Anhui Huainan Wuwang Tomb is the king-level tomb of Chu in the late Warring States period, the tomb has been disturbed, the environment on which the cultural relics in the tomb are preserved has undergone irreversible changes, and the archaeologists are carrying out rescue excavations on the tomb.
The reporter learned from the archaeological team that when the archaeologists recently protected and cleaned up the unearthed cultural relics, they found two pieces of lacquered wood with words. The tomb of King Wu is a tomb of the Chu State, and the words on these two lacquered wood fragments belong to the Qin style. With the preliminary development of research, archaeological experts speculate that this group of fragments is related to many historical figures of Qin and Chu, including King Zhaoxiang of Qin, Empress Dowager Xuan, and King Kaoli of Chu, etc., spanning half a century of history.
Fragments of lacquered wood ware in the Qin style were found in the tombs of the kings of Chu
According to the operation process of cultural relics excavation and protection, when the archaeological team members cleaned and photographed a piece of lacquered fungus cup fragment for archiving, it was found that the surface was engraved with the word "Daguan", and the word "Daguan" was painted with thick strokes, and there was red lacquer painting, which was very obvious. Once discovered, it immediately attracted the attention of archaeological experts.
As a key word to decode the historical mystery, the word "big official" also appeared on a lacquer bean unearthed in Qin Dongling in 2010. This lacquer bean was made in the eighth year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, and the inscription describes "Xiangbang Xue Jun made", which confirms the history of Meng Weijun in the Qin State and many other history, and idioms such as "chicken and dog thief" were born because of Meng Yanjun's experience of leaving the Qin State. Because of the rich historical information it contains, this lacquer bean has been designated as a first-class cultural relic.
Zhu Xuewen, research librarian of the Mausoleum Museum of the First Emperor of Qin: This "big official" is actually the official in charge of the palace meals.
On the inscription lacquerware fragment unearthed from the tomb of King Wu, at the bottom right of the word "Daguan", there are four columns of engraved characters circled by a box. Archaeological experts preliminarily read its content as "Twenty-nine years of the Empress Dowager Zhan Shicheng to the right engineer to drive the subordinate ministers", the font also belongs to the Qin style, "Zhan Shicheng" and so on also refer to the Qin State official office. The most important thing is that the two key words of "twenty-nine years" and "queen mother", one indicates the historical year and the other points to historical figures, which have become important clues for archaeological experts to determine the age of the tomb.
Lu Guoquan, leader of the second archaeological group of the Wuwangdun archaeological excavation project: Combined with historical facts, the twenty-nine years recorded in the text of this lacquerware are the twenty-nine years of King Zhaoxiang of Qin. This queen mother, according to the literature, is likely to be the Empress Dowager Xuan during the reign of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, which is also known as the eighth son of Mi.
In the twenty-ninth year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, that is, in 278 BC, a major historical event occurred between Qin and Chu, Qin State broke through the capital of Chu State "Ying", and King Qingxiang of Chu, who had been a proton in Qin State, was forced to move the capital. In 272 BC, Xiong Wan, who was still the crown prince of Chu, was also sent to Qin as a proton, and returned to Chu to succeed to the throne and became King Kaolie.
Why did the artifacts of the Qin State enter the tomb of the King of Chu and decode this historical mystery, we need to obtain more clues through archaeological excavations in order to stitch together the answer. Not only that, some scholars believe that the biggest difference between Qin and Chu burial lacquerware is the flat pot favored by the Qin people, which is rarely found in Chu tombs. The tombs of the Qin State rarely unearthed lacquer beans, but there are a large number of them in the tombs of the Chu State. When these historical clues are put together, they become the key for archaeological experts to explore the Warring States period.
Zhu Xuewen, research librarian of the Mausoleum Museum of the First Emperor of Qin: The lacquer beans unearthed in the Eastern Tombs of Qin are the utensils used by King Zhaoxiang of Qin during his lifetime. King Zhaoxiang reigned for more than 50 years, and Empress Dowager Xuan assisted for nearly 40 years. In the late Warring States period, the Qin State developed and expanded, and the Empress Dowager Xuan had indelible achievements.
Lu Guoquan, leader of the second archaeological group of the Wuwangdun archaeological excavation project: In the middle and late Warring States period, the Chu and Qin states had both wars and close exchanges. This provides us with a physical evidence of the exchanges between Qin and Chu in the late Warring States period, Qin and Chu are also moving towards unification at the cultural level, and the tomb of King Wu is in such a critical period.
Elements such as copper, calcium, iron, arsenic and other elements are found in lacquer pigments
According to reports, the lacquered wood unearthed during the excavation of the tomb of King Wuwang is mostly wooden. In order to avoid the loss of water after the unearthed wood, archaeologists use deionized water to soak the lacquered wood to achieve protection, in addition to using ionized water, they also used the "curved micro-X-ray fluorescence spectrometer" for the first time, through high-precision scanning for elemental analysis, found that the lacquer pigment contains copper, calcium, iron, arsenic and other elements, beyond the previous research cognition.
Zhang Zhiguo, the person in charge of cultural relics protection of the Wuwangdun archaeological excavation project: We have transferred a device called the curved micro-X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, which can scan the elemental distribution of the cultural relics on the curved surface, which can solve the limitations of our naked eye recognition, especially our unclear production process. It is known that this is the first application on an archaeological site.
As the first application, the Wuwangdun archaeological team selected the lacquered wooden bracket of the chime chime that had been preliminarily cleaned to take the lead in scanning and analyzing the pigment elements. If the accuracy is 1 mm, the elemental distribution analysis can be completed quickly. If the scan is done with a high accuracy of 0.4 mm, the area at the top of the lacquered wood bracket is about 70 square centimeters, and it takes 2 hours to complete.
Zhang Zhiguo, the person in charge of cultural relics protection of the Wuwangdun archaeological excavation project: Some elements are imaged separately or combined for imaging, and it can be seen that the composition and materials used in the original production of this artifact can be seen.
Based on previous research and cognition, the production process should be carbon black pigment priming, and then use cinnabar to depict the eyes, ears, mouth and nose and other decorations. However, through elemental scanning analysis, archaeologists found in more detail that the pigment of the facial body contained copper; Facial pigments contain mercury; The whites of the eyes on both sides of the black eyes and the sides of the ears, the pigment contains calcium; Although arsenic is small, it plays an embellishment role.
Experts said that through elemental imaging analysis, the cultural preservation team can carry out subsequent in-depth cleaning of cultural relics based on these hidden information.
Source: CCTV news client