(1) A scavenger who gets rich overnight
Many people are eager to get rich overnight, but the vast majority of people only stay at the level of fantasy. However, with a long history and a vast sea of people, there are indeed cases of such encounters.
The protagonist of today's story is one of the "lucky ones".
The 1970s and 1980s were the golden age of the scavenging industry.
At that time, the domestic economy developed rapidly, and people's living standards improved significantly.
Some "urban people" benefited from the market economy earlier, and their rapidly growing incomes produced a large number of old things, and people did not have the consciousness of reusing resources at that time.
This has partly spawned waste pickers who make a living by selling waste, and the dumpster is their treasure hunt.
The protagonist of the story is an old scavenger in the seventies.
The old man, a native of Inner Mongolia, lives in a sparsely populated suburb with a garbage dumping plant nearby.
On weekdays, he collects waste, especially old electrical appliances and other items.
It was winter, and under the influence of the cold winter, the area around the dump was even more deserted. The old man was still thinking about trying his luck and picking up leaks as usual.
Just as he was about to finish his work and go home, he was suddenly knocked down by something, and looked down at it carefully—it was some rusty metal rods, hidden in the dust and inconspicuous.
The old man dug up the loose soil, lifted the stick and weighed it in his hand—the weight of the stick was quite heavy. The old man was overjoyed and felt that he was really lucky!
You know, at that time, the metal was not cheap, a pound of iron could sell for a dollar, at that time the main circulating currency unit in the countryside was still divided, and one yuan was equivalent to several hundred yuan now.
Holding a heavy metal rod, the old man estimated that there were at least a few dollars, thinking that today's harvest was a bonus, which was a windfall.
The old man picked up the sticks and took them home, seven in all.
When he got home, he scraped the mud from his stick and tried to burn it with fire to remove the rust. Grilling, the old man found that the stick was actually getting brighter and brighter, shining with a golden luster under the light and shadow of the flames!
Only then did the old man realize that what he had picked up was not an ordinary iron rod, but a stick made of gold!
The old man immediately went back to the place where he had picked up the stick during the day to see if there was any metal missing.
Sure enough, near there, the old man found a lot of metal objects. The gold that was finally found weighed seven pounds.
Friends who are sensitive to information may be aware of it when they see this.
Of course, the golden sticks in the suburbs cannot be waste, and the gold is made into a stick, which is naturally not an ordinary object, they are most likely cultural relics.
But the old man at that time did not turn it in as a cultural relic, perhaps he did not understand the concept of cultural relics at all.
The old man was full of expectations, excitedly took the gold to the gold shop pawn, but the boss said that the purity of the gold nuggets was not pure and difficult to value, suggesting that he smelt the metal and then sell it.
Immediately the old man agreed to refine, and smelted these golden rods in the gold shop. In the end, more than four pounds of pure gold were extracted.
At that time, the market price of gold should be 80 to 90 yuan a gram, then four pounds of pure gold should be worth about 160,000 yuan, but the old man finally only got 12,000 yuan.
The old man did not feel wrong, after all, this was already a huge amount of money for him.
In this way, the poor scavengers became ten thousand yuan households, and the ten thousand yuan households at that time were also very rare.
Just at that time, it was just in time for the New Year, and the old man bought many New Year goods to go home, and later renovated the house.
An old man who was scavenging for a living suddenly spent a lot of money, which also made the villagers curious, so the old man told the villagers about the experience of picking up gold.
The news of the old man's collection of gold did not go away and was widely circulated in the local area.
(2) 300 million cultural relics burned to the ground
This news has also attracted the attention of relevant departments.
Cultural relics experts, with their sensitivity, perceive that the origin of these golden sticks is not simple.
After the relevant staff learned about the general situation of the incident from the elderly, they carefully inquired about the location of the discovery of these gold objects.
Then, through repeated field surveys, inspections of gold artifacts and other means, experts deduced that this was a gold artifact from the Xiongnu period, when the valuation reached 300 million!
