The expert opens the Emperor's Mausoleum
10 tons of copper coins, 115 kilograms of gold, amber containing insects, a staggering amount of jewelry and a pot of lard.
When the experts opened the tombs of the Emperors of the Han Dynasty, they were shocked by these discoveries.
The emperor sleeping in the coffin is surrounded by glazed jade mats and gold, surrounded by jade agate, and he also has the legendary Nine Tricks Jade Plug, including a jade plug.
So, which Han Dynasty emperor is this?
What other rare treasures have been unearthed?
Emperor of 27 days
There is a place called Dundun Mountain in Guanxi Village, Datangping Township, Nanchang, Jiangxi.
Not only does this place sound special, but there is also a local legend that there is an emperor buried under the mountain, or not an emperor, but a very wealthy prince.
The local villagers were just listening, but were overheard by a group of tomb robbers who conducted several investigations into the cemetery before sneaking into the cemetery on the night of December 2011.
Through this theft, they have made a major discovery that is about to cause a sensation in the archaeological community at home and abroad.
The tomb robbers rolled away, leaving behind the caves found by local villagers, and archaeologists soon heard about them.
They crouched at the mouth of the dark cave and smelled a strange fragrance. They looked curiously, hoping to find something in the scent... In ancient China, people were very particular about fragrance, believing that it was one of the important indicators for judging the level of a person's identity. So, how did the ancients know about smell? Most tombs in the Han Dynasty are characterized by the more fragrant the smell, the higher the level of the tomb.
Another expert dared to climb down and tie a rope to his waist to investigate the hole. This time, when he climbed up to an ancient tomb, he found that there was a female corpse hidden inside! Experts immediately called nearby residents to investigate. Soon, they found the man and brought him back to the museum. What's going on? As soon as he went, he saw the five-story coffin and immediately realized that this ancient tomb was very unusual.
As experts predicted, when the archaeological team excavated the tombs, they unearthed tens of thousands of precious artifacts, and the variety was staggering.
The tomb covers a large area, was excavated in 2011, and was finally completed in March 2019.
During the excavation, the archaeological team found some robbery holes of different ages, but the owner of the tomb misjudged the location of the burial chamber and left the burial chamber buried with his wife stolen.
But the tomb of the real tomb owner was destroyed by an earthquake during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, so the lake dou invaded the south and injected a lot of water, and the ancient tomb robbers could not rob the grave underwater, so they washed away, leaving a complete grave.
The identity of the owner of the tomb is even more special, and I did not expect these two local myths to be true. The owner of the mausoleum began as a prince and was eventually buried as a duke, but he was also an emperor, although the time was short, only 27 days.
This special status of the emperor of the Han Dynasty was Liu He, the deposed emperor of the Han Dynasty, and his status was also relatively high, that is, "Marquis of Haixia".
Emperor Liu He of Han Zhao, the fifth son of Emperor Liu Che of Han Zhao, was originally a prince of his own fiefdom, but since emperor Han Zhao had no heir after his death, he was sent to the palace by the chancellor Huo Guang, and Huo went crazy and became the shortest emperor in the history of the Western Han Dynasty.
According to the Book of Han, Liu He reigned for only 27 days, absurd, and in fact made more than 1,100 mistakes at a time, an average of 40 times a day, which is enough to see how "outstanding Work" Liu He is.
What treasures were unearthed in the tomb of such a special person?
"Counting my hand cramps."
Before opening Liu He's coffin, archaeologists first opened something that looked like a money storehouse and saw only a mountain of money.
In order to count the coins in the vault, the archaeological team assigned a team that did nothing but count the coins every day. When the team members sort out the coins, they will put the coins together in different categories for inventory, and then arrange them one by one in order. This way, you can see different kinds of coins arranged neatly every time. Still, Rao said, the team spent six months counting coins and experiencing the excitement of "counting and spasms in my hands." ”
There were more than two million coins in the pile, and the last one weighed more than ten tons.
The team also found gold of various shapes in the tomb, some in the shape of horseshoes and some in the shape of yellow-brown toes, of which 285 gold cakes had slight indentations in the middle and weighed a total of 115 kilograms.
The size of horseshoe gold is mainly divided into two types, and the words "upper, middle and lower" are also engraved on the large horseshoe gold. These horseshoe gold were precious treasures used by ancient emperors to show off their power and status. According to historical records: before the Han Dynasty, there was a custom on the mainland to use horseshoe gold as a gift to send children to the emperor. And now there's more. From the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the high-ranking nobles of the first rank of the prince contributed gold to the central work, and as a ancestor worship, the gold used was made into the shape of horseshoe and lin toe.
Offering gold may seem like a loss, but governors across the country are willing to do so because it's also a way to maintain their status.
Liu He, the grandson of Emperor Wu of Han, originally had such a high status. He was already a marquis when Emperor Wu ascended the throne. When he was young, he did many things for the Western Han Dynasty, such as establishing the Han Dynasty and unifying the whole country. These are all well developed. However, after he ascended the throne from the princes, he was deposed again, and his status became very special, and after his dethronement, he was still strictly monitored and disqualified from entering the gold.
Archaeologists speculate that this may be the reason why Liu He's tomb contains a large amount of gold. After Liu He's death, his family hid it in an ancient tomb, which still contains a large amount of gold and silver objects. However, it was later found that the gold and silver had been taken away by the tomb robbers. Liu He's father was an official. Although he kept the gold, he could not give it away and ended up with him as a funerary.
In addition to funerary items such as very intuitive copper coins and gold, other items in the tomb are also very valuable.
