In August 1997, a loud noise was made on the "Qinjia Mountain" in Jingzhou, Hubei Province, and this time Tufuzi was more ruthless, almost emptying the funerary items in the entire ancient tomb; just when the archaeological team regretted, the experts found jade pieces worth "over 100 million".
Hubei Jingzhou, the famous "Chu Cultural Ancient City" in history, here not only circulates many legends and stories of ancient celebrities, but also sits in the tombs of many ancient nobles; on the "Qinjia Mountain" near Haolin Village in Jingzhou, there are three ancient tombs since ancient times, and it is said that a certain nobleman of the Warring States Era is buried.
Of course, since there are three tombs, it is impossible to bury a person. Because the tomb is large and small, the local legend is that a Chu general and two wives were buried; the archaeological team has also been here, but because the three tombs have not been stolen, so there is no initiative to excavate, and the owner of the tomb is ultimately inconclusive.
The archaeological team did not excavate, which left an opportunity for Tufuzi, one day in early August 1994, there was a loud noise in the direction of "Qinjia Mountain"; and when the archaeological team arrived, "Tomb No. 2" had been exploded, the internal situation of the ancient tomb was unknown, and "rescue excavation" was imminent.
In late August, the superiors approved the protective excavation of the "Qinjiashan Mountain" ancient tomb. The tomb was small and not as difficult to excavate as expected; within a few days, the archaeological team figured out the basic layout of the tomb, a square vertical pit tomb with a sloped tomb.
In a nutshell, this is a medium-sized Chu tomb, the age is about the middle and late Warring States, the owner of the tomb should be a woman; although it is a medium-sized tomb, but look at the internal specifications, it also belongs to the Chu nobles, a little regret, Tufuzi is more ruthless, almost empty of all the burials in the tomb, even the head box, the side box has not been spared.
About the end of September, the ancient tomb sealing soil was basically cleaned up, and the "No. 2 Tomb" was finally revealed, and the tomb was obviously looted, leaving only "one coffin and three coffins"; in the face of such a scene, archaeologists regretted that since the tomb was empty, they had to see if there was anything in the coffin.
To the disappointment of archaeologists, tufuzi even the coffin has been opened, not only the coffin is "clean", even the bottom of the coffin is empty, leaving only a thick layer of black mud; since the tomb has been opened, the archaeological team is a little frustrated, but it is still necessary to clean up according to the archaeological standard process.
When cleaning the coffin, a staff member actually found a semi-circular artifact in the black mud at the head of the tomb owner; by the feel of the hand, this thing should have been broken, but because it was wrapped in black mud, it was still uncertain what it was.
After that, the archaeology team staff cleaned up the black mud on the artifact, revealing a piece of dark green jade with ornamentation; the broken part of the front "by hand" was not really broken, but was deliberately processed by hand.
At that time, even archaeologists were a little confused, although this piece of "ink jade" was processed, it was not a complete artifact, and it did not look like a ceremonial vessel or some kind of decoration; just when everyone was confused, the staff cleaning the inner coffin found a similar "ink jade" in the black mud.
Experts put two pieces of "ink jade" together for comparison, the two pieces of jade can be perfectly spliced into a "piece", and the concave and convex places deliberately join each other; originally, this is a "ink jade mask", popularly known as "jade overlay".
Of course, humanoid masks in archaeological findings are not uncommon, not only jade, but also bronze, gold, silver and other materials, which are collectively known as "coverings", which are a kind of burial tools of ancient nobles; it is said that "coverings" have the effect of protecting the faces of the deceased, but after thousands of years, the effect of this mask seems to be small.
The jade covering excavated from the "Qinjiashan No. 2 Tomb" alone, its left and right pieces are carved from the whole piece of ink jade; it is mostly black-brown, oval, 20 cm long, 13.9 cm short, and 0.23 cm thick, similar to the size of ordinary people's faces.
This "jade overlay" is precious, and its production process is more complicated. It is speculated that ancient jade smiths first cut a whole piece of jade into thin slices, and then cut and polished more carefully to make a human facial contour; after that, the craftsmen also drilled holes to carve out the "eyes, nostrils", "mouth" and other hollow grooves on the mask, and the hair, eyebrows, etc. were engraved.
Take this "jade covering" as an example, its carving knife is delicate and the lines are smooth, not to mention the value of this "ink jade", just the carving is enough to be praised; in addition, there are 8 small holes around the "jade covering" for skewering.
Tracing back to the roots, the history of "covering" is still relatively long, and the "Funeral ceremony of the rites and priests" records that as early as the pre-Qin funeral, there has been a "meditative eye" with silk fabrics as the material, also called "wrapping the head", which is probably the predecessor of the "covering".
In a nutshell, the ink jade cladding excavated from the "Qinjiashan No. 2 Tomb" found that there are also silk fabric residues, probably the initial state is that the "covering" is sewn on a square silk fabric; the four corners of the silk fabric are tied with heavy objects such as jade or jade pendants to flatten the silk fabric.
The funerary equipment of "covering" appears in the Central Plains from the current archaeological findings; the jade "covering" has also appeared a lot, mostly sewn up by small jade pieces; the jade covering excavated from the "Qinjiashan No. 2 Tomb" obviously has a deep origin with the funerary culture in the Central Plains, but its level is higher, and it is also the "only" funerary tool carved from the whole piece of jade in archaeological discoveries so far.
Looking back, if Tufuzi had not found the "treasure" in the black mud, this jade covering might have been equally doomed; fortunately, Tufuzi did not find it, and this "ink jade covering" could become a national treasure cultural relic, and its value even exceeded all the funerary items in Tomb No. 2.
In 2014, CITIC International Auction Company publicly auctioned a piece of "Gluttonous Jade Cover", worth more than 6 million yuan; with this reference, this "Ink Jade Cover" has more than the one at auction, whether it is material, craftsmanship or art appreciation value, historical significance, etc., and its value should be more than 10 million, and even "over 100 million" is not excessive.