The melting of the old man is not only these three hundred million, but also buries the priceless cultural value behind these gold objects.
The Inner Mongolia region belongs to the southern region, and historically, the place where the Xiongnu concentrated during the Warring States period and the Han Dynasty was in Inner Mongolia.
The Huns were an important nomadic tribe in ancient times.
The nomadic people live in the water and grass, are more scattered, but are good at horseback shooting, and the folk customs are fierce. During the Qin and Han dynasties, with the unification of the Qin Dynasty, the Xiongnu also gathered and established a unified Xiongnu.
The Xiongnu regime also posed a threat to Central Plains rule. Eventually, during the Western Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu split and the Huns flowed to various regions.
The "Chronicle of History" has a saying: "The Western Han army defeated the Xiongnu, the Xiongnu were far away, and there was no royal court in the south of the desert." ”
The Xiongnu in history were extremely strong in their heyday, and even after the defeat of the Northern Xiongnu and the Eastern Han Dynasty, they could overthrow Xiangcai and push straight to the European border.
But the Xiongnu, who flourished so much, did not appear in the history books after the Tang Dynasty, and this proud nation seemed to have disappeared.
The Xiongnu are not well documented in history, but they are indeed very colorful and very mysterious.
In the process of the Xiongnu's long-distance escape, many artifacts were left behind, which is of great significance for archaeological research, and the most direct is to deduce the development of the Xiongnu in the fields of economy, faith, culture and so on.
Secondly, Xiongnu artifacts are also of great significance in the field of cultural exchange. From the artifacts left behind during the Xiongnu period, we can also trace the cultural exchange between the Xiongnu and the Central Plains at that time, and the infiltration with Western culture.
In addition, the Inner Mongolia region was an important part of the steppe Silk Road, and the Xiongnu were multi-ethnic nomadic peoples with large population flows and strong flows.
Therefore, xiongnu artifacts can reflect the role of the steppe Silk Road in cultural exchanges to a certain extent.
Among the Xiongnu artifacts, gold and silver ware account for a large proportion and have high research value. In particular, the Xiongnu gold ware of the Han Dynasty is very mysterious.
On the one hand, most of these gold and silverware have a strong nomadic character, and the totems on the utensils exude a strong steppe wildness, such as the common pattern of two beasts tearing each other apart. They contain the essence of Xiongnu culture and steppe culture.
On the other hand, the production process of Hun gold ware is also extremely complicated, and we can take another cultural relic of the Xiongnu period as evidence - the Hun crown. The Crown of the Xiongnu is the treasure of the Inner Mongolia Museum.
The crown is the golden crown of the Xiongnu chieftain, the crown is an eagle-shaped ornament, its main material is gold and turquoise, and the proud eagle is made of wings and comes to life.
Below it is a hemispherical dome carved with meticulous animal relief patterns, delicate depictions of animal looks, exaggerated proportions, both realistic and abstract.
The entire crown shows the eagle proudly overlooking the steppe beasts.
The production process is complex, including hammers, engravings, wire drawing, inlaying and other processes. The production process of Xiongnu gold ware can be seen.
Such a precious cultural relic that spans thousands of years of history has been smelted into ordinary pure gold, and experts are also heartbroken.
The old man felt sorry to hear that the gold artifact worth several hundred million yuan was destroyed once, but the wood had become a boat.
Some people may wonder whether the destruction of cultural relics by the elderly has become a fact, and whether it violates the mainland cultural relics protection law.
In this case, the elderly unknowingly picked up artifacts near a suburban dump.
He did not deliberately resell cultural relics for the purpose of profit, and in addition, he smelted goldware, which obviously did not belong to the resale of cultural relics.
The elderly also do not know that the cultural relics were deliberately destroyed after they were not professionally identified, and they are not protected cultural relics at the national or provincial level, so they do not meet the conditions for the crime of negligent destruction of cultural relics.
