In the long history of human civilization, the Bronze Age has important representative significance.
The smelting and production of bronze ware represents the gradual separation of human beings from the primitive society using stone tools and the beginning of a great development of systematic social division of labor and production.
Since the advent of bronzes, the development of human agriculture and handicrafts has made unprecedented progress, and material life has been greatly improved.
As an ancient country with a 5,000-year-old civilization, China's bronze ware accompanied almost the entire infancy of the Chinese civilization, even earlier than the recorded five-thousand-year-old Chinese civilization.
According to the bronze knives excavated from Majiayao in Gansu, from the earliest Yangshao culture to the Xia Dynasty, this stage is the earliest bronze origin period in the mainland.
That is to say, China's bronze culture can be traced back to the Yangshao culture 6,000 years ago to the Xia Dynasty 4,000 years ago.
It was not until the Warring States period that Chinese bronzes gradually faded out of people's lives and were replaced by iron tools.
It can be seen that in the period of up to 3000-4000 years, bronze has always enjoyed a very high status in Chinese civilization.
Also during the Zhou Dynasty, it reached the peak of bronze making. At this time, the bronzes cast at this time are not only at the peak of their stylistic functions, but also the meaning of the bronzes themselves has different connotations.
Some bronzes gradually transformed into symbols of ruling power, representing the supremacy of kingship and divine power in sacrifice.
Many bronzes unearthed from the Zhou Dynasty not only have special shapes, but even many archaeologists have difficulty guessing their true use. It can only be restored to its original role based on the record of the bronze inscriptions.
Although some bronzes can know their role, but their shape is avant-garde, the world even has the illusion that these cultural relics are traveling back from modern times.
For example, the bronze cylindrical tiliang jie excavated in Lingtai County in 1967 is like a modern "warm water bottle". Inside the bronze cylindrical beam is a pot of fine wine that spans more than 2,000 years.
The time goes back to September 1967, in Baicaopo, Xitun Township, 30 kilometers northwest of Lingtai County, where members of two communes herd sheep. Suddenly, the clouds in the sky were dense, and suddenly it began to rain heavily.
The two commune members who were herding sheep wanted to drive the sheep back to the commune, but who expected that because the rain was too heavy, the sheep had no intention of going back. In desperation, the two members had to find a cave nearby to avoid the rain.
The bronze that the members of the brigade stumbled upon turned out to be a "warm water bottle"
Just as two members of the society were taking shelter in the cave with their flocks of sheep, a magical scene appeared. The sheep looked agitated after being taken into the cave, shaving the surrounding stones and dirt with their front hooves.
At that time, the two members of the society were very afraid, because according to the older generation, there were many ancient tombs in this area, and there were often some terrible things happening.
But just as the two members were trembling with fright, the sheep seemed to have planed something. Driven by curiosity, the two members carefully went to check on the matter.
After stepping forward, the two members of the society saw that the edges of some cyan bronzes were exposed in the place where the sheep had been planed.
Then the two men immediately continued to plan with their hands where they found the bronzes, and soon threw out several utensils like washbasins, cauldrons, and bowls.
Looking at the pile of pots and pans in front of them, the two were a little disappointed, originally the two thought it would be a treasure?
But what the two did not know was that these pots and pans would become priceless in the near future.
After the two returned to the commune, they told the other members about their experience on the mountain. Soon rumors of security in the cave spread throughout the commune.
The next day, all the members of the club lifted their hoes, shovels and other tools to the cave.
Although before they came, the two members of the society who found the cave had already told everyone that it was full of pots and pans, and there was no treasure.
But the curious members of the brigade decided to see it for themselves. But after some excavation, only some pots and pans of copperware were dug up, and each piece had been badly rusted.
Just as the members were preparing to turn back, a faint aroma of wine came from nowhere, and the people present immediately asked, "Who is there to secretly drink, take it out and drink it together?"
But the members of the club look at me, I look at you, and none of them admit that they drink.
Suddenly, a member of the company said, "Could it be that this bottle contains elixir wine?" and pointed his finger at a bronze vessel shaped like a "warm water bottle" as he said.
The members gathered around the bronze vessel, then picked it up and shook it a little, only to hear the clanging inside the copper bottle, so people always believed that the previous wine aroma wafted out of the bottle.
So we found tools such as pliers and shovels, and carefully pried the bottle open along the bottle mouth.
