In 2005, Gu Haibin conducted microscopic sampling near the Jade Toad Rock site in Baishizhai Village, Dao County, Hunan Province. Courtesy of respondents
Carbonized rice. Profile picture
In two years, Gu Haibin, deputy director of the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, will retire. She has rarely gone to the field, and the most recent visit to the construction site was as the head of the institute to visit young colleagues working under the scorching sun.
Most of the time, she wore reading glasses and lay down at her desk to sort through piles of dirt. In the past, she pulled the dirt out of a pit of archaeological sites, and the earliest excavation date is dating back to the 1990s. Today, she is sorting out these dirt, and she is also sorting out her life.
"I'm going to pay it all back before I retire." Gu Haibin said. Young colleagues need her research, just as she stood on the shoulders of her predecessors when she was a fledgling.
She was happy with her past years. As a female archaeologist, Gu Haibin, now 58 years old, believes in fate more than ever.
The field of research is related to prehistoric rice
The Changsha Tongguan Kiln Base of the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology is hidden in a mountainous area. The cicadas chirped tighter, and at the end of the winding cement road, several beige buildings towered over the road.
Gu Haibin came out to pick me up against the scorching sun. Loose t-shirt and pants, hair somewhat casually tied behind the head. Fortunately, her office building was not far from the gate, and we didn't have long to be exposed to the sun.
The office building smells strongly like disinfectant water. Gu Haibin explained that it is the smell of animal grease, "some time ago, a batch of fresh animals were entered, and the archaeological staff needed to compare the excavated animal bones, muscles, etc. with fresh animals, which may have left a smell."
She hesitated to choose where to interview her, saying she didn't have a separate office. She took me to a lab where a female colleague was intently cleaning the dirt and we came out again. The final interview was held in a large office. There are several computers, and there are microscopes next to the computers, one of which belongs to Gu Haibin.
As a scientific and technological archaeologist, Gu Haibin got more than a Luoyang shovel, but a microscope and a fluorescence meter. Her college major was not archaeology, but paleontology.
Born in Harbin, Gu Haibin's Mandarin can hear the northern accent, rather than the "plastic pu" common to Hunan people. Gu Haibin's parents were both teachers at the Harbin Military Engineering College, and later the school moved to Changsha and renamed the National University of Defense Technology, and when he was ten years old, Gu Haibin followed his parents to Hunan.
She loves Hunan. Because the research field is related to prehistoric rice, she has a lecture called "Jiahe Sheng Nanguo". "Southern Country" is actually Hunan.
Gu Haibin said that she embarked on the path of archaeology as if it had been arranged in the dark. There have been at least two "coincidences" in this.
Because of her parents, Gu Haibin has been interested in science and engineering since she was a child, and her first choice when she entered college was chemistry and medicine. Later, yin and yang were transferred to the Stratigraphic Paleontology Major of China University of Geosciences.
Paleontology studies creatures of geological epoch, or rather, pre-Quaternary organisms, when there were no humans. Archaeological work, in the end, is to return to the life of ancient humans. How is this "leap" accomplished?
Since childhood, I have loved the microscopic world under the microscope
After graduating from university in 1984, Gu Haibin was assigned to the Paleontological Room of the Regional Geological Survey Team of the Hunan Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources in Xiangtan. After 4 years, Gu Haibin still wants to return to Changsha. Where can I use my professional expertise?
At the end of the 1980s, China's scientific and technological archaeology entered a stage of great development. The technical means and concepts of natural science have been applied in all aspects of archaeological research, and disciplines such as archaeological chronology, metallurgical archaeology, bioarchaeology, and environmental archaeology have gradually grown.
Since the excavation of carbonized rice at the Hemudu site in Zhejiang Province, another specialty has emerged in archaeology, plant archaeology, and the object of study is the plant remains excavated from archaeological sites. In 1988, under the auspices of the Hunan Provincial Institute of Archaeology, an early Neolithic site was excavated in Pengtou Mountain, Lixian County, with a large amount of rice husks and rice paddies interspersed with pottery pieces unearthed at the site. This provides evidence support for the theory that "the Dongting Lake area centered on Li County in Hunan Is One of the Important Origins of Rice Farming".
Just after the excavation of the Pengtou Mountain site, Gu Haibin was transferred to the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and she "caught up with the time."
"As a professional, I'm very lucky." Gu Haibin said that since she was a child, she liked the microscopic world under the microscope, and the Quaternary pollen research was selected by the Geological Bureau. More coincidentally, at that time, the Hunan Archaeological Institute was preparing the pollen laboratory, and there was no talent, and Gu Haibin appeared.
