New Media Steward
I was reminded of the earth and the earth 读| Reiko Shiba
This morning, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage held an online meeting in Beijing, and the meeting announced that the tomb of Bailuyuan Jiangcun in Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, is the tomb of Emperor Wen of Han.
This achievement subverts the general understanding of historians in the past 700 years since the Yuan Dynasty, confirms the true location of the tomb of Liu Heng, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, and solves the problem of the name of the eleven imperial tombs of the Western Han Dynasty.
Emperor Liu Heng of the Han Dynasty was an emperor who cherished the people's strength and lived frugally, and his will required that no grave be left after death, and burial was not a ceremony. Later generations have always thought that the location of the Tomb of Emperor Wen of Han was in the "Phoenix Mouth" of Bailuyuan, but archaeologists did not find a tomb at the "Phoenix Mouth".
However, what "promoted" the archaeological results of the Han Wen Emperor's Tombs was a group that has been despised for thousands of years: tomb robbers.
In recent years, due to the repeated intrusion of tomb robbers in bailuyuan Jiangcun tomb and its surroundings, in order to confirm the preservation status of the tomb and the distribution of surrounding cultural relics, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Shaanxi Archaeological Research Institute began to rescue and excavate the outer pit of Jiangcun Tomb and the outer tibetan pit of Nanling in 2017. The results of the four years were announced on December 14.
What is the difference between a grave robber and an archaeologist? Why is it possible to "promote" such a significant archaeological achievement?
Archaeologists are a world apart from grave robbers
From the legal level: archaeology is legal and needs to be approved by the state before it can be started; tomb robbery is illegal, and it is quietly dug and sold quietly, which seriously violates the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics.
Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics
The tomb robber gang that "promoted" the archaeological achievements of the Han Wen Emperor's Tomb was tracked by the police for more than a year, arrested 91 criminal suspects, detected 96 cases of cultural relics such as theft, excavation, and resale, and recovered more than 1,100 cultural relics.
From the perspective of cultural relics protection: archaeology pursues cultural value and will be gentle with all excavated cultural relics; tomb robbers are simply seeking profits and do not care about cultural relics that they think are worthless.
Use a small brush to gently sweep away the surrounding floating soil
From the working environment: archaeologists can choose "indoor office" and "rush to the scene", and need to carry out meticulous restoration work on some damaged cultural relics; tomb robbers mainly work at the "tomb site", "quality control" is strict, and restoration work is generally not done.
Archaeologists have restored gold masks unearthed from Sanxingdui
In terms of career development: archaeologists can issue briefings through scientific research and enjoy a place in academia; tomb robbers must be anonymous and may have to carry a lifetime of "silver bracelets" when caught.
Briefing on the excavation of The No. 2 and No. 3 Han Tombs in Mawangdui, Changsha
Archaeology has also been derided by archaeologists themselves as "a discipline of garbage" (British archaeologist S. Piggott. Piggott), but it always has its own definitions and standards: "The purpose of archaeology is to seek to understand how human beings lived in the past, and it seeks to explore the causes of archaeological phenomena and to explain the laws of socio-cultural development." ”
Although archaeology is really not a tomb robbery, archaeology has also had a period of "tomb robbery", and the excavation behavior is almost indistinguishable from tomb robbery.
Archaeology of tomb robbery
At the beginning of the development of archaeology, it did not form a scientific archaeological method and professional ethics. Therefore, although cloaked in "archaeology", tomb robbery was carried out, and the purpose of excavation was only for rare things and treasures, and the excavation process was also very rough and barbaric:
The development of archaeology in the 19th century was accompanied by heinous tomb robbery and treasure digging.
The typical representative is the German businessman and archaeologist Schliemann, who directly dug up Troy's treasure and took it for himself. In 1871, Schliemann went to Hisharik with a team of one hundred men to dig up the city of Troy, and after determining that the city of Troy did exist and digging out many antiques that had not been there before, Schliemann prepared to leave in June 1873.
