Missing Human Bones Pandora's Box (Preface)

In 1914, the British explorer Stenin conducted the third expedition to Xinjiang archaeology, he traveled through Hotan, Hami and other places, completed the investigation of the ancient civilizations of Niya and Loulan, and arrived in the Turpan region. Stenin stayed in Turpan for a week, first conducting a three-day expedition to the former ancient capital of Gaochang and the ancient city of Jiaohe, and then entering KumutagShamu at the southern tip of Shanshan County.

During the Tang Dynasty, the Kumutag Desert was known as the "City of Ghosts". Kumutag Desert is very easy to wind and sand, and the wind is incredible, the wind sand blows in from the seven-pointed well outlet of the Tianshan Mountains, all the way to the Kumutag area to land, in the vast area covered by the wind and sand, the sand is full of sand, people stand inside, just like entering a terrible gray world, there is no way to distinguish the direction. Because of this, those travelers who blindly entered the Kumutag Desert eventually lost their way and were trapped in the desert, hence the name "City of Ghosts".

Stein and his party of more than a dozen people led by a local guide entered the Kumutag Desert. They walked inside for two days and finally arrived in the middle of the desert the next night.

The expedition's camp was a dry riverbed. Stein's local guide, Irabyin, was digging a pit in the riverbed with a small shovel to get water, and the rest of the team set up a tent around a circle, and they built a bunch of campfires with dead branches in the middle of the tent. Three hours after dark, the temperature of the desert dropped sharply, and Stein roasted the fire by the fire while looking over a plank of wood with The Gallown engraved on it. This strange plank was excavated by his guide, Irabuin, from the ruins of the ancient city of Jiaohe, and Irabuin was rewarded with a gold coin.

Irabuin had dug more than seven feet deep into the riverbed, and the man had been completely submerged in the bunker. Another member of the team assisted Irabuin in lifting the sand upwards in small wooden barrels. A small pile of sand soon formed next to the bunker. Irabuin dug for a moment, not knowing what he had dug, and the thing made several dull crashing sounds.

Stein, who was inspecting the Planks of Luwen, was taken aback, and almost intuitively, he quickly put the planks away, packed them in his backpack, and immediately ran to the side of the bunker. His guide, Irabuin, was crouching at the bottom of the pit, fumbling with his hands in the sand for something, and the horse lantern hanging on the wall of the bunker emitted a faint light, illuminating Irabuin's shadow.

Stein stared at Irabuin's shadow and felt very strange. He had two adventures in Xinjiang, but he had never felt that way.

Stein rushed to the pit under Irabuin and said, "Man, what did you dig?"

Irabuin didn't answer for half a day, just continued to fumble around in the bunker. Stein felt even more embarrassed and urged, "I said man, what the hell is going on?" Irabuin turned his head and said, "Sir, it's a piece of wood, and I dug up a big piece of wood."

Stein remembered the harvest a few days ago, the plank of Pharulavin more than a thousand years ago, and suddenly raised his eyebrows, "Man, you touch it carefully to see if there are any marks on the board, maybe it is another plank with ancient characters engraved." If that's the case, you'll get a gold coin again. ”

The radius of the bunker was too small, and Irabuin enlarged it a lot, and finally understood the situation underneath, saying, "Sir, it is not a wooden plank, but a guan material."

Stein's eyelids jumped, "Guan?"

Irabuin sighed and said, "Yes, sir, Allah bless, I feel like we've dug up the treasure."

Stein nodded, told him to be careful, and arranged for two more members to jump off the bunker to help dig the pit, while the others helped lift the soil up the hole. After digging like this for more than an hour, they finally dug out a canoe-shaped body about five feet long and two feet wide from a ten-foot-deep bunker.

The body is painted with painted figures, from the middle to the ends, in turn, crows, firebirds, turtles and snakes. Of course, Stein knew that the firebird was the Suzaku and the turtle and snake were xuanwu, and they represented the sun and the moon in eastern civilizations, but what did the crow with the sharp eyes in the middle represent?

At either end of the color guan were drawn two yellow lines, and the yellow lines were hung with things the size of copper coins, and one of the team members asked, "Gentlemen, who knows what this thing is?"

The British officer said: "It is a copper coin, and like the 'auspicious' coins in the old city of Jiaohe, it is something that symbolizes the power of the ancient king."

Stein looked at his most trusted guide, Irabuin, and said, "Dude, what do you say?"