Immediately after the bottle was opened, the aroma was overflowing, and some people who were hungry for wine immediately encouraged to pour out the wine inside for everyone to taste. But after the crowd poured it out, they saw that it was some cloudy liquid, or green.
No one dared to try, knowing that one of the people in the crowd suddenly said: "This may not be wine, but embalming tribute, it may be highly poisonous."
After listening to this man's words, the people present hurriedly poured out all the liquid in the bowl and the liquid left in the copper bottle.
After a busy morning, just dug out a bunch of pots and pans and a warm water bottle-like utensils, and the villagers were very disappointed.
So they packed up the excavated bronze and some small copper pieces with sharp tips and sold them to the town's scrap recycling station.
The museum found traces of cultural relics and immediately organized rescue excavations
Not long after, the news of the discovery of the treasure by the Baicaopo Brigade of Lingtai Xitun Commune came out.
After the Gansu Provincial Museum learned of this, it sent someone to the waste collection station to check it out, and when the staff of the Gansu Provincial Museum came to the waste collection station, they were shocked to see it.
Each of these copper pots and pans seen by the museum's staff is a priceless bronze, and the so-called small copper blocks are all ancient bronze arrows.
So the staff member immediately reported to the unit leader and the Cultural Relics Bureau.
After receiving the report, the relevant departments immediately organized professional archaeologists to intercept the bronzes that had been sold to the recycling station, and carried out a rescue excavation of the cave on the white grass slope of The Lingtai Xitun Commune.
The members of the Baicaopo Brigade of the Lingtai Xitun Commune were frightened when they learned that the bronze artifacts might be cultural relics, so they reported the discovery to the archaeologists as they were.
After learning that the liquid in the "warm water bottle" at that time had been poured out, they were all dumbfounded.
After collecting soil from the place where the liquid was dumped, archaeologists rushed to conduct tests.
It was finally determined that what was dumped by the members of the brigade at that time was the wine from more than 3,000 years ago, and the green liquor seen by the members at that time was actually because the copper ions were dissolved in the liquor.
After a period of excavation, archaeologists have rescued about 1,800 bronzes from this cave, in addition to bronzes, there are many exquisite ceramics and jade, of which as many as 27 were later identified as belonging to national first-class cultural relics.
It includes a large number of cultural relics such as Ding, Gui, Zun, Jue, 卣, Dou, Pecking Hammer, Jade Figurine, Bronze Hollow SheathEd Short Sword, Human Head Shaped Brasser and so on.
Among the bronzes excavated, there are 24 artifacts with inscriptions. Anyone who knows anything about cultural relics knows that every word in bronze engraved with an inscription is precious.
The Longdong region in the Western Zhou Dynasty was the gateway to the northwest of Wang Qi and the forefront of the confrontation between the Zhou people and Zhu Rong.
The tomb masters of the Lingtai Baicaopo Western Zhou Tombs, Uncle And Bo, were the military nobles who were sealed in the early Zhou Dynasty and were responsible for guarding Wang Qi.
Baicaopo West Zhou Tomb Group is located in Baicaopo Village, Xitun Township, Lingtai County, has been excavated and cleaned up 9 Western Zhou tombs and 1 Chema pit, a total of more than 1800 pieces of various cultural relics have been excavated, divided into three categories of bronze, ceramics and jade, the number and type of bronze is the most abundant, and there are 27 national first-class cultural relics.
At that time, the bronze that was mistaken by the members of the company for a warm water bottle should be named: bronze barrel-shaped lifting beam.
It is a bronze wine vessel of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the appearance is mostly round and oval, with feet at the bottom and exquisitely carved patterns around it.
The mystery of the identity of the tomb owner
Archaeologists identified it as a group of tombs, according to the inscription on one of the bronze statues: "潶伯作宝僔彝".
It is speculated that the owner of his tomb was the earl of the Zhou King who was sealed in the place of "潶" after the Zhou Dynasty destroyed the Shang, that is, the name of the place or the name of the country, which was named after the proximity of Heishui.
The ancients had the habit of taking the fief as their surname, and their descendants should be surnamed Hei.
So why did the tomb of "Uncle Li" suddenly appear? Experts speculate that this may be related to geological movements.
According to historical records, the name of Lingtai County was derived from the celebration of the construction of the platform after the Zhou Wen King's cutting of the Mishu Kingdom.
At that time, King Wen of Zhou, in order to celebrate the victory of the Mishu Kingdom without a fight, established the Lingtai Sacrifice Heaven in the capital of the Mishu Kingdom, and engraved the message of sacrifice on the turtle shell.
