The major museums in the country have their own treasures of the town hall, full of dazzling and exquisite products. This column will show you the story behind the cultural relics and uncover the unsolved mysteries.
The body of the crystal cup conducts light throughout, the whole body is slightly amber, and there is a flocculent package at the bottom and middle, which is integrated.
The whole crystal cup is 15.4cm high, 7.8cm caliber, and 5.4cm bottom diameter, which is strikingly similar to the glass used by modern people.
The story of this crystal cup dates back to the day in 1990.
On this day, at the Workers' and Peasants' Brick and Tile Factory in Shitang Village, Banshan Town, Hangzhou City, several workers found some ceramic chimes while taking soil.
They didn't make a fuss, they just secretly hid things and sold the artifacts to antique dealers the next day.
Unexpectedly, nearby villagers discovered the situation and called the police.
Therefore, the police found the workers who sold cultural relics, and then went to the antique dealer, and finally recovered most of the cultural relics sold.
Are there more precious artifacts underground?
This matter attracted the attention of the relevant departments, and they decided to carry out rescue excavations.
Because the brick and tile factory took soil, the local hillside has been basically razed to the ground, leaving only a few old houses for stir-frying spring tea. On this trip, people didn't find anything.
It was not until the end of October, when the archaeological team was stationed here again, that people discovered the famous Warring States Tomb No. 1 today.
When digging to a depth of more than 1 meter, the archaeological team found that some parts appeared black ash dust - this is a moisture-proof function of charcoal, in ancient times the tomb of the rich and noble people will be laid.
Not surprisingly, during the excavation process, our protagonist of this issue, the Crystal Cup, appeared on the scene.
The soil outside the tomb has long been pressed tightly by tractors, and there is no trace of theft inside the tomb, so this cup must not be a prank put into the tomb by modern people.
Subsequently, the crystal cup was transported to Beijing for identification, which was affirmed by Su Bingqi, a giant in Chinese archaeology: "Baby, national treasure." ”
Such a "treasure" turned out to be a natural crystal cup from the Warring States period 2500 years ago.
Crystal cup open, flat lip, oblique straight wall, round bottom, circle foot skimming, light-free texture, simple shape.
The Warring States Crystal Cup excavated in 1990 in Shitang, Mid-Levels, Hangzhou, is the largest vessel shape among the early crystal products unearthed in China so far, and was listed by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage on January 18, 2002 in the "Catalogue of the First Batch of Cultural Relics Prohibited from Going Abroad (Border)".
In the Warring States period, which blindly pursued the ultimate, such simple artifacts were rare.
Perhaps, by then, the craftsmen had acquired a simple pragmatist mindset, abandoning prosperity and focusing on practical results.
From another aspect, there are both complicated and cumbersome design concepts and simple and unpretentious practical styles, which is the concrete embodiment of the hundred flowers blooming in the Warring States period.
It is said to be a rare treasure because it is polished by a single piece of crystal and carefully polished.
However, crystal is geologically quartz, has a high hardness (7 degrees on the Mohs scale), and is not only laborious to polish, but also extremely easy to break.
Such a large shape to be polished into a smooth arc, will inevitably increase the difficulty of production, we can imagine, the craftsman at work, should be how careful, in order to complete the task, but also not destroy such a large piece of complete high-quality crystal.
It is often said that without diamonds, porcelain work cannot be obtained. Archaeologists have always wondered about its craftsmanship, even if it is handmade, there should be a tool that can polish the crystal without breaking it.
Later, archaeologists found a large number of jade products of the same period, with clean lines, sharp edges sharpened as blades, and smooth as balls. Therefore, people speculate that the crystal is processed by polishing jade.
Due to the change in the material of the key tool of jade processing, the level of jade milling has been greatly improved, although crystal is a variety with higher hardness in jade, but it is still feasible to use emery intermediate media to process it.
To create the Warring States crystal cup, people mainly use the curved surface polishing process and polishing process, which is not too difficult for the Warring States period when jade processing technology has entered its heyday.
But because the inner wall of the crystal cup is wide and narrow, it is difficult for people to reach in and polish the interior, so how did the ancient people polish the inner wall and bottom so smoothly? It became a suspense.
Relevant experts have deduced that the crystal cup may have been made using the same "tube drill" method as jade making, or it may have been made of emery.
But these are just speculations, and it is impossible to determine which method the crystal cup uses.
Not only is the processing technique of the crystal cup a mystery, but it is still unknown where such a high-purity crystal came from.
Hangzhou Museum is a comprehensive museum of humanities that reflects the historical changes of Hangzhou, located in Wushan, West Lake Scenic Area, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, adjacent to Wushan Square and Hefang Street Historical and Cultural Block, the venue was formerly known as Hangzhou History Museum.
Producer | First of all, Hongming
Edit | Yu Xin
Some of the image material is organized from the Internet
If there is any infringement, please contact us in time to delete
-END-