01, the "secret" of the rainstorm
In September 1981, it rained heavily in Baoji City, Shaanxi Province, but a villager in Paper Fangtou Village learned a frightening "earth-shattering secret" because of this heavy rain!
It turned out that their family's cave was actually built at the bottom of an ancient tomb of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and the family had been living "under the grave"...
In September of that year, it rained heavily for several days and nights in Baoji City, and a villager's family in Baoji Xiguan Paper Fangtou Village had a big incident - the cave was washed away by heavy rain!
The family had not yet eased up, but they found an incredible scene: there were several bronze objects on the collapsed cave wall!
In the past, I always heard that the villagers worked in the field to dig up bronzes, but this time, how can bronzes appear on the walls? This treasure chicken is indeed a "treasure land"...
Wait until the professionals come to the scene, after some cleanup, this is the answer!
It turned out that the cave of this family was built under the tomb of an ancient tomb, and the ancient tomb was not an ordinary tomb, but an ancient tomb of the Western Zhou Dynasty, which was almost three thousand years old!
You say crazy people don't? The family can't help but get goosebumps when they think about it! The family had been living under a grave...
02. Western Zhou Ancient Tombs
At this time, the elderly in the villagers also recalled a detail: the cave was dug in 1926, when 4 bronzes and a number of large and small jade objects were dug out of the soil.
However, no one thought much about it in that era, only when it was lucky to dig up the treasure, it was sold to the merchant who bought antiques...
At this remark, the archaeologists at the scene sighed! However, this has been fifty or sixty years, and it is useless to investigate, so let's clean up this tomb first.
The tomb, in fact, has been so badly damaged that experts speculate that it may have been stolen decades ago.
This is a vertical pit tomb, about 5 meters from the surface. The coffin and human bones at the bottom of the burial chamber have disappeared, and not even a speck of bone slag can be found...
However, even if it was stolen and accidentally excavated by villagers, the tomb still has more than thirty artifacts left, and it is judged that the tomb date is the distant early Western Zhou Dynasty, that is, the era of King Wu of Zhou or King Cheng of Zhou!
Among the excavated bronzes, there are large ceremonial vessels such as bronze grates and bronze dings, several of which are decorated with dragon patterns, which are very exquisitely made.
Being able to bury such a bronze ceremonial vessel can only show that the social status of the owner of the tomb at that time was very high!
03, milk nail pattern four ear seal
Today we will focus on one of these pieces, the "milk nail pattern four-eared grate".
Gui is a vessel used by the ancients to hold food. The bronze grate gradually evolved into an indispensable ceremonial vessel for the burial of nobles with status.
Of course, in the archaeological excavations of these years, there are still many bronze guises unearthed, and the bronze guises of the Western Zhou Dynasty are not uncommon.
However, the bronze grate excavated from this cave tomb is unique because of the "milk nail pattern" on its body!
Baoji paper mill head unearthed milk nail pattern four-eared bronze gui
Because in the 1980s, there were only two pieces of this four-eared bronze guise in the shape of a milk nail pattern in the world!
One piece was unearthed in the cave tomb of Paper Fangtou Village at that time, while the other piece had been lost overseas across the ocean, sold to the Americans during the Republic of China, and is now in the collection of the Friar Art Museum!
Collection of the Freer Museum of Fine Arts, USA
It was not until 2013, when Baoji's Shigu Shanxi Zhou Cemetery was discovered, that the third "milk nail pattern four-eared bronze gui" was discovered.
Baoji Shigu Mountain unearthed milk nail pattern four-eared bronze gui
It is conceivable that the archaeologists of that year were ecstatic when they saw such a rare treasure bronze...
04. Who is the owner of the tomb?
So, in what capacity could the owner of this tomb have such exquisite artifacts?
For this problem, it is actually quite tricky! The bones of the owner of the tomb had long since disappeared, and not even a single tooth had been left.
In this way, no matter who the owner of the tomb is, even if he is a man or a woman, it has almost become a "suspense case".
Of course, some people will say to see if there is an inscription on the bronze, many Shang Zhou tombs, the inscription on the bronze will also have important clues, can solve the mystery of the tomb owner.
Indeed, there are several pieces on these bronzes that are cast with inscriptions. However, these inscriptions are like a puzzle that makes experts wonder...
In these inscriptions, two unfamiliar names are mentioned: "Yubo" and "Yabo".
Archaeologists believe that these two people should be the monarchs of the two princely states "Fish State" and "Ya State" in the Western Zhou Dynasty.
At the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty, the King of Zhou divided more than 800 princely states under the world, including powerful princely states with the surname Ji such as the State of Jin and the State of Yu, and there were also small states with weak strength that were not even recorded in the history books...
"Fish Country" and "Ya Country" should belong to the latter.
However, no matter how big or small the country is, it is always a princely state. Therefore, the inscriptions of the two monarchs of the princely states appear in the tomb of the Western Zhou Dynasty in the paper fangtou village, which also shows that the identity of the owner of the tomb is not ordinary!
However, is the owner of the tomb the king of the fish country or the king of the Ya country? One man cannot be the king of two kings!
In recent years, some researchers have published some research results, and their inferences have suddenly turned the identity of the owner of this tomb into a big bay, which makes people a little unexpected!
Some experts believe that the owner of the tomb is neither the monarch of the fish country, nor the monarch of the Ya country, nor even a man!
From the fact that there are no weapons and burial items in the tomb and other details of the study, experts believe that the owner of the mysterious tomb is probably a princess who married from Yakoku to Yuguo!
That is to say, the owner of the tomb who owns this rare object, the "Milk Nail Pattern Four-Eared Bronze Gui", is a concubine of Yu Bo...