Among them are a pair of elegant goose and fish lamps, a complete set of bronze musical instruments and a set of copper hot pots, which were eaten by aristocrats like Liu He thousands of years ago during the Western Han Dynasty.
Among the excavated cultural relics, there are some more special, one is a statue of Confucius, and the other is a bamboo Jane of the Han Dynasty;
This image of the Confucius statue is different from the common image of later generations, and its 2,000-word "Clothing Mirror Endowment" of Confucius introduces the life of Confucius, showing that Confucius is slim and slender, which is more in line with the historical records of "seven feet nine inches" and "five feet eight inches".
The bamboo jane, which had been soaked in the water for a long time at first, had been glued together, so black that the experts could not recognize it, and almost threw it away like a coffin patent leather.
Fortunately, the state attaches great importance to this archaeological excavation, and sent a special team of experts to the site, or rely on these experts to see the particularity of these "black mud" at a glance.
It turned out that the "black clay" was a collection of bamboo janes from the Han Dynasty, which contained thousands of years of lost "Analects" and "Analects of Knowledge", which greatly shocked history and literature.
Before the tomb owner's coffin was opened, so many amazing discoveries could be harvested, and the experts involved in the archaeological excavations had a special love for the coffin artifacts.
What is found in the sarcophagus will meet their expectations.
"Nine Tricks jade plug"
Ten tons of copper coins, 115 kilograms of gold, and thousands of lost Analects chapters, there will be so many surprises before the coffin is opened, experts have long been eager to open the tomb of the coffin owner.
However, the environment of the burial chamber is relatively chaotic and is not suitable for opening the coffin on the spot, so the experts will first put Liu He's coffin in the box and prepare for temperature and humidity control in the laboratory.
After opening the coffin, we saw the owner of the tomb, Liu Heping, lying in it, and the remains were so rotten that they could not be seen.
In the Han Dynasty, people believed that jade had the effect of driving away evil cults, and people used jade as a funeral tool, and after burial, they could maintain the integrity of the flesh, the immortality of the bones, and even immortality.
Therefore, emperors, princes and their wives were buried with a golden jade robe. Liu Heben was an ordinary man, and his life was relatively unremarkable, so after his death, he was buried in a place called Mayi (southwest of present-day Luoyang, Henan) northwest of Luoyang. But Liu He, who was lying in the coffin, did not wear clothes dressed in golden jade, which may be related to his identity as a "deposed emperor".
However, in the Han Dynasty, not many people could be buried in golden jade robes, which did not mean that funeral instruments could not be used.
On Liu He's body, experts found a large number of round jade bi. There are also many patterns and characters on these jade walls that have been mistaken for "snakes", which are all imprints left by Liu He under the influence of Taoism. It is understood that Liu He wore many such jades before his death. Liu He's face has a beautiful piece of jade, covered with neat grain patterns, about 14 centimeters in diameter, and the aperture in the middle is 5 centimeters, which is as large as Liu He's entire face, and the aperture in the middle has two rows of teeth.
Unfortunately, due to its age, this piece of jade bi had already broken into several pieces when it was unearthed, but its exquisiteness was not affected in the slightest.
Underneath this piece of jade, experts also found two pieces of amber the size of grapes, with a micropore at each end, and surprisingly, there was a small worm in the amber, which was obviously a precious worm.
Seeing the two ambers, the experts had an epiphany and thought that they might be used to plug their nostrils.
Yuchai, also known as "Jade Trick", is often seen in Han Dynasty tombs. As the saying goes, "seven tips are connected", if you want to live a healthy life, you must first ensure the smooth contact of the seven tips. The ancients believed that if people had substances such as qi, blood, and fluid in their bodies, they could maintain normal physiological activities; otherwise, they could not live healthily. Therefore, if people want to live a long life, they must often nourish their bodies. After a person dies, sealing the seven tricks with jade can ensure that the essence is not leaked, the body is immortal, and the soul is eternal.
With this in mind, experts found that Liu He's body was used as a "jade trick" funerary object, not seven tricks, but a more exquisite "nine".
Among them is Hannah Haitana, made of white jade in Hotan, with a 3 cm long and 2 cm wide yin carved cloud pattern on both sides, and a black "thyme". This jade artifact is a very rare jade artifact excavated in the Hotan area. This piece of jade is known as the "Liangzhu culture" in ancient Chinese history. Liangzhu people have long recognized the benefits of jade for human health and spiritual life. Hannah also wrote "Hannah Hannah", as can be seen from the name, it was placed in the population.
More specifically, experts also found a cylinder about 5.5 centimeters long on the left side of Liu He's lower back. This is the "turtle back jade" excavated from Liu He's tomb, which is different from the ancient Chinese bronzes and jades known today. This is a very rare jade tool. According to archaeological findings, this jade may have come from the western region. This object is also carved from Hetian white jade, which is warm and moist, with a slight yellowish tinge.
Judging from the location of Liu He's remains, this is an plug in the Nine Tricks Jade Plug, which is also used to prevent the leakage of human essence.
Interestingly, experts have found that the plug is still an ancient jade artifact from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, and may even be a second-hand goods that were once used. This issue has aroused widespread interest. Because Liu He was born into a small aristocratic family at the end of the Western Han Dynasty, he was sent to Luoyang at a very young age to study calligraphy and painting, and later studied under the famous calligrapher and poet Qu Yuan. I don't know what Liu He thinks.
Experts found a precious glass jade mat under Liu He, and after 7 days of cleaning, they did not expect to find 100 pieces of gold cake under the glass mat, and the gold purity reached an astonishing 99%.
The tomb of a "deposed emperor" who has only been emperor for 27 days can be so luxurious, just like the princes in the Han Dynasty, living in such a luxurious environment, it is really incredible.