(3) The road to the protection of cultural relics is long
In the 1980s, people's awareness of cultural relics protection was very weak, and the government had not yet taken relevant measures. Cases of cultural relics not being handed over to the state and being sold privately are also emerging.
The Crown of the Huns we mentioned earlier was excavated by the people, and after being sold, it was recovered by the state and treasured in the museum. Similarly, the discovery of this cultural relic was also in the Inner Mongolia region.
One winter in 1972, an old man from Hangjinqi went to Shawozi near his home to dig up keels, which are ancient living fossils.
By chance, a large number of gold objects were found, and he called his companions from the village to dig up the treasure together, and divided the gold tools to sell at the local bank.
At that time, due to the weak awareness of cultural relics protection, the bank not only did not stop it, but also encouraged the villagers to dig and knock down the jade and other decorations on the utensils to improve the purity of the gold.
Fortunately, some bank staff have the consciousness of cultural relics protection, and report the situation of this batch of gold objects to the local education bureau, which in turn conveys it to the cultural bureau.
In the end, the Cultural Affairs Bureau recovered the gold artifacts, there were more than 200 pieces, and the cultural relics staff carried out field surveys and found the Xiongnu tombs. This discovery has a great impetus to the study of Xiongnu culture.
The Crown of the Huns intuitively presents us with the exquisite craftsmanship of the Huns, reproduces the natural and wild nomadic cultural atmosphere, and reflects their belief in advocating the strong...
The significance of cultural relics for historical research is indisputable, they are the carriers of history, carrying information through time and space.
The research of archaeologists can uncover historical legends that were originally lost through scientific means, which gives them new life and meaning. Unfortunately, some people still lack awareness and self-awareness of cultural relics protection.
Although the relevant departments have become more and more stringent in their measures for the protection of cultural relics, there are still improper acquisition and trading of cultural relics.
The protection of cultural relics has a long way to go, and each of us needs to have the responsibility to take it as our own responsibility. And this kind of consciousness and the formation of self-consciousness is difficult to achieve by relying solely on the efforts of the government.
This also requires us to think about the significance of cultural relics protection.
(IV) Historical Grandeur is indispensable
The Chinese civilization has not been interrupted, and how precious it is that the five-thousand-year-old historical civilization has been passed down to the present. The continuity of culture depends on the continuation of information. And cultural relics are the bearers of information.
History is long, how much truth, how much legend. Life will dissipate in time, and truth will be silent in history. However, the objects left by history will take that history with us to discover and wait for the mystery to be revealed.
Through cultural relics, we can understand the social changes of one stage after another, glimpse the magnificent culture of the past, and deduce the change of history.
The protection of cultural relics can complement the details of history and improve the context of history. All aspects of our craftsmanship and cultural development are based on this heritage.
Some people may say that the hiding or resale of individual cultural relics will not affect the inheritance of the entire culture and civilization at all, but in fact, it is not. The five-thousand-year civilization in China, without a single bit, will not be the current civilization!
Every piece of history has its value and significance, and Chinese history is magnificent and indispensable.
The significance of cultural relics protection, in simple terms, can identify, extract information, and preserve it, and continue its life in exploration.
As long as the study continues, the cultural value of cultural relics will never be capped. In the long run, heritage conservation serves people now and in the future.
It undertakes the mission of information transmission and historical continuation, and contains unlimited cultural value. Cultural relics present and explain historical information to us, supplement and enrich historical details, and ultimately serve the public and serve the entire human civilization.
The experience of the old man who scavengers may be personally lucky, but the three hundred million are in vain, and the thousand-year-old cultural relics are destroyed, and the twelve thousand in hand is somewhat ironic.
The story of the old man also gives a warning to future generations: when suspected cultural relics are picked up, they must be handed over to the relevant departments to let the cultural relics "live" in the museum or research room and give them a new life.
Of course, it is not possible to participate in the excavation, resale or destruction of cultural relics, and it is illegal to know the law.
The living fossils of culture should shine in the galaxy of history, the star sea of civilization, and should not fall in the dark corners and dust of the worldly trade.