The ancient Chinese attached great importance to the affairs behind them. If possible, they usually build a luxurious mausoleum for themselves, which will also contain a lot of precious burial items. Often, the higher the status of the person, the richer and more precious the burial goods. Today's experts in archaeological activities, often find some luxurious tombs, the identity of the owner of the tomb is bound to be extraordinary. Just in the face of such a tomb, often the coffin in it will not be opened casually. Why?
There is a story that in 2008, a new style of building was being built near Longquan Temple in Shanxi Province. On the fourth day of the first month of April, the construction machine accidentally opened the underground palace of an ancient tomb. A period of time that had been sealed for a long time was also opened.
Soon, experts from the archaeological department arrived to carry out rescue excavations. According to their judgment of the geographical environment and the human environment, experts feel that this is a pagoda relic, which should be from the Tang Ruizong period, and it should be thousands of years old from now. There are many such stupa-style tombs, most of which were set up by other monks for sacrifice after the death of the senior monks. Generally speaking, in such tombs, there are not many precious metal funerary products, but there will be many other valuable cultural relics.
But as excavations continued and the entrance to the cemetery continued, a faint shadow startled the experts. Could it be that the coffin of the monk was found so quickly? Everyone continued to excavate, and as a result, a stone rafter that was not too large was found in the tomb; when the stone rafter was opened, a wooden rafter was found; the wooden rafter was opened, and there was a copper rafter; the copper rafter was opened, and inside was a silver rafter; and when the silver rafter was opened, a pure gold coffin with a length of 14 centimeters, a height of 9.5 centimeters, and a width of 7.4 centimeters appeared inside! Although it has been thousands of years of history, the surface of the coffin is still as smooth as new!
Then a problem arises: such a small coffin is obviously unable to hold human corpses. So what's in it? Experts recalled the archaeological excavations of Famen Temple in the last century, and it was also within a heavily protected treasure letter that the precious relics of the Buddha finger were found. Today's golden coffin is preserved in the same way as the Treasure Letter of Famen Temple, is there also a shocking treasure inside?
Just as the experts were excited, an unexpected situation occurred: a red ribbon on the golden coffin was rapidly degrading at a speed visible to the naked eye. When the silver rafter was first opened, the color of the ribbon was still vivid; after less than half a minute, the ribbon slowly turned black, and finally with the breeze, it turned into a pile of fragments!
This scene is nothing in the eyes of ordinary people, but in the eyes of archaeologists, it seems very "frightening". The fact that this ribbon degraded and disappeared so easily only proves that the environment in the burial chamber is too far from the outside. Just the change brought about by a breath of fresh air is enough to cause devastating damage to cultural relics! Everyone can't help but think that when archaeologists excavated the Dingling Tomb of the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, due to improper protection, some murals and the emperor's dragon robes all became fragmented; the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shi Huang, after the hasty excavation, the colored livery on it fell off and became the gray and gray appearance it is today. Thinking of this, where does that golden coffin dare to open!
The experts discussed for a while and decided to seal the entrance to the tomb, hurry back to build the protective shield, and then continue the excavation. Later, the pure gold coffin was collected in the museum and has not been opened. At least until the cultural relics can be protected 100%, it is better to let him remain as it is.
The biggest difference between archaeology and tomb robbery, in addition to the official identity and the direction of cultural relics, is the original intention of excavation. Tomb robbery is for money, while archaeology is for protection. Archaeological teams will not easily excavate a tomb until they lack protection measures, even if they know the specific location of a tomb. After all, if the cultural relics are destroyed, it is equivalent to destroying a period of time, which is equivalent to deviating from the original meaning of archaeology. Since this is the case, it is better not to move, wait for the protection ability to be found later, and then excavate. This is a responsible attitude.