Since Sanxingdui excavated again to make archaeology fire out of the circle, a large number of netizens who are keen on archaeology have emerged. By paying attention to relevant news reports, official museum accounts, archaeology bloggers, etc., some knowledge points can be expanded, but if you want to go further and buy professional archaeological books, many people have played a "retreat".
Today (14), the Red Star News reporter received a message from a netizen, "Sanxingdui is my favorite museum, through the docent to explain, I know some specific information about cultural relics, but when I want to buy related books, I found that these archaeology professional books are too expensive to buy." The book referred to by the netizen is the "Complete Record of Cultural Relics Unearthed in Sanxingdui (All Three Volumes)" published by Tiandi Publishing House, with a price of more than 3,000 yuan.
Through the search, the Red Star News reporter found that the price of archaeological books is uneven, such as suitable for children, the price is mostly around 100 yuan; while more professional books, the price is hundreds of yuan to tens of thousands of yuan, such as the Shanghai Calligraphy and Painting Publishing House published "National Library Of Library Collection Of Bronze Ware Full Shape Expansion Integration: All Eight Volumes", Zhongzhou Ancient Books Publishing House "Central Plains Culture Classic" (a total of six boxes of 55 volumes), the highest price is more than 20,000 yuan.
Why are the prices of such specialized books so high? The Red Star News reporter interviewed the relevant person of the Sichuan People's Publishing House, and the other party said that there are three reasons for the high price of archaeological professional books: first, there are many pictures, and the cost of picture manuscripts is not low; second, the typesetting is generally a color version, and the typesetting fee is much more expensive; the third is that the printing cost of the color version is much more expensive.
So, what do archaeologists think about this? Bu Gong, a famous archaeology expert, a research librarian of the Guangdong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and a visiting professor at Jinan University, told the Red Star News reporter, "The sales volume of archaeological professional books is actually not high, many of them are treasured by the library, and it is understandable that the price is high if printed less." At the same time, archaeological data is the wealth that many archaeologists have fought on the front line and worked hard to produce, which is a priceless treasure, "so how expensive it is not expensive." ”
Indeed, archaeologists' dedication to relevant books can be described as rigorous and arduous. Red Star News once reported that Professor Bai Bin of the School of Archaeology and Literature of Sichuan University served as the chief expert and led the team to complete the major bidding project of the National Social Science Fund "Investigation and Comprehensive Research on the Remains of the Grotto Temples of the Southwest Tang and Song Dynasties" under the title of "Professor Sichuan University Led the Team to Unveil the Mystery of Nearly 300 Grottoes in Southwest China", and was rated as "Excellent". The project lasted 10 years, completed the investigation and recording of 295 grotto sites in the southwest region, with about 3.5 million words of survey text, nearly 70,000 photos taken, and about 1,200 line maps. The final research results totaled 8 works with a total of 1.9 million words. Fieldwork is like this, and it is even more difficult to organize into a book.
After understanding the situation, do you still think that archaeology books are expensive?
Red Star News reporter Zeng Qi
Edited by Li Jie
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