Schliemann
However, Schliemann did not leave smoothly in June, because on May 15, he and his wife discovered the treasure in the ruins of Priam Palace. Schliemann was so distraught that he asked his wife to tell the workers to rest, while he took his wife's shawl and used it to dig up treasures:
With the greatest strength and at the most terrible risk of my life, I hurriedly dug out the treasure with a large knife, because the wall of the defensive project I had to dig could fall down and fall on me at any moment. But seeing so many treasures, each of which is worth a fortune, I can't think of any danger, and I speed up the excavation.
In the face of the great wealth that God smashed down, Schliemann wanted both money and life, so he dug hard and cheerfully, and dug out with the strength of his hands a wealth that could not be earned in the next life of Yi Yuejun in the next life:
Two golden crowns, one of which consists of 90 chains, 12271 rings, 4066 heart-shaped friezes, 16 idols. In addition, there are 24 gold collars, plus earrings, buttons, needles, prisms, a total of 8700 gold products. In addition, there is a large golden wine glass weighing 601 grams, a gold bottle, and other wine glasses, some of which are made of silver.
The dig-up stuff was appropriated by Schliemann. Even after being demanded to be returned by Turkey, Schliemann defended himself for the embezzlement of the treasure, believing that it was only in his own hands that it had academic value:
For if the Turks had received the treasure, they would have melted it down and only received no more than 12,000 francs, but in our hands the treasure has immeasurable value for academic research.
In order to compete for these treasures, Schliemann's relations with Turkey and even Greece broke down. The treasure in his hand became very embarrassed, and he wanted to sell money to cash out and donate it, and his attitude was very wavering. He wanted to give it to Italy, but he fell out with Italy; he wanted to sell it to Britain, who thought the price was too high and cruelly refused; he wanted to give it to the Louvre in France, suffering from an indifferent face; decided to sell it to Russia at a reduced price, but was still rejected...
Much later, Schliemann donated the treasure to his country, Germany. But now, the Trojan Treasure is in the Pushkin Museum in Russia.
French Egyptologist Maleette also had some tomb robberies during the excavation. In 1851, Maryette went to Egypt to excavate the tomb of the sacred cow, and directly blew up the ruins of a temple next to the Sphinx, blowing up...
Tomb robbery tools are used for archaeology
There is another most well-known reason why archaeology is misunderstood as tomb robbery: the tools used in archaeology, such as the Luoyang shovel, were learned from tomb robbers.
The specific invention time and person of the Luoyang shovel are different. Some scholars believe that the Luoyang shovel existed at least before the Ming Dynasty, and some scholars believe that the Luoyang shovel was first used by the Luoyang tomb robber Li Duck in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty. Compared with the history of tomb robbers, this use of history is simply too short to see, after all, tomb robbery began in the pre-Qin Dynasty.
Li Duck found that the Luoyang shovel was very accidental, and when he secretly observed a person building a shed, he found that he used a short-handled iron shovel in the shape of a barrel tile to insert the shed pole, which could bring up a lot of soil with a poke into the ground, and it could also dig very deep. He felt that this shovel was easier to use for tomb robbery than a shovel, so he attached a shovel to a drawing and found a blacksmith to build one, and the Luoyang shovel went to the prestigious status of tomb robbery. In 1928, archaeologist Wei Juxian used it in archaeology after discovering that tomb robbers used the Luoyang shovel, and the Luoyang shovel "changed from evil to righteousness" and had the identity of Zhengda Guangming - an archaeological tool.
The Luoyang shovel is very good in the exploration process, not only can find the condition of the soil, a general understanding of the burial of burial artifacts, and most importantly, can detect the location, scope and depth of the tomb. One thing that makes the Luoyang shovel blingbling shine is that in 2007, Chinese and Vietnamese archaeologists jointly excavated soil in Vietnam, and Chinese scholars used the Luoyang shovel to correct the excavation location set by Vietnamese experts, and the location was more accurate to excavate more cultural relics:
Facts have indeed proved that the judgment made by Chinese scholars with the help of the discovery of the "Luoyang shovel" is correct. The archaeological gains at the newly selected site far exceed those originally planned for excavation.
