The world is so big that in 1964, a group of farmers in Yunnan inadvertently dug up a "golden house" of more than 5,000 kilograms. When archaeologists saw the behemoth's golden house, they couldn't believe their eyes. So, what is the uniqueness of this 5,000-pound "golden house" unearthed in Yunnan, what is its value, and who is its owner? Today, let's take a look.
Unexpected discovery
The earliest thing dates back to 1963, when Li Wanyin, a mason in Dabona Village, Liuchang Town, Xiangyun County, Yunnan Province, was participating in collective labor at a quarry near the village, and found that there was something under the southeast slope of the quarry at that time. In 1964, when the farmer was idle, Li Wanyin could not contain the curiosity in his heart, so he told the other four people in the same village about what he had found, and the 5 people combined to decide to excavate.
At the time, they didn't know what was inside. Because of the large-scale destruction of the surrounding mountains and soil layers during the construction of the quarry, they dug for a while and found a piece of black wood. It happened that one of the 5 people was a carpenter, and at a glance he recognized it as ebony, which was a good thing, and everyone was very excited and continued to dig hard. Later, they found that the ebony was not only digging longer and longer, but also more than one, and the people were happy and broken, and they each shared one tree and became rich.
The 5 men continued to run down the ebony, found four square logs, pried open with a pickaxe, and found a pool of black sewage below, the puddle was cloudy, and there was nothing inside. They then fetched water outside, cleaned up the sewage from the pit, and found something similar to a roof, which was covered on the large pit. Li Wanyin, as the leader, was curious, so he opened the roof, there was still a lot of sewage in it, and he used a hoe to fish things into the copper pipe. The first thing he fished out was "two circles, like a bracelet." "He squeezed it with his hand and it shattered. Fish again, and fish out a large bone. They only realized that there was an ancient tomb at this time, and they felt a little unlucky.
Golden house
Bad luck is bad luck, but it has been dug, and you can't go home empty-handed. Therefore, as soon as the multitudes were summed up, they continued to work. They not only found copper drums, copper bells, scepters and other bronze tools, but also found that this coffin turned out to be a copper coffin, the copper coffin is composed of seven copper plates, they are tenon and tenon structure, very easy to disassemble, after being dismantled, they are pushed by a borrowed cart to the side of the ditch not far away to clean it. At that time, the copperware was sold to the supply and marketing cooperative for more than 1 yuan a catty, and the villagers saw 5 people digging out so many bronzes and thought they were going to get rich.
After the 5 people returned to the village with a full harvest, they temporarily left it at home, and they did not think about how to deal with so many bronzes. Just at this time, the village party branch received the news, on the one hand, it sent people to guard the scene, and was not allowed to go into the pit to look for it again, and confiscated what Li Wanyin and others dug up, sent militia to guard it, and on the other hand, reported the situation to the county. Soon after, archaeologists from Yunnan Province rushed to the scene. Next, the experts cleaned up the remaining wooden rafters and found numerous bronzes.
Subsequently, the experts restored the copper coffin, and a huge "golden house" was displayed in front of everyone's eyes, so that the experts present could not believe their eyes. After measurement, the copper coffin weighs 2571 kg, is 2 meters long, 0.62 meters wide, 0.64 meters high, and 1.2 centimeters thick, and the surface of the coffin wall is covered with echo patterns on both sides. The outer surface of the coffin lid is cast with eagle, swallow, tiger, leopard, pig, crane and other motifs. The lid of the coffin is two pieces of cover plates that combine the shape of a glyph, and the lid is in the shape of a roof ridge on the coffin. The bottom of the coffin has four ends with supporting horns that prop the coffin off the ground. The copper coffin was named the Great Bona Wooden Coffin because it was unearthed in the village of Dabonamu.
The grave of the large bona wooden coffin is rectangular shaft, and the huge square wooden stacked frame that has been carbonized is supported into a rafter chamber, and the gaps in the square wood stack are blocked with white mud, and the bottom of the wooden rafter is placed with charcoal, lime and other moisture-absorbing materials, so that the rafter chamber where the copper coffin is placed forms a sealed shape, which effectively prevents the oxidation of the copper coffin, so it can be preserved relatively intact for thousands of years.
Although the bronze coffin of the Great Bona wooden rafter is bronze, not made of gold, but the copper coffin weighing more than 5,000 pounds is also the first time to be found in China, and not only that exquisite, but also so well preserved, it is so rare, comparable to gold, it is not too much to call it a "golden house".
Identity of the owner of the tomb
If you can have such a luxurious wooden coffin, then who is its owner? In order to unveil the mystery of the owner of the tomb, archaeologists conducted carbon fourteen measurements on the wooden rafters, and concluded that the tomb dates from 2350 ± 75 years ago, which is roughly in the early and middle warring states. After death, he enjoyed the burial of a copper coffin, and accompanied by a copper drum and a scepter, these facts alone are enough to show that the tomb owner has the identity of the king, but due to the lack of a seal that directly proves the identity of the tomb owner, it can only be inferred that he was a king in the Warring States period.
As for which dynasty the king was, experts have been arguing endlessly. At that time, in the Yunnan region, there were two main ethnic groups, one was the ancient Dian kingdom, and the other was the kingdom established by the Kunming people. According to Sima Qian's historical records, the Dian people settled and lived, and the productive forces were developed, while the Kunming people were nomadic and did not have such superb bronze casting skills, so a large number of experts believed that the owner of the tomb was a Dian person. However, it is recorded in Sima Qian's historical records that this Xiangyun area belonged to the sphere of influence of the Kunming people at that time, so some experts believe that the owner of the tomb was a Kunming person. Subsequently, although 3 more archaeological excavations were carried out, no strong evidence has been found to determine the identity of the owner of the tomb, so it is still impossible to determine the identity of the owner of the tomb.
epilogue
Although the identity of the owner of the tomb has not yet been determined, it is necessary to acknowledge the wisdom and skills of the ancients. Today, the bronze coffin of the Great Bona wooden rafter is in the collection of the Yunnan Provincial Museum. If you have a chance, you can visit it.
As for Li Wanyin and 5 other people who found the copper coffin, due to the special environment at that time, they were neither arrested nor received 500 yuan and pennants. The excavators are still alive, and stone tablets have been erected where the copper coffin was found, and participants sometimes tell the story of the discovery of the copper coffin.