Baling archaeology found copper gears and "steering wheels"? Is this a "crossing"? On December 14, while reading the report of Baling Archaeology, many people became interested in a photo.
A copper gear, a "steering wheel", is confusing
The photograph shows two artifacts side by side: one is a copper gear; one looks particularly like a steering wheel. The picture description is "Copper gears and copper components excavated from the K27 of Jiangcun Tomb". Judging from the scale on the map, neither of these two things is more than 10 centimeters in diameter.
Isn't the gear a symbol of modern industry in the eyes of many people? Not to mention the steering wheel, why did these two things appear in the pit outside the tombs of the Han Dynasty emperors more than 2,000 years ago? And this steering wheel-like object, as if you have seen it in the Sanxingdui Museum?
Zhu Yarong, deputy director of sanxingdui museum: The solar shaper is much larger than this, will it be a carriage and horse tool?
It is understood that due to the current number of archaeological tasks in Baling, archaeologists have not yet studied these two cultural relics, but there are carriages and horses in the outer pits unearthed from these two things. As for what exactly they are, archaeologists say it's hard to say.
On December 15, a reporter from China Business Daily interviewed Zhu Yarong, deputy director of the Sanxingdui Museum. After looking at the photos of these two cultural relics, Deputy Director Zhu Yarong said that this steering wheel-like thing is still different from the solar shaper exhibited in the Sanxingdui Museum. First of all, the size of the solar shaper is larger, the diameter is 85 centimeters; secondly, the inside of the sun shaper ring is a general structure of five rays of light radiating outward from the center, while the copper ring is four lines from the center outward, showing a symmetrical structure. "I think it's like a carriage and horse gear like a brass gear. There are thousands of components on the Qinling copper carriage and horse, will there also be copper gears and such components? ”
Copper carriage and horse research expert DangShixue researcher: Qinling copper car immediately does not have such a component
Dang Shixue, an expert in the study of copper carriages and horses and a researcher at the Qin Shi Huang Emperor Mausoleum Museum, said that he was also shocked after seeing this photo, but the Qinling copper carriage immediately did not have such components, and other carriages in ancient times had not seen it. "I think these two things are first of all utilities, and the other may be in groups, it may be combinators in the corresponding positions on a more complex structure. I have also communicated with the Baling archaeology staff that although there are carriages and horses in the pits unearthed from these two things, the damage is serious, and the pits are not all carriages and horses, so it is not easy to judge. Of course, if it is a guide car, there will inevitably be gears, but the guide car appeared relatively late, and the Western Han Dynasty should not have it yet. And the gear structure on the guide car should not be too big. ”
The gears found in archaeology are iron and copper, and the earliest copper gear shaper era is even 40000 to 5000 years old
The Huashang Daily reporter searched and found that according to a large number of excavated cultural relics and historical records, it proved that China was one of the earliest countries to apply gears. Copper gear-shaped vessels have been excavated at the site of Xiangfen Tao Temple in Shanxi, which dates from 4000 to 4500 years ago, with 29 teeth on it. In 1956, an iron gear with a diameter of about 80 mm was found in the ruins of the ancient city of Wu'an, Hebei Province, which was studied as a product between the end of the Warring States period and the Western Han Dynasty (3rd century BC to 24 AD). Among the artifacts excavated in 1954 in Qianjiaya, Yongji County, Shanxi, there are bronze ratchets with a diameter of 25 mm and 40 teeth, which have been determined to be relics from the Qin Dynasty to the early Years of the Western Han Dynasty (221 BC to 24 AD). In 1957, a pair of bronze herringbone gears with a diameter of 24 mm and a tooth count of 24 were excavated in Hongqing Village, Chang'an County, Shaanxi Province, which were analyzed as relics of the early Eastern Han Dynasty (1st century AD). The water transport hun elephant made by Zhang Heng (78~139 AD) of the Eastern Han Dynasty, with water leakage as the power, through the gear system, makes the hun elephant rotate around the axis at the same speed every day. The Keiri drum car that appeared during the Three Kingdoms period already has a reduction gear system. The guide car made by Ma Jun (235 AD), in addition to the gear transmission, also has a clutch device, indicating that the gear system has developed to a considerable extent.
In Egypt and Babylon, gears have been used as early as the 400s and 200s BC. The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC) mentioned gears in his book "Mechanical Problems", which is the earliest documentation of gears in foreign countries.
It seems that whether it is domestic or foreign, if you want to trace it, the history of the emergence and application of gears is relatively early.
Li Chunlin, researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: The gear shows the real level of scientific and technological development at that time
Li Chunlin, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, introduced that in ancient China, many technologies have actually achieved a considerable degree of development, such as some bronze weapons unearthed in Qinling have not rusted for more than two thousand years, and the alloy technology that the ancients have long mastered has not been mastered by some Western countries until modern times. However, out of the consideration of political stability, the ancient ruling class monopolized many resources and technologies in the hands of the state and did not allow private use, and because it was a purely agricultural society at that time and did not use them commercially, the current people did not know enough about the level of development of ancient technology. It can be said that this piece of gear excavated from the outer pit of the Han Wen Emperor's Tomb shows the real level of scientific and technological development at that time to a certain extent.
Huashang Daily reporter Ma Huzhen (Courtesy of Shaanxi Archaeological Research Institute)
![Emperor Wen of Han, who was not domineering at all, why was the imperial tomb called a baling?[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)