So when Chinese scholars returned to China, they directly gave the used Luoyang shovel to the Vietnamese.
In addition to the Luoyang shovel, the brazing, short-handled hoe, and long-handled hoe used by Tufuzi were also borrowed by archaeologists.
Grave robbers have also become archaeologists
There are also some archaeologists who were indeed tomb robbers, and later changed their ways by digging soil and became archaeologists.
Changsha Tufuzi, a group of people who once sold yellow clay for a living and later developed into tomb robbers, later became another name for tomb robbers like "Captain Touching Gold". In the beginning, Tufuzi's business was very single, just digging yellow mud and selling it to the people to make coal. Because some glazed pottery, white porcelain bowls, plates and other burial objects were dug up in the excavation, they were later bragged as cultural relics and sold to cultural relics dealers. After tasting the sweetness, Tufuzi began to specialize in tomb robbery, and developed superb soil recognition technology in the process of tomb robbery:
As long as you use a hoe to take out the sample soil through the surface floating soil to observe, you can identify which dynasty's tomb is, and then dig a shaft-type robber hole, take out the cultural relics from the tomb, and dig a hundred times, never fail.
Tufuzi's skills were favored by archaeologists. In 1952, during the excavation of the Baisha Song Tomb in Yu County, the National Archaeological Institute also hired Tufuzi to assist. After the Cultural Management Association left the National Archaeological Institute, it also hired Tufuzi to excavate again.
In case it is not suitable to put the recovered Mawangdui Han tomb female corpse Xin Chai
To see the original image, please search for yourself
Moreover, it is said that the excavation of the Mawangdui Han Tomb also had the help of Tufuzi, such as helping to lift up the female corpse of the Han Dynasty:
While carrying the famous Han Dynasty female corpse named Xin Chai, the detectives showed the wisdom of their former Tufuzi. If you use the traditional method, several people pull hands and feet to drag out, it is very easy to damage the ancient corpse, it is recommended to use a five-splint to insert it obliquely, the inner coffin is raised sideways, and the female corpse is carefully moved out.
Because the Tufuzi helped greatly in the excavation of the Mawangdui Han Tomb, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage at that time also gave each person a bottle of good wine and good cigarettes as a reward." ”
But the tomb robbers who "promoted" the archaeological results of the Han Wen Emperor's tomb this time were not so lucky.
Zhang Xiaoyan, the main offender of this group of tomb robbers, was sentenced to life imprisonment and confiscated 2 million yuan of personal property, and 4.823 million yuan (198,300 yuan of 198,300 yuan) of his illegal gains were recovered for eight times, and two crimes of excavating ancient tombs belonging to the national key cultural relics protection units.
Resources
1. Chen Chun, ed., Theory of Archaeology, Fudan University Press, 2004
2. Chen Chun, Contemporary Archaeology, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press, 2004
3. Duan Xiaoqiang and Du Doucheng, eds., General Theory of Archaeology, Lanzhou University Press, 2007
4. Emile Ludwig, translated by Fir, Zhu Zhanyu, and Zhu Bin, Discovering Troy: The Story of Schliemann the Gold Seeker, Liaoning Education Publishing House, 2006
5. Shi Xingbang Dictation, Guan Zhongniu, ed., "Visiting ancient villages: Shi Xingbang Oral Archaeology", Shaanxi Normal University Press, 2013 edition
6. Ni Fangliu, History of Tomb Robbery in the Republic of China, Overseas Chinese Publishing House, 2012 edition
7. Liu Yongjia, "Notes on the Tomb Robbery of Changsha's "Tufuzi"", Literature and History Expo, No. 3, 2016
8. Qin Jianming, "Luoyang Shovel Origin Examination", Wenbo, No. 6, 2006
9. Wang Jian, "Confirmation of the Real Han Wen Emperor's Tomb", The Paper, 2021-12-14 13:10
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