In this way, Gu Haibin took the 60,000 yuan project funds allocated by the State Bureau and set up the Spore Powder Laboratory of the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology in a temporary green tin house.
Not long after entering the institute, Mr. Pei Anping, the leader of the archaeological excavation at the Pengtou Mountain site, handed her several bags of soil in the cultural layer and asked her if she could find information about ancient rice in it.
Gu Haibin was a treasure, but after careful searching, no carbonized rice was found. Later, she took the piece of soil to the lab, wondering if she could find smaller remnants of ancient rice under a microscope.
Through a series of physical and chemical analyses, Gu Haibin found pollen from the grass family in the soil. Is this grass pollen the pollen of rice? She didn't dare to say for sure. Gu Haibin took this specimen to Zhou Kunshu, who was engaged in Quaternary research at the Institute of Geology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and after Reading the specimen, Zhou suggested that she start with the size of rice pollen and its germination holes.
Later, the research results, "Pollen Analysis and Paleoenvironment Discussion at Pengtou Mountain Site in Lixian County, Hunan Province", were published in the 1990 archaeological authority "Cultural Relics" magazine, which officially identified the pollen as rice pollen. For Gu Haibin, who is new to the industry, this is undoubtedly a great achievement.
Following the excavation of the Pengtou Mountain site, archaeological excavations were carried out at the Chengtou Mountain site in Hunan Province in 1990, and a large amount of carbonized rice was unearthed. The rice was delivered to Gu Haibin, who published the results of the study, "Neolithic Rice and Its Types Excavated from the Chengtoushan Site in Lixian County, Hunan," in the journal Archaeology in 1996.
"At that time, there were three major theme magazines in the archaeological community, Archaeology, Cultural Relics, and Archaeology Journal, which published articles on it, and the influence was very large. Therefore, many people in the industry know that the cultural relics and archaeology of Hunan Province are all people who specialize in ancient rice research. In this way, whenever ancient rice is unearthed from archaeological sites, most of them are sent to me at the first time, and they all ask me the same question: Is it wild rice or cultivated rice? ”
This question made Gu Haibin ask.
Spent 20 days searching for charred rice
Gu Haibin said that she originally thought it was very simple, because the rice excavated from the Hemudu site has been identified as cultivated rice by agronomists, that is, the rice excavated during this period of the Hemudu culture may be cultivated rice. Later, as she saw more carbonized rice materials unearthed, she felt that the problem was far from being as simple as she thought, and the views of the previously published articles lacked the support of more basic research results.
"Technology is just a means, and the ultimate goal is to solve the problems of archaeology." Gu Haibin said. How to prove whether the unearthed rice is wild or cultivated? This question has always bothered her.
As carbonized rice was unearthed from the Liyang Plain in the early 1990s, Gu Haibin began to find answers in these tiny black grains of rice. She discovered a whole new way to distinguish wild rice from cultivated rice— embryos. Gu Haibin believes that cultivated rice is sexually reproduced by seed germination, and ordinary wild rice is asexually propagated through tillering of roots, so the embryo of cultivated rice is much larger than that of wild rice in the process of domestication.
"Charred rice is so small, why can I think of finding the incision through the embryo?" Gu Haibin smiled, "Maybe this is the moment of inspiration in my academic career." ”
In 2004, the famous archaeologist Barr Joseph came to Hunan to find "the origin of rice seed civilization". Following the clues, his team found the Liyang Plain from Dao County. Here, the team came to a site called Shanlonggang. Gu Haibin, then deputy director of the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, was one of the main participants.
The site, which has undergone preliminary archaeological investigations, is about 8,000 years old. The excavation began, and the staff was divided into two groups, one group responsible for the regular excavation tasks of the exploration party, and the other group responsible for flotation of the soil of the cultural layer, hoping to see the remains of charred rice and other animals and plants.
20 days have passed, and although the flotation team has selected a large number of cultural layers of soil, the carbonized rice seems to have played hide-and-seek with everyone, and there is no trace of it.