Irabuin lifted the marquee closer, took a look at it for a while, and suddenly shivered. He stretched out his trembling hand and touched the string of things, and the closer he got to the pattern on the guan material, the more his hand shook. When he finally touched the coffin, the whole person suddenly froze, and there was a sluggish expression on his face under the light.

The expedition members all felt this strange atmosphere. Stein tentatively asked, "Dude, are you okay?"

Irabu pursed his lips, and Chuan said in a very strange, almost weeping tone, "Sir, this is not copper coins, but two bunches of grapes." If you look at this shape, isn't it just a single grape tied together? This is Turpan, and turpan grapes are the best grapes in the world, aren't they?"

Stein shrunk his shoulders and said, "Yeah, man, but what do you want to explain?"

Irabu shook his head sluggishly and said, "I'm sorry sir, I think my wizarding career is over." I..... I want to go home! ”

The British officer grabbed him by the collar, drew his pistol and pointed it at his head, and said viciously, "Dude, do you know what you're talking about?" Our employment relationship has not been completed and dissolved, you are going home? This is the behavior of deserters, you know, deserters should be shot! ”

Irabuin pleaded, "I'll refund the full commission, I'm going home..." Before he could finish speaking, he was slapped by a British officer and fell to the ground.

Stein drank from the British officer, lifted up Irabuin, and exhorted, "Man, you must be too tired today. Just get a good night's sleep and tomorrow you'll continue to work hard for us, right? I know you're kidding, man, but our officer crawled out of the pile of si people on the battlefield of World War I, and he didn't understand the humor of your Orientals. He was a bit rude, but I think you'd forgive him, right? ”

Stein half-coaxed and half-frightened to reassure Ilabuin, and then asked one of the expedition members to accompany him back to the tent to rest. The others formed a circle and tried to open the color guan. Although Stein couldn't understand what had scared his guide so much, maybe after opening the color guan, everything was clear.

In the slogans of the team members, the color guan opened in response, and the guan cover fell down with a "bang". Stein looked inside with a marquee, barely able to believe his eyes. The others ran over with horse lanterns, only to see that there seemed to be a dead bone lying in the color guan.

Why use the word "seems"? Because there are indeed shi bones in the color guan, and there are complete skulls, vertebrae, auxiliary bones and pelvic bones, but there are four arm bones and four leg bones. Strictly speaking, it's hard to say that this is "a" dry bone.

Stein knew that in ancient China, there was a xun zang ceremony, but the ritual system was complete, and there was no emphasis on the one coffin of the xun zang and the si, and as for the matter of only xun zang's hands and feet, it was simply unheard of. But the dry bone in the mouth in front of you is plus two arm bones and two leg bones, what is going on?

Stein looked back at the figure of Irabuin on the tent, not knowing whether it was because of the wind blowing or hallucinations, the figure seemed to be constantly twisting and shaking, and he suddenly felt a little cold.

Underneath the shi bone was a two-foot-long plank of wood filled with a kind of writing he had never seen before. Stein took out the plank and immediately ordered the coffin lid to be closed again. He planned to take a short rest in the camp, then leave for Lukeqin before dawn, and then change lanes to Dunhuang.

But when Stein woke up again, he found that the two members of the night shift had fallen asleep, the others were sleeping, and his guide, Irabuin, and the colored guan were gone, as well as the tent he had brought back and the planks he had studied for more than half an hour.

Stein had no reason not to trust his players, and he knew everyone's resume, but Irabuin alone could not steal the color guan. And in order to hide, Stein also buried the color guan into the yellow sand about a foot underground, even if someone steals the color guan, when digging the soil will inevitably wake up others, not to mention, there is no trace of human movement on the yellow sand.

Stein led his men to dig up the nearby yellow sand until the next night, but found nothing. The food and water they brought were on the verge of being exhausted and had to be hastily withdrawn from the desert.

Later, Stein returned to England and wrote down some words on the wooden board by memory, and asked several sinology experts to decipher the words. All that is obtained are a few incoherent words, of which only four words can be joined together: The Ancient City of Grapes.

Stein looked at the translation and was stunned, he couldn't understand Irabuin's fear, couldn't understand the disappearance of the coffin, and couldn't understand the dry bones in the caiguan that had more hands and feet.

Fifteen years later, Stein re-entered China with a thirst for questions, this time with a clear goal, from the Lukqin Flame Mountain through the Kumutag Desert to Lop Nur. This time, however, he was expelled by the Chinese government for his many bad deeds of stealing treasures in Xinjiang, and was eventually ordered to refuse the human border.

The failure of the fourth expedition to Xinjiang became a regret for Stein's life.