21 coffins were buried at the same time
Bao Cemetery was excavated, the tomb was leaned against the gold silk and nan wood, the degree of luxury was jaw-dropping, was he really clean and incorruptible before he died?
On March 10, 1973, Hefei issued a notice of unclaimed tomb claim, and the local cultural relics department immediately organized a team of experts to rush to the scene after seeing it.
At that time, the local steel factory was being built, and an ancient tomb was inadvertently excavated, because Bao Gong's hometown was in Hefei, Anhui, and many people speculated that it was Bao Cemetery.
It is said that when Bao Gong was buried that year, the funeral procession carried out 21 coffins from home, set off from 7 directions, and buried them in different places.
Bao Gong has been honest and honest all his life, and it is not surprising that he used the method of suspected tomb burial after death, after all, he offended many powerful people, and after death, he will definitely be dug up and retaliated against, and it is also very normal to use this way to prevent the tomb from being dug up.
No descendant wants to, and the ancestral grave is dug up cleanly.
As for where the real Bao Gong was buried, there has been no conclusive conclusion in the archaeological community, and Henan and Anhui have quarreled over this matter for many years, and there is no result in the end.
Although there is a Bao Cemetery in Gongyi, Henan, there is no decent grave, and there is no actual evidence to confirm whether it is or not.
Archaeologists were very excited when they saw the news of Bao Cemetery in the newspaper, and maybe the answer to this age-old puzzle would soon be revealed.
The staff carried out many days of excavation work at the location where the Bao Cemetery was found, but in the end it was a joyous occasion, and no information about Bao Gong was found there.
After half a day of busy work, archaeologists dug up a fake tomb.
This trip made everyone interested and discouraged. So where is the real Bao Cemetery?
After the news of the discovery of the Bao Cemetery spread widely, the local people still maintained a firm belief in the discovery of the Bao Cemetery.
Just as the archaeologists were about to give up, a villager brought good news.
According to the description of the villagers, the ancient tomb was found near their village, and the experts were interested when they heard it, will it be the legendary Bao Cemetery that will be found this time?
The expert group came to the location described by the villagers again, and after the exploration, the expert determined from the mud on the ground that it was indeed an ancient tomb.
This time the excavation harvest is still very large, seemingly inconspicuous places have found more than a dozen ancient tombs, experts according to the scale of the judgment is the most likely family tomb.
Whether there is a buried Bao Gong inside, it still needs to be excavated before the truth can be known.
Archaeologists began excavations in an inconspicuous tomb, and after excavation, the scene in the tomb shocked everyone.
The tomb is a luxurious golden silk nan wood leaning over
After the excavation of the Bao Cemetery, the well-preserved golden silk nan wood coffin appeared in front of the eyes, and the degree of luxury was jaw-dropping.
Golden silk nan wood is a very precious and rare material, and people who can use golden silk nan wood as a coffin must be either rich or expensive before they die, and their status is also very high.
And Bao Gong was a member of the Yipin Before his death, and it was only natural to enjoy such a standard tomb form after his death.
However, Bao Gong, who has always been known for his integrity and incorruptibility, was buried in a golden silk nan wood coffin, which is still very different from the traditional image.
And what also puzzled experts is that the burial chamber where the golden silk nan wood coffin is placed is very small, including the structure and burial are very simple, which does not match the luxury of the golden silk nan wood coffin at all.
Whether it is Bao Gong buried inside can only be revealed after the coffin is opened.
When the coffin was opened, the archaeologists were very excited, but after opening the coffin, they were a little lost, and there was no other funerary object except for some broken bones and a pile of rubble.
This is also in line with the image of Bao Gong before his death.
The pile of broken bones could no longer be identified as the remains of whom, and the experts took them away for identification, hoping to find some clues about the owner of the tomb.
After the rubble was cleared, it was engraved with dense words.
Archaeologists translated the text on the stones, and the contents of the stones made everyone excited again.
One of the lines clearly reads "Filial Piety Bao Gong Ming", which is completely certain that those rubble blocks are Bao Gong's epitaph.
Moreover, the identification of the remains also has a result, which belongs to an adult male, and the age is about fifty or sixty years old, which is consistent with the age of Bao Gong's death.
However, experts also found that the rubble blocks could not be spliced at all, not like a whole piece, and experts found The epitaph of Mrs. Bao Gong from other rubble blocks.
This puzzled the experts, who had only one male skeleton in the coffin, but two fragments of the epitaph.
Although the form of husband and wife burial is perfectly normal, but the disappearance of Mrs. Bao's skeleton is a strange thing, is it difficult for them to dig up not the real Bao Cemetery, but only the tomb of Mrs. Bao?
