at the bottom, I am like returning to the light, exhausting the last passion, with excitement, wiping away all the dirt on it little by little, and then using a sprayer to spray this densely packed and occupied the entire stone surface sprinkled more than 260 words. This is a record of the pagoda built by Du Tanjing, who was published in the fifth year of Northern Qi Tianbao, for his deceased son Du Lang's "Jiansi Ling Pagoda". In recent years, shandong has rarely unearthed inscriptions of the Northern Dynasty with so much content and word count.
H21 image extraction
Du Tanjing made the tower to extract the moment
3 The licking of calves on the inscription is deep
The H21 excavation is over, the police on duty are also withdrawn, the excavation of the construction site is also over, we have turned to indoor tidying, and my excited heart has gradually calmed down. Instead, he fell into deep thought about the "Statue of Qin Xiang" and "The Record of Du Tanjing's Pagoda" unearthed in H21. These two inscriptions were published by parents after they made meritorious deeds for their children after their deaths. I am reminded of a famous saying in the Warring States Policy: "Parents who love their sons have far-reaching plans for them." "In the late Northern Dynasty, when society was in turmoil and Buddhism was flourishing, these two parents, both of whom had lost their children, gave up their funds to build statues and pagodas for the monastery, and they may simply believe that this is the love for the afterlife of the deceased children, and even more far away. Qin Xiang statue recorded, this is a family of five living more than 1400 years ago, Qin Xiang's wife Xu Shi, two sons Qin Fuyu, Qin Fuyu, the daughter is the deceased Qin Ahua. I don't know Qin Ahua's age and reason when she died, but I do know another deep love that her parents had for her after her death. The Book of Statues says, "(After the Buddha statue was created) haloed with five colors, it was like a heavenly one." "It proves that they have made the Statue of the Buddha, and from another point of view, this is also a kind of heartfelt, exquisite love." Thinking of this, who is not sad and who is not moved? At that time, I wrote an oil poem to record: "In the Longhua Temple in Leling County, incense and fire cover the sun and the sky." The Qin family had a female name, Ah Hua, who died suddenly in northern Qi Wupingjian. Yin and yang are separated by one side, and the high cousin is heartbroken. Create a statue to pray for blessings, and the love is long and long and the lotus seat is short. If the five colors of the halo are formed, the four parties worship for eternity. After 1,400 years of vicissitudes, the temple collapsed like a change. Shi Wei Had eaten coldly, the antiquities were seen in the sun and the sky, and the dust was removed to read the residual words, and then wrote this article in slang. "Du Tanjing's tower-making record is more detailed, this family was born into a famous family, and was the tenth grandson of The Han Dynasty Qingzhou and Jizhou Assassin Du Daoxun. His family lived in Zhu'a, and the third son, Du Lang, died of a weak crown. Tan Jing was sad and "his wife and grandson built the Sling Pagoda for the dead." "This tower-making record should have been embedded in the tower that year." Looking at the province, there are not many records of pagodas in the Northern Dynasty that have been preserved to the present, Longhua Temple has unearthed "Zhu Tansi Pagoda Record", and now there is "Du Tanjing Pagoda Record", although the tower does not exist, the tower base may still be there, which provides an important clue for the future excavation work of Longhua Temple. There is also a mention of the tower-making record that the Du family was originally from Zhu'a, and later moved to Taiyuan County (in present-day Changqing) of Qiaozhi, and Du Lang was buried on the Shengcheng Jishui embankment after his death, which is very important historical and geographical information. The Du family once migrated because "in Yong'an, Xing Thief rebelled against his orders and manifested himself in Zhongzhou." This is one of the few records in the excavated literature of the Xing Gao rebellion in the late Northern Dynasty, which needs to be discussed in a special article. After the longhua temple ruins were sorted out, I went to Yucheng in Dezhou in September of that year to explore, the location is on the edge of Zhu'a City, I specially went to the Zhu'a City ruins, which is the hometown of Du Tanjing and Du Lang, I once wrote a poem "Zhu Ahuaigu": "Zhu Aduo saw the history of the letter, and the Yuan Wei Northern Migration was terrified." Hou Hou collapsed here, and the Lu clan held the Mi Beacon Smoke. I have excavated the Durang Stele, which belongs to the Zhu'a Stone. Now come to the city to explore the ruins, and listen to the village's words for a good year. ”
4 words after that
No matter how thrilling the drama comes to an end, even the painful parting will tend to flatten with the passage of time, not to mention that it has quietly passed more than 1400 years. Understanding these, we are all a drop in the ocean, cherish the present, carry the weight of the long journey, there are more good stories waiting for us to experience and discover. In the middle of June of that year, I finished nearly a year of excavations at the Site of Longhua Temple and started a new experience. Director Li Zhenguang is still watching the ruins of Longhua Temple, excavating for two consecutive years, and receiving a lot of goods, I jokingly call him "Protector of Longhua Temple", until now, I miss that magical site, miss the teachers who have struggled with me in a party - the gentle and considerate Director Zhang Shumin, the arrogant Director Ma Chao, the lively and cheerful Teacher Zhai Songyan, the meticulous and responsible teacher Du Xiaojun, the talented teacher Zhang Yingjun, and the technicians and migrant workers who have helped me take care of them.
Reprinted from the "Shandong Archaeology" WeChat public account