introduction
Lotus root is a food that many people love very much, and the Qianlong Emperor during the Qing Dynasty also wrote a poem "Title Shen Zhou Sketches Twenty-Four Kinds of Lotus Roots, Eight Lotus Roots", which reads: "Lotus room is green and green, lotus festival jade is jade." "Although lotus root is commonplace, our archaeologists did not expect that in an ancient tomb of thousands of years, a pot of bright color lotus soup can be found."
Tombs have always been full of mystery, but for archaeologists, this is not the case. Archaeologists come and go to excavate ancient tombs, the main purpose of which is to protect precious cultural relics and provide evidence for historical research. Archaeological work is also very hard, wading through mountains and rivers, eating and sleeping in the wind are common things. But for many archaeologists, the most feared thing is not hard work, but to encounter some extremely precious and very easily damaged cultural relics. In fact, it is not accurate to say that I am afraid, because in general, when encountering these cultural relics, almost all archaeologists will be surprised and happy in their hearts.
▲Archaeological excavation site
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The first such artifact is bamboo and wood silk products. Objects made of these materials, stored in dark and damp tombs for a long time, become decayed after hundreds of years and thousands of years, and once a large amount of oxygen is poured into the tomb when the tomb is opened, they will soon be oxidized. These precious things will not only lose their original color, but also cannot be repaired at all.
The second is those items that are very easily damaged. For example, light and thin jade, porcelain, glassware and even carbonized ancient eggs, etc., these things are often damaged by a light touch, and a little carelessness is a huge loss.
▲Eggs found in Western Zhou tombs
The third is the lotus soup we mentioned earlier, which cannot be touched at all. A slight touch of the pot containing the lotus soup is just a matter of taking a photo, and the lotus slices in the soup disappear. So where did this lotus soup come from?
Everyone knows that the Mawangdui Tomb is a very famous Han Dynasty tomb in China, the Mawangdui Ancient Tomb han Dynasty Changsha State of the Family Cemetery of Li Cang, archaeologists in the excavation of the Mawangdui Tomb, from the tomb of Li Cang's wife Mrs. Xin Chai found countless rare treasures. Because this ancient tomb is so famous, the cultural relics inside are also widely known, such as plain gauze tunics weighing less than 50 grams, exquisite and luxurious lacquerware, metalware, jade, etc., as well as a variety of furniture and daily necessities, and even the skeletons of rabbits, dogs, pigs, deer, cattle and other animals.
▲ Splendid Luo Qi excavated from the ancient tomb of Mawangdui
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Of course, there is also Mrs. Xin Chai's famous "thousand years of incorruptible" wet corpse, and the pot of lotus soup we are talking about is on a wooden case in Mrs. Xin Chai's tomb. On this wooden case, there are also some grain and bean crops such as rice, wheat, barley, millet, etc., and there are also special containers for different fruits such as melons and jujube pears.
When the archaeologists saw these things, they found that the grain and legume crops were already very dry due to their age, so the light and oxygen projected from the outside did not affect them, but the melons and fruits soon began to change color. The photographers on the archaeological team have already seized the time to photograph these things.
▲The dishes in the ancient tomb are melons and fruits
At this moment, a staff member discovered that there was something underneath this wooden case, which looked like a good lacquerware with a lid (lacquered ding). So the staff member carefully walked over, lightly lifted the lid of the lacquerware, and found that inside was a pot of lotus soup with a clear color! There are soups and lotus flakes in it, and the color of the lotus flakes looks very fresh, although there is a sour smell coming out, but it is not pungent.
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The staff allowed this to happen, so they put the lacquerware up with both hands and prepared to hand it to the other staff responsible for receiving the artifacts. However, with his movements, he suddenly found that the lotus pieces in the soup water actually began to melt, just as written in "The Surprise of the First Shooting": "Do you know that in the blink of an eye, the golden mountain has turned into an iceberg." ”
▲Lotus soup old photo
In a short period of time, some lotus chips in the soup disappeared like ashes. The staff immediately shouted for the photographer to come and take pictures, and the photographer of the archaeological team was also experienced, and as soon as he saw this scene, he immediately ran over without hesitation, raised his camera to point the pot of lotus soup and pressed the shutter. By the time the photographer was ready to take a second photo, the lotus tablets had completely disappeared. Eventually, many archaeologists and paleontologists came up with an explanation for this phenomenon: because these lotus tablets have been preserved in ancient tombs for thousands of years, their fibers have aged to a certain extent, and as long as they are slightly shaken, the container will occur this phenomenon called fiber disintegration.
epilogue
In fact, this phenomenon of this pot of lotus soup also answers another doubt in the historical data, that is, earthquakes. According to historical records, there was once a small earthquake in the Changsha area during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and there has been no record of earthquakes since then. This pot of lotus soup did not disintegrate until it was unearthed, which means that the historical records are accurate, and Changsha has indeed had no earthquake for a long time.
Resources:
"Title Shen Zhou Sketch 24 Kinds of Eight Lotus Roots"
"The Surprise of the First Shooting"