Where did Mrs. Bao's skeleton go, and why did it appear in Bao Cemetery? Why is this bao cemetery so simple? All kinds of questions haunt the minds of archaeologists, forming knots and doubts that cannot be solved.
Just as the archaeological work was nearing completion, a tomb keeper of the Bao Cemetery appeared and told the archaeologists that what they had found was not the real Bao Cemetery.
The real Bao Gong was buried in a field not far away, which is now overgrown with rape flowers and will not be easily discovered.
Archaeologists do not believe what the tomb keeper said, only that this person is making up crazy words.
However, in order to verify the truth, the expert still came to the place where the tomb keeper said, from the outside it is really ordinary, where is the appearance of the ancient tomb?
However, after the staff excavated, they really found an ancient tomb.
It was a tomb made of stone and brick, although it had been destroyed to the point of ruin, it could still be seen that the tomb specifications at that time were still relatively high, and it was also in line with the identity of Bao Gong.
It's just that there is no coffin in the tomb, and even the coffin bed where the coffin is placed is in tatters.
In the process of cleaning the tomb, archaeologists were pleasantly surprised to find a broken epitaph, which also recorded the life of Bao Gong, and spliced together with other fragments to complete the epitaph.
Moreover, experts also found Mu Yong from the excavated funerary items, which carried a Taoist crown on their heads and were twelve gods recorded in ancient books.
This was a routine operation in the tombs of the Song Dynasty, and officials above the second grade were entitled to it, and it was not unusual for him to appear in the Yipin Dayuanbao Cemetery.
What makes archaeologists wonder is that if this is the real Bao Cemetery, then why does Bao Gong's coffin appear in other tombs?
Moreover, the degree of damage is completely man-made, who has a deep hatred with the owner of the tomb and would do such a disastrous thing?
Was he really honest and incorruptible before he died?
The golden silk nan wooden coffin in the Bao Cemetery is full of doubts, and the ancient tomb is seriously damaged, what is the black hand of the person?
After consulting historical materials, archaeologists found such a history.
At the end of the Song Dynasty, the Jin soldiers invaded on a large scale, and the graves everywhere they went were stolen and excavated.
Experts speculate that the Bao Cemetery was also stolen and excavated, and it was also seriously damaged during that period, and the skeleton of Mrs. Bao was also lost in the destruction, leaving only a broken epitaph.
In order to protect the bones of their ancestors, the descendants of Bao Gong transferred Bao Gong's coffin and placed it in an inconspicuous tomb.
This also explains why the specifications of the golden silk coffin and the burial crypt do not match.
And bao gong used a golden silk nanmu coffin when he was buried, which does not mean that he was not a good official who was honest and incorruptible before he died, and the affairs after his death were all handled by posterity, and it is not excluded that the emperor rewarded the golden silk nanmu coffin, after all, Bao Gong has worked hard all his life, and he is also worthy of such treatment after saddle the horse for the imperial court.
In addition, when archaeologists identified the skeleton, they found that it contained a large amount of heavy metal - mercury.
Where does this mercury come from?
How did it appear on Bao Gong's skeleton?
Regarding the mystery of Bao Gong's death, it is widely said that he died of illness.
According to the classics, in May of the seventh year of Jiayou, Bao Gong suddenly fell ill with an acute illness and died after not surviving for many days, at the age of 64.
In addition to the saying that he died of normal illness, there are also rumors that Bao Gong was poisoned and assassinated to death.
In ancient times, the most commonly used poisons were arsenic cream and other highly toxic drugs, and their main ingredients were heavy metals such as lead mercury, and people would be poisoned by heavy metals when they ate them, and there was no possibility of survival.
A large amount of mercury was found on the bones of Bao Gong, and it is not excluded that it was caused by poison erosion.
There are also many opinions about the people who assassinated Bao Gong, some people speculate that Bao Gong's enemies bought the people in the government to do it, and some people say that it was Emperor Song Renzong Zhao Zhen.
Such a statement is not empty, before Bao Gong's death, Song Renzong personally visited Bao Gong's mansion, and after Song Renzong left, Bao Gong died violently.
Whether this was a coincidence or what happened, no one knows, many people speculate that it was Song Renzong who gave Bao Gong poison, which hastened his death.
However, this speculation is also unreasonable, Bao Gong is a clean and honest courtier, what is the reason for the emperor to assassinate him?
In addition to the statement that Bao Gong died of poisoning, the most reliable conjecture is that Bao Gong's body was embalmed.
Mercury was also often used as an antiseptic material in tombs in ancient times.
No matter what the truth is, there is no way to verify it now, and the discovery of Bao Cemetery has left posterity with more stories of his life of clarity and integrity.