01, the shadow of the night
Late one night in August 2008, the ruler in charge of the vigil was preparing to go to bed in the cultural office in Luxi County, Yunnan Province.
However, suddenly there was a sound of creeping outside the door.
If you look closely, it turns out that there are several dogs in the house, and the shaky state is very wrong!
Not good! The dog was drugged...
The comrades of the Cultural Management Office were shocked in their hearts, and quickly looked at the dark room opposite, and on the other hand, they also beckoned people to quickly get up and check it out!
The big guys circled the room several times, and finally found half a meat bun under a wall!
It seems that this is evidence of poisonous dogs...
Therefore, this night, everyone in the cultural management office did not sleep, everyone was in a complicated and uneasy mood, but they resolutely stayed around the room and guarded its safety!
02、 The underground "secret" of the small village
Dayipu Village, Luxi County, Yunnan Province, is a small mountain village in the middle of nowhere.
Villagers have lived here for generations, and often find bottles and cans when ploughing the land, but no one notices them.
In February 2008, this phenomenon finally attracted the attention of the relevant archaeological units, and began to explore this mysterious land...
That's right, there are hundreds of ancient tombs hidden under the ground of this small village!
This news quickly spread throughout several surrounding villages, and everyone had never heard of such a strange thing, so they all gathered in Dayipu Village like a market to watch the liveliness...
However, the boring archaeological excavation site has disappointed the villagers a little.
It doesn't seem to be as magical as it was on TV, and everyone slowly dispersed...
In the subsequent excavations, a total of more than 600 cultural relics were unearthed. These things were gradually transported back and temporarily placed in the temporary office of the Cultural Management Office, the Temple of Literature.
In order to ensure the safety of cultural relics, the Cultural Management Office, under the leadership of the director, lived in the Temple of Literature, and they had to raise watch dogs to jointly guard the cultural relics.
03, the origin of the mysterious beads
Although these ancient tombs in Dayipu Village are relatively simple, no large-scale artifacts of great value have been unearthed.
Still, there's one thing that's very special!
This kind of thing does not come from the Yunnan region, but is a foreign thing, which is very strange...
It's this blue glass bead!
Maybe that weird night, the outlaws came for this beautiful bead...
These glass beads have small perforations in the middle, the size is only like a soybean, and although the thing is small, it emits a beautiful halo of blue...
Archaeologists are very curious about these glass beads!
Because this kind of thing is not produced in Yunnan, but from coastal areas such as Guangxi.
How can a small mountain village in the southwestern frontier have foreign objects that are not produced locally in the simple ancient tombs?
What is more interesting is that when these glass beads were excavated, no traces of unsigned necklaces or bracelets were found, and they were scattered around the bones of the tomb owner.
So, what exactly do they do?
In fact, since the Two Han Dynasties, trade between Yunnan and Guangxi and other places has been carried out through the ancient Tea Horse Ancient Road, which is mentioned in the Book of Han. It is recorded in detail in the Geographical Chronicle.
That is to say, the seemingly isolated Dayipu Village was already able to obtain things thousands of kilometers away during the Two Han Dynasties.
Glass beads, which were very precious luxuries at the time, should also have been obtained by the owner of the tomb.
These blue glass beads are eventually buried as collateral, not jewelry. Instead, it was hung around the quilt, made into a "beaded mattress", covering the body...
This may be a unique funerary practice in this region.
04, strange cemetery
In addition to this small blue bead, the Dayipu Village cemetery has also unearthed several things that are very popular with female archaeologists.
They are also pale blue, with thick edges in the middle and thin edges, which are hollow rings!
Archaeologists believe that this is a larger "bracelet", of course, it is much larger than the regular bracelet, and it is not suitable for daily life.
However, looking at the past information, I found them...
In the 1990s, in the ancient tomb of the ancient Dian Kingdom in Jiangchuan County, Yuxi City, Yunnan Province, a strangely shaped bronze vessel was unearthed, the four dancing figurines and copper drums, and the villains on the bronze were carefully observed.
You'll notice that he just happens to have a similar jade ring on his arm!
At this time, according to the geographical location of the tomb, clues were also found in the historical materials!
In the Han Dynasty, there were many ethnic minority tribes in Yunnan: The Kingdom of Yunnan, Yelang, Lao, Lailao, etc.
The area where Dayipu Village is located was controlled by a country called "Leaky Lying Country" in ancient times.
05, "no bones remain" is a noble privilege
In other words, the ancient tomb group in this area is the tomb group of the ancient country!
However, at the end of the excavation, a question kept haunting the archaeologists!
Dozens of tombs in Dayipu Village belong to civilian tombs with simple burial systems, few or even no burial items!
So, where did the tombs of the nobles of the Leaky Kingdom go?
Experience tells the archaeologists that the tombs of the nobles must be not far away!
Therefore, after searching for the radius of Dayipu Village as the center of the circle, everyone finally found an anomaly 8 kilometers away!
The soil in this area is black in color, which is completely different from the red soil unique to the Yunnan region!
After careful monitoring, the experts finally confirmed that this black soil area is the home of the nobles' souls!
However, no ancient tombs have been found in the ground here! The nobles were buried here, and where did the coffin go?
Finally, the truth of the mystery was found in the ancient book "Yunnan Zhiluo":
It turns out that the Leaky Kingdom has a strange custom of worshipping the god of fire! Everyone believed that only tribal chiefs and nobles could have intimate contact with fire after death!
That's what we call cremation!
Noble people can ascend to heaven through Vulcan and reach the world of Elysium...
Therefore, the nobles of the ancient country were all cremated after death, and "no bones remained" became their prerogative!
Those blackening suddenly were the result of repeated cremations carried out here by the leaky countrymen at that time...
This is really a result that has surprised many people a bit.
Compared with the funeral customs of the princes and nobles in the Central Plains who pursued the "corpse is not rotten" until their deaths, the leakers did appear to be much more extravagant...