Archaeologists not only clearly grasped the structure of the tomb by nuclear magnetic scanning of the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, but also found that a large number of buildings were buried in the underground palace.
Recently, the staff is carrying out a trial excavation of the funerary pit number K9801, an area of more than 13,000 square meters, and according to the excavated items, relevant experts speculate that it is an "armament depot".
This funerary pit is the largest funerary pit found within the cemetery city wall at present, with a rectangular shape, 130 meters long from east to west, 100 meters wide from north to south, and a total of four slope doorways, about 200 meters from the sealing soil. During the initial excavations, a large number of armor was unearthed in the pit, which was stony and stacked layer by layer in the pit.
After counting, there are a total of 87 pieces of stone armor and 43 stone gizzards. These stone armor is well-made, according to the preliminary identification of experts, it is believed to be a combination of the jade processing technology of the time, from the opening of the stone, to the meticulous polishing of the nail piece, to the later drilling, polishing, weaving, each step consumes a lot of painstaking efforts of the craftsmen.
Archaeologists did an experiment, calculated according to the 8 hours of work per day, a skilled craftsman to process a 600 piece of armor takes more than three hundred days, nearly a year. After preliminary estimates, there are at least a thousand pieces of stone armor in the mausoleum, and as many as five or six million pieces of armor. That is to say, the stone armor in this one funerary pit alone can make it difficult for many imperial tombs in later generations to look back, and the scale of the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum can be seen.
Although the stone armor excavated from the funerary pit is a burial object, it also restores the armor at that time to a certain extent. Each piece of armor is a chest armor, a back armor to protect the back, and a cloak of armor to protect the shoulders.
Among them, the relatively special is the design of the skirt armor, the skirt armor is used in small nail pieces, the gap is relatively large, these changes make the skirt armor more flexible, easy to march, which also really considers the battlefield situation.
The warriors of the Qin Dynasty were unparalleled in the world, in addition to their brave temperament, excellent armor was also an important reason.
The stone helmet is 30 cm long, which is not only of practical value, but also quite beautiful. Helmets draped over the shoulders not only effectively defend the head, but also take into account the protection of the shoulders. These armor and helmets fully demonstrate the superb military production technology of the Qin Dynasty. In addition, these armors were neatly stacked when unearthed, reflecting the strict military discipline of the Qin Dynasty army.
In the Yin Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn Warring States periods, the armor was mainly sewn with leather, although it was light, but the defensive power was naturally discounted, and it was not easy to block the chopping of weapons.
The armor unearthed this time is all made of bluestone as raw materials, of course, this can not be Qin's actual combat equipment, although China pays attention to "death as life", these are only for qin shi huang funeral "dark weapons". These armors are beautifully shaped and highly crafted, and the nail pieces are made into different shapes according to the different parts, although they are all a grinding process, but there are square, rectangular, round, trapezoidal, arc and so on.
In addition, there are small holes above the nail plates, through which the nail plates are worn together with flat copper wire, and the edges of these nail plates have edges and corners to make the nail pieces more close to each other.
The burial pit excavated this time not only shows us the majesty of the Great Qin army again, but also fills in many gaps in historical research. For example, fish scale armor, previously scholars believed that this kind of armor appeared in the Han Dynasty, and only senior officers were qualified to wear it. This time, there were many beautifully polished fish scales in the funeral pit, and experts believe that it has great research value.
So why haven't we excavated the tomb of Qin Shi Huang so far?
One of the main reasons for this is that the current technology of cultural relics protection is not yet up to standard. Because, the gap between the indoor climate and the natural environment is extremely large, the oxidation deformation is light, and there are fresh lotus pieces in the lacquerware unearthed from Mawangdui, which soon becomes ash when it comes into contact with the air... Yes, the ash is gone, so the opportunity to study the history of crop development passes...
Of course, the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin will also encounter the same problem, the terracotta warriors excavated in the past few years, just unearthed are still colorful, but in less than an hour, they turn gray, and similarly, these armors also face exactly the same problems, these are vivid examples.
Excavation means destruction, if these treasures can be better protected underground, then, let us first do not disturb their thousand years of slumber, due to air pollution Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum Terracotta Warriors is slowly weathering, these buried in the ground for more than 2200 years of old antiques began to live on the ground, has been facing the threat of oxidative water intrusion now appears symptoms of soil and water incompatibility, experts call for, if no measures are taken to protect, then, in 100 years the Terracotta Army will be more seriously corroded, These unearthed armor will also be destroyed.