"During that time, in addition to paying attention to the work of flotation every day, I also had an important task, that is, to take a small amount of soil from the exploration party where the archaeologists worked and analyze the milasite of rice at the site. For 20 days, a large number of soil samples were seen, and rice silicites were seen in each sample. My hunch was that there must be charred rice. ”
Gu Haibin's memories of this career and the history of plant archaeology in Hunan are very clear. Day 20 is a media open day, and more than 20 media reporters will cover the scene. "Because no carbonized rice has been found, Professor Barr-Joseph is a little worried about the media's questioning of this aspect, and when he wakes up in the morning, the old professor asks me, how sure is the rice excavated at this site?" I said that according to the abundance of rice siliceous cells in each cultural layer, it should be 100% of the carbonized rice that will be unearthed. ”
At two o'clock in the afternoon, the media reporters arrived at the scene on time, and the interview work was carried out separately. When interviewing Gu Haibin, the reporters directly asked, did they find ancient rice? Gu Haibin answered honestly: Not yet, but we have found a large number of rice siliceous cells in every cultural layer, so carbonized rice will definitely be found.
Gu Haibin's voice just fell, someone patted her on the shoulder, and she looked back at Li Chunlin, the former deputy director of the Linli Museum. "I looked into his eyes and immediately knew that the charred rice we had been looking for for 20 days must have appeared!" Gu Haibin flew to the floating site, and the reporters also carried "long guns and short cannons" to follow. The next day, a photo of charred rice in the palm of a palm appeared in major newspapers in Hunan.
And this is the domesticated rice that Gu Haibin is looking for, and it is the answer to the origin of human rice civilization.
"Girls are not suitable for archaeology is one-sided"
There is a saying to describe life, Gu Haibin feels appropriate: look at the mountain is the mountain, see the water is the water; look at the mountain is not the mountain, look at the water is not the water; look at the mountain or the mountain, look at the water or the water.
She feels that her archaeological career is almost like this. When you are young, you have proud steadfastness, and when you grow up, you will have doubts, and after unremitting exploration and thinking, you will finally solve the mystery.
"There's a word that 'suddenly open-minded,' and really, living to a certain age, or having a certain amount of experience, will feel that way." It seems that this is not just about academics.
In any case, Gu Haibin insisted on what she thought was right. When she was young, she was also afraid of the dark, afraid of ghosts, afraid of coffins, and even afraid of cats. Now that I am getting older, I can't count the number of times I go to the wild, and I think the fear of my youth is quite green and cute.
This kind of persistence and concentration, Gu Haibin believes, is a very obvious trait in archaeologists. "Whether it is archaeologists or the very ordinary staff in the institute, they are very attentive and can sink their hearts to do things." The archaeology industry will also face temptations, but few people in this industry will change careers. ”
Gu Haibin mentioned Fan Jinshi, "the mountain is up", "In such a harsh and harsh environment, a woman has done the same thing all her life, which is amazing." I think the main reason is that she loves archaeology, and 'love' can offset a lot of difficulties and tribulations. There is a saying that only love can withstand long years, and it is like this. ”
Referring to Zhong Fangrong, a girl who applied for the archaeology major at Peking University, Gu Haibin said: "This girl has a strong opinion and determination, which is suitable for archaeological work. If I had to give her advice, I hope she would be able to study hard in college and insist on being herself. ”
As for the fear that many people are worried that "archaeology majors will starve to death", Gu Haibin said: "This is a foreign language. Archaeology professional employment is actually not difficult, the field is still very broad, you can do scientific research, you can go to museums, archaeological institutes and so on. In terms of wages and treatment, it is basically above the average line of a city, and the ordinary living standard can still be guaranteed. But there will certainly be no rich and noble, and those who want to get rich should not choose this line. ”
At the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, archaeology graduates have many choices here, they can go to the front line of the construction site with a Luoyang shovel in their hands, or they can do experiments under the office microscope. In the former, men make up the vast majority of the population, while in the latter, women are slightly more numerous.
"There is a view of the archaeological community that girls are not suitable for archaeological work, which is actually one-sided. Of course, field work can bring inconvenience to women, but like Fan Jinshi, interest can beat all difficulties. In addition, in other areas of archaeology, especially some information collection, sample experiments and analysis, excavation of cultural relics restoration, etc., the quality of women's meticulous patience is dominant. ”
Some time ago, the TV series "Thirty Only" was popular, and Gu Haibin also watched several episodes under the recommendation of colleagues. She said that she prefers the role of the second female Zhong Xiaoqin, "a life of plain and plain, no big ups and downs, very real, this is the life of ordinary people." Relatively speaking, she felt that Gu Jia was a bit "pompous".
Written by/Reporter Wang Huan
【Source: Xiaoxiang Morning News】
Copyright belongs to the original author, a tribute to the original