In the Astana cemetery group in Turpan, Xinjiang, archaeologists have found a special artifact because it is not a gold and silver artifact or a jade carving, but a well-preserved food - moon cake. More than 1,000 years ago, the tomb actually unearthed a perfect moon cake? What kind of filling will it be made of? If you want to know, let Xiaobian reveal the secret for you:
In 1959, in the Astana area of Turpan, Xinjiang, archaeologists stumbled upon a large aristocratic tomb dating from the Western Jin Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty (mid-3rd century AD to the end of the 8th century AD). In this large tomb group, the burial races are ethnic minority nobles and common people such as Cheshi, Turkic, Xiongnu, Gaoche and Zhaowu Jiu, which is a typical multi-settlement tomb group.
In the sand dunes with a radius of more than 10 miles, the number of tombs is very dense, and many cultural relics have been excavated, including various murals, prints, paper paintings, silk paintings, etc., as well as many clay sculptures and wood carving figurines, painted clay pots, silk flowers, silk fabrics, etc.
Shockingly, archaeologists also found a special cultural relic when excavating the tomb, and when it comes to its specialness, it is actually very simple, it is an ancient pastry, and the shape looks very familiar, it seems to be like a modern pastry-style mooncake.
The Astana "pastry" mooncake, with a diameter of 6.5 centimeters and an earthy yellow color, is the only mooncake-style pastry food unearthed in China today. The only difference from modern mooncakes is that the front of the mooncake is pressed with Azatian Persian-style beaded patterns, Indian Buddhist lotus patterns, and Chinese treasure flower patterns.
At this time, the heads of archaeologists are clouded with doubts, the appearance of the cultural relic is so similar to the moon cake, is it an ancient moon cake? Speaking of which, we still need to talk about the origin of the mooncake. Mooncakes have a long history in the mainland, according to historical records, as early as the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the residents of Jiangsu and Zhejiang once made a kind of cake with fillings to commemorate Taishi Wenzhong, which is also the predecessor of mooncakes.
In the Han Dynasty, with the opening of the Silk Road, the central plains and the countries of the western region became more and more close, and walnuts, sesame seeds, wheat, etc. produced in the western region gradually flowed into the mainland, providing an important raw material foundation for making mooncakes. At that time, people were good at making a walnut-filled hu cake, which was not only delicious and delicious, but also durable and resistant to hunger and conducive to preservation, so it was widely welcomed by the people.
After this, with the progress of civilization, the people of the Later Tang Dynasty, Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty began to gradually improve the Hu Cake of the Han Dynasty and define it as an essential food during the Mid-Autumn Festival, which led to the moon cake that we know today.
In general, there are many types of moon cakes, and the essential factors of their complex patterns are nothing more than three, namely different flours, different patterns, and different fillings, the most important of which is the selection of fillings in the mooncakes. Today's mooncakes have many flavors, such as five kernel fillings, bean paste fillings, date paste fillings, Su seed fillings, egg yolk fillings, etc., but is there any filling in the Astana mooncakes? If it does have a filling, what kind of filling will it be?
In order to uncover the mystery of the Astana mooncake filling, archaeologists deliberately X-rayed it, and found that the mooncake not only contained the filling, but also occupied a large space in the mooncake, so it seems that it is really an ancient mooncake.
After arriving at this conclusion, the experts seemed very excited, but they immediately made a mistake because the X-ray machine could not detect the composition of the filling in the Astana mooncake. At this point, some readers will mention, how difficult is this? As long as the mooncake is broken open and then tested, it can be easily done!
In fact, the problem is not so simple, because the Astana mooncake is a cultural relic, and it is the only mooncake food cultural relic in the archaeological field, according to the regulations on the protection of cultural relics, when testing cultural relics, it is necessary to ensure that they are not destroyed under the premise of implementing various testing methods. If the Astana mooncake is broken open for testing, it not only violates the regulations on the protection of cultural relics, but also greatly irresponsible for the excavated cultural relics and causes irreparable losses. It is precisely because of this that archaeologists say that from the perspective of modern archaeological technology, there are no conditions for directly detecting the composition of the mooncake filling, so the Astana mooncake filling may become a mystery for eternity.
However, Xiaobian has always believed that with the gradual improvement of the level of science and technology, the mystery of Astana mooncake filling will definitely be completely unveiled, when people can see the glory of ancient mooncakes, relive the prosperous old dreams of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and understand the food style of two thousand years ago.
Wen xiucai, editor-in-chief of Wenlan Hairun Studio, written by: Special history writer: Changshan Zhao Zi worm