Chief reporter of Jimu News Rong Yu
Correspondent Snow
Photography by Jimu News reporter Wang Yongsheng
Over the course of more than 9,000 years of history, they have recorded the story of time for future generations. On March 15th, "Color like Heavenly Phase Instrument Transmission - Ancient Chinese Turquoise Culture Exhibition" was unveiled at the Panlong city ruins museum in Wuhan, where 165 pieces (sets) of turquoise cultural relics from archaeological sites such as Jiahu Ruins, Erlitou Ruins, Jinsha Ruins, Yin Ruins, ZengHou Yi Tomb, Liangzhuang Wang Tomb and so on waited for the audience to witness the development of the diversity and integration of Chinese civilization through these ancient turquoise tools.
Ingenious "baby" is so beautiful
Turquoise is one of the earliest jade varieties developed and utilized by humans, in China, it is called the four famous jades of ancient times together with Hetian jade, Xiuyan jade and Dushan jade, and has a history of more than 9,000 years of use.
Approaching the Panlong City Temporary Exhibition Hall, the first thing that catches the eye is the huge turquoise cultural relics combination poster on the entrance exhibition mark, which is beautiful and the weather is endless. Among the combination posters, the most prominent beauty of turquoise colors is the inlaid turquoise bronze plaque ornament from the Henan Erlitou Site Museum, which occupies the center of the exhibition poster and is also the star exhibit of this exhibition.
Bronze plaque inlaid with turquoise
In the exhibition hall, the Jimu news reporter saw that many visitors stopped in front of the turquoise bronze plaque display cabinet and listened to the narrator introduce the historical story of this cultural relic.
Looking closely at this bronze plaque ornament, the body is framed in bronze, with symmetrical ring buttons on both sides, and hundreds of pieces of turquoise are inlaid with animal face patterns on the bronze frame. Turquoise inserts are exquisitely processed, and after thousands of years, they are still meticulous and unspluttered, which shows the superb inlay technique.
According to reports, this artifact is one of the most characteristic heavy tools of Erlitou culture, "its discovery has advanced the production time of the mature mosaic craft on the mainland by one or two thousand years from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period." ”
Turquoise gold-plated trim
The turquoise gold-encrusted ornaments on display adjacent to the bronze plaque ornaments inlaid turquoise are old friends of Hubei wenbo enthusiasts, and it is one of the "treasures of the town hall" of the Panlong City Ruins Museum, and it is also the first gold and jade inlaid jewelry found at the Panlong City ruins.
Wan Lin, president of the Panlong City Ruins Museum, said in an interview with Jimu News reporter that this turquoise gold-inlaid ornament is the earliest molded gold and jade inlaid ornament that appeared in the Central Plains cultural system, which is of great significance for the study of early gold and jade inlay processes in the mainland.
Turquoise horse-shaped gold details
Jewel-encrusted gilt-clad silver lacquer box
Some of the fine gold jewellery on display
The gold-handled cockroach pattern is inlaid with turquoise iron swords
The gold-handled cockroach pattern inlaid turquoise iron sword from the Baoji Archaeological Research Institute in Shaanxi Is the pinnacle of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty's gold casting process, also known as the "Star of the Qin Sword"; the inlaid jade piece lacquer wood ware from the Jinsha Site Museum in Chengdu is the earliest lacquerware found in Chengdu that uses the inlay process; the gem-gilded silver lacquer box from the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, with jade, turquoise, crystal and silver pieces on the utensils, the exquisite shape and the complexity of the craftsmanship are admired by posterity.
Toad-shaped gold ring
Gold ornaments inlaid with turquoise ponies, gold rings "lying" with a toad, gold ornaments depicting the animals of sheep and bears at the same time, chicken bone vessels with eyes decorated with turquoise... These turquoise cultural relics with cute elements are favored by the audience in the exhibition hall, and the ingenious inlaid turquoise standing phoenix gold head ornaments, 60 grams of inlaid ink jade turquoise gold earrings and other "pearlescent treasure" cultural relics, firmly attracted the attention of female visitors.
Gold-encrusted jade skeleton cloud dragon jade top hat
165 pieces (sets) of turquoise cultural relics, carrying the ancestors' diligent pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty, they use beautiful colors and divine craftsmanship to lead visitors to follow the development of ancient turquoise culture, travel through time and space, and witness history.
Beware of missing out on star exhibits
According to the exhibition curators, this exhibition is the first ancient Chinese turquoise culture exhibition in mainland China, and more than 100 pieces of turquoise cultural relics and treasures with ancient and modern reputations gathered in Panlong City, which is unprecedented in the industry. According to reports, China is one of the earliest countries in the world to use turquoise, but also the world's most important turquoise production area, "turquoise in China has a long history, Hubei turquoise is the main representative of China's turquoise, we did the Yangtze River Basin bronze fine exhibition, we began to plan this turquoise exhibition, showing the mainland's long and splendid turquoise culture." ”
Inlaid jade piece lacquered woodware
Copper dagger
Turquoise copper beans
Yue Wang Lu Yin copper sword
The reporter saw at the scene that there were as many as 38 exhibitors in the turquoise cultural exhibition, covering 14 provinces, cities and regions across the country, including the Panlong city ruins museum, hubei provincial museum, Wuhan museum, Suizhou city museum, Zhongxiang city museum, Puchun county museum and other Hubei cultural and museum units, as well as the institute of archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the liaoning provincial institute of cultural relics and archaeology, the henan provincial cultural relics and archaeology research institute, the Chengdu Jinsha site museum, the Liangzhu museum and other prestigious "foreign visitors". The cultural relics on display have gone through different historical periods such as the Neolithic Age, Xia and Shang, The Two Zhou Dynasties, qin and Han Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties, Song Ming, etc., and witnessed the magnificent development of Chinese civilization in the long history of 9,000 years.
According to Dean Wan Lin, turquoise archaeology research is a worldwide academic issue, and its most brilliant and oldest achievements originate from China. "In the process of long-term research, we found that turquoise has a special performance in the development process of the entire Chinese civilization, from the Yellow River Basin to the Yangtze River Basin, the development context of turquoise culture reproduces the long-term cultural origin of Chinese civilization, as well as the cultural exchanges and collisions between various ethnic groups."
March 15 is the first day of the opening of the exhibition, and Wanlin received a number of calls from the directors of foreign museums on the same day, all of whom expressed their hope to introduce this exhibition, "We have seen that this exhibition has aroused great concern in the museum and archaeological circles, and it also shows that the cultural development of turquoise has a very rich cultural heritage in the Yangtze River Basin and the Yellow River Basin." ”
Foreign curators have come to "grab" the exhibition, how can you miss this big exhibition at your doorstep. It is reported that the exhibition was fully opened on March 15 at the adjacent exhibition hall of the Panlong City Ruins Museum, and is scheduled to be extended until May 21, 2022. However, some of the star exhibits such as turquoise bronze plaque ornaments, which were originally important cultural relics of "not leaving the museum, not going out of the province, not going abroad", will be sent back to the Henan Erlitou Site Museum after about a month of exhibition in Han, and at the same time, the exhibition will continue to add new exhibits, so that visitors who love turquoise often look at Changxin.
Warm tips: Panlong City Ruins Museum fully implements reservation, staggered peaks, and limited flow visits. Visitors can reserve tickets in advance on platforms such as the WeChat public account of the Panlong City Ruins Museum. When entering the tour, you must show the reservation code, your real-time "health code" and the itinerary code, and only those who show green and have no abnormal body temperature can enter the park.