Since china has been recorded in writing, it has a history of nearly two thousand years. The four great inventions handed down to future generations have had a profound impact not only on China, but also on the whole world. Gunpowder, for example, succeeded in breaking the armor of knights in Europe, allowing medieval fortresses to be completely broken.
The compass was also in the age of great navigation, which enabled many ships to break through the limitations of the sea, and all parts of the world were connected. Not to mention the most famous paper, which has played a far-reaching role in the development of civilization for all mankind. And many people know that paper was improved by Cai Lun during the Eastern Han Dynasty. But in the 1980s, a piece of paper appeared in an ancient tomb found in Gansu Province, which surprised the experts present.
In the Gansu area in 1986, in Tianshui at that time"
Put horse beach
Nearby, the government is preparing to build a ranger station. However, after the construction of the project, the workers dug out a lot of green bricks during the construction process, and the green bricks were dug more and more. This worried the person in charge, so he reported the situation to the government. After the archaeologists heard the news, they found a dark bottomless pit in the construction site. After preliminarily identifying the inscriptions of the excavated green bricks, experts believe that this is likely to be an ancient tomb from the pre-Qin period. After examining the historical materials, experts have basically confirmed that this place is the old land of the Spring and Autumn Warring States Qin State, and it is not unusual for the pre-Qin tombs to appear.
But after further exploration by the archaeological team, the results shocked everyone. Because this ancient tomb is not as small as imagined, but its scale is as high as more than ten miles, there are as many as ten ancient tombs that can be explored at the beginning. After waiting for half a year, after the archaeological team had explored the entire area, they were surprised to find that the number of ancient tombs in the complete area could reach more than a hundred.
This made the archaeological team very excited, because Qin Shi Huang had taken good care of his ancestors during the Qin Shi Huang period, and during his reign, he had also sacrificed his ancestors many times. Now there are also such ancient tomb groups, and it is not surprising to find some national treasure-level cultural relics from them.
But as the excavations progressed, what had been expected turned into disappointment. Although the number of ancient tombs is very large, there are very few good things found in them, not to mention those national treasure-level cultural relics. Even the general cultural relics are only more than 400 pieces, most of which are seriously damaged because of the time problem, and the value of research is not high. Among them, it is still a valuable thing, and it is only a bamboo jane that records some content.
However, the archaeological team did not want to return without success, and the unwilling experts once again conducted a detailed investigation of the ancient tomb group. Although other small tombs were found again, when people opened it, all that was left was a pool of sewage.
When the staff moved the water-fed coffin out, experts investigated and studied it in detail. Unfortunately, after opening it, there was nothing left inside. The only thing that catches the attention of experts is a wet one next to the body."
Paper
”。 When the experts brought it back to the institute to deal with it, they were surprised to find that it was really paper.
So why would this paper shock the experts? Because this piece of paper should not exist in this ancient tomb. According to historical records, paper first appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, but the paper technology at that time was not yet mature. Whether it is the process or the cost, it is much higher than that of later generations, and naturally there is no way to use it in many places like after the Eastern Han Dynasty. Paper was also improved in the Eastern Han Dynasty to facilitate a little, in the Southern and Northern Dynasties period appeared leather paper, in the Tang Dynasty using bamboo to make a real sense, can be widely used paper.
And this piece of paper found in the ancient tomb, after identification, the time is indeed in line with the construction time of the ancient tomb group. Although soaked in water, after careful study, experts believe that this paper records a map of Gansu in the pre-Qin era. From the feel point of view, the expert can actually feel a certain degree of flexibility, as if this paper was made a few months ago.
Although limited to the level of science and technology, there is no way to compare with the paper produced by the mature papermaking technology of the Tang Dynasty. However, because its texture is compared with the existing Caihou paper, it has largely exceeded the paper of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Theoretically, this is simply impossible, because this is the tomb of the pre-Qin period, and the time difference of hundreds of years in between is not to say that it disappears.
But archaeologists have indeed unearthed this paper and have indeed identified it many times. Therefore, this piece of paper can be said to subvert the cognition of the entire archaeological community. In the pre-Qin period, what exactly happened to produce this kind of paper? And what is the reason for this advanced technology not to be passed on to future generations? Although these questions have always puzzled archaeologists, there is no more information, so this paper has been preserved in the Gansu Museum as a treasure of the town museum.
Resources
: "History", "Book of Han".