During the archaeological period of the Ming Ding Tomb, archaeologists used an ordinary thing to successfully replace the key and magically open the stone door of the Ding Tomb. What's going on here? What exactly are the things used by archaeologists? If you want to know, let Xiaobian reveal the secret for you:
Among the Ming Tombs in Beijing, there is a mausoleum that is particularly special, it is the only Ming Emperor's Mausoleum excavated in the mainland so far, the mausoleum is buried with an emperor and two empresses, the mausoleum is the Ming Ding Mausoleum, and the owner of the mausoleum is the Ming Dynasty Wanli Emperor and his two empresses, namely Empress Xiaojing and Empress Xiaoduan. According to historical records, the Wanli Emperor was a mediocre monarch who had set a record for decades of not going to the dynasty during his reign, so that the fortunes of the Ming Dynasty took a sharp turn for the worse. However, after his death, a large number of gold and silver jewelry and cultural relics were buried in the Dingling Tomb, leaving many mysteries for future generations.
In 1955, Guo Lao, a famous archaeologist on the mainland, asked his superiors for instructions to open the tomb of the Wanli Emperor to conduct archaeological research. After receiving the instructions, Guo Lao brought many archaeologists to Dingling and launched a series of excavation activities. At first, archaeologists could not find the entrance to Dingling at all, but after research and exploration, they finally found a stone with handwriting engraved on it, and then successfully found the entrance to the Dingling Xuangong.
The Wanli Emperor is worthy of a generation of emperors, after the archaeological team entered the underground palace, they were immediately shocked by the furnishings in the underground palace, and countless funerary items were also piled up in the palace, which was really spectacular. However, it is worth mentioning that just after the archaeologists entered the tomb, new problems were put in front of them, and the entrance to the main tomb of the Wanli Emperor was sealed by a gate, blocking the footsteps of everyone's archaeology. Judging from the overall shape, the gate is a gate carved from a whole piece of white jade, and the two doors are open opposite each other, with only a wide slit the size of a standing palm in the middle. Archaeologists have tried to open it together, but there is a thick stone bar behind the door, and it is useless to push and pull by hand.
Faced with such a dilemma, how can archaeologists break the situation? To this end, they had an in-depth and meticulous discussion. Some experts believe that since the stone door cannot be opened, it must be knocked open with brute force, so that the large stone door can be completely opened according to the rough wood slamming method used in the ancient siege of the city. Some experts believe that since the purpose is to destroy the stone gate, it is better to use explosives directly, after all, the power of explosives is huge and time-saving. However, some old experts do not agree with this view, because in their view, any cultural relics in the Mingding Mausoleum are priceless treasures, and hastily destroying them is undoubtedly irresponsible to history, and even more irresponsible to future generations.
In order to preserve the white jade gate, archaeologists deliberately consulted historical documents. They were surprised to find that the original Han white jade stone door had a matching key, and its name was the Crutch Key, which was a tool specially used to open the tap stone behind the door. Unfortunately, the ancient books only record the name of the key, but do not talk about its shape and specifications. The archaeologists, though somewhat disappointed, were given useful information that the tapestries could be opened directly with ingenuity. That being the case, why don't we just copy a crutch key? So, after research, the archaeologists finally found a thin wooden board, made a key, and found a piece of wire to make a snare-like thing.
How effective is the homemade crutch key made by archaeologists? Fortunately, the wooden board stretched out the door seam, under the first attempt, they successfully pushed the tap stone behind the door of the White Jade Stone, what is the wire ring, it is used to cover the stone tapestry, the purpose is to protect the taproot, we all know that the stone is brittle, once the protection of the wire is lost, the tap stone, absolutely will be folded several times, the door of the main tomb of the Wanli Emperor was successfully opened. It has to be said that this is undoubtedly a contest between modern wisdom and ancient wisdom, the ancients thought that it would be difficult for future generations to enter the tomb without a key, but archaeologists have created a miracle and broken the myth that the imperial tomb cannot be developed.
Fifty or sixty years have passed since the Dingling Tomb was opened, and some people believe that it is the first imperial tomb opened by modern people, and it will also be the last imperial tomb. After all, due to the extreme lack of protection technology at that time, many cultural relics were destroyed, which caused regret in the archaeological community. However, we always believe that with the progress of the times and the improvement of technology, archaeologists will be able to absorb lessons in the archaeological process of Dingling and make greater achievements in the future.
References: "Imperial Tomb" by Li Mei published by Shanxi Publishing House
Wen xiucai, editor-in-chief of Wenlan Hairun Studio, written by: Special history writer: Changshan Zhao Zi worm