And this heavenly spiritual platform is located in the courtyard of the cultural center of the present-day Lingtai County.
In the first year of the Sui Dynasty, that is, in 605 AD, there is still the story of King Wen Cutting Mishu and establishing Lingtai, and the use of Lingtai as the name of the county also began at this time.
After further excavation, not far from the tomb of Bo Bo, experts found another tomb, which was named Bo Tomb, and finally experts further expanded the tomb according to the number of bronzes unearthed and named it "Baicaopo Site".
According to experts, the "Baicaopo Site", which was originally supposed to be large in scale, was eventually destroyed by the collapse of the mountain ravine in the western part of the mountain, and the tomb was exposed in the process of mountain movement.
The tomb is only 17 meters apart, and there is a huge carriage and horse pit between the two tombs.
Some experts speculate that the tomb owner of the tomb and the tomb of The Uncle should be the same as the Owner. From the bronze funerary items excavated from it, it can be seen that its prominent position at that time was evident.
Among them, there are more than 300 pieces of bronze artifacts excavated, which can be called the "Bronze Kingdom".
Bronze artifacts excavated from the tomb of The Uncle and the Tomb of the Uncle
A pair of Fang Dings have been excavated from the tomb of Bo Bo and Bo, and their shape, specifications, ornaments, and inscriptions are very close.
Ding was a symbol of royal power during the Zhou Dynasty, and the two pairs of bronze Ding excavated from the tomb of Bo Bo and the tomb of Bo provide an important reference for people to understand the division of royal power during the Zhou Dynasty.
Because the unearthed pair of dings is decorated with pairs of phoenixes on its abdomen, and a beast head protrudes from the upper part between its pairs of phoenixes.
Under the head of the beast is a simplified small animal face pattern, the phoenix bird rounds, the tail of the phoenix is high and upturned, and the claws of the phoenix are exaggerated and deformed. So experts named it "Phoenix Pattern Fangding".
In addition to the bronze cylindrical tiliang and the phoenix-patterned fangding, a knight engraved with the word "Bozuo" and a tiger cymbal have also been excavated in the tombs of Bobo and Bo.
As a weapon peculiar to the Bronze Age, the cymbal is usually composed of a beryllium head and a long handle. The beryllium head is sharply sharply sharp, flattened, and has a strong penetrating force, and its roots can be traced back to the flat-stemmed short sword of earlier times.
In the Zhou Dynasty, with the advent of swords and weapons such as ge, axes and hammers gradually became a symbol of honor, decoration and military power.
The tiger head unearthed from the tomb of The Emperor is a forked tiger at one end and a sharp cymbal on the other. It is very likely to symbolize the meaning of the divine beast guarding the territory.
Among the excavated jade artifacts, there is also a cultural relic of great significance, that is, a jade figure with a height of 7.9 centimeters, standing statue but no feet, with a crown on the top of its head, a high forehead, and a large nose.
Such a character shape makes experts speculate that it was made in imitation of the Rong people in the western part of the Zhou Dynasty at that time.
According to historical records, in the 275 years or so from the beginning of the Destruction of the Shang Dynasty by King Wu of Zhou in the 11th century BC to the end of Western Zhou in 771 BC, the Huaxia people completed the continuous integration of various tribes in the territory with the surrounding tribes.
However, there has not been enough evidence for such a record, and this jade figure that appeared in the tomb of The Emperor May be the evidence of this historical case.
epilogue
Perhaps the members of the Baicaopo Brigade of The Lingtai Xitun Commune at that time never dreamed that the artifacts they identified as broken copper and iron actually implied so much cultural history, and at the same time they were priceless treasures.
If it were not for the timely discovery of the museum staff, this batch of cultural relics would have been a great loss to the mainland, whether they were destroyed as waste products or exiled abroad.
In Yu Qiuyu's prose, there is a classic work called "Taoist Pagoda", which tells the story of Wang Yuanzhen's destruction of the cultural relics of the Mogao Grottoes to warn the world.
It should be known that there are many cultural relics of great historical significance in the mainland that have not been excavated, so people must report in time when they find some artifacts that may be historical relics and pay attention to protection.
We must not vainly destroy ourselves, destroy precious historical materials, and still less must we attempt to take possession of our own. Because each of these artifacts is like the blood of our Chinese descendants, carrying the civilization of the previous year.