Elephant News reporter Wang Lishu
The theme of this year's International Museum Day is "Museums for Education and Research". At first glance, it may seem like a normal thing, but let's take a look at the following things first. If they weren't in a museum, would you recognize them as real artifacts?
"Sengoku Water Cup"
Warring States Crystal Cup Hangzhou Museum
Was there a glass during the Warring States period? No, this is much more valuable than glass, this is the Warring States crystal cup from the Hangzhou Museum. Most of the water containers of the ancients in the mainland are pottery, porcelain, bronze, etc., and the Warring States crystal cup unearthed in 1990 was identified by experts as crystal artifacts, which subverted people's perception of the ancient cup at that time, and it is believed that many people will be unbelievable now. One has to ask, was it possible to mine crystal and process it into modern cups at that time? Then take a look at the artifacts below and judge for yourself.
Spring and Autumn Crystal Agate Group Pei Shandong Provincial Museum
Warring States Crystal Bead String Xiangyang City Museum
Qin Moire Jade Goblet Xi'an Museum
"Site Fittings"
Eastern Han Dynasty three-pipe head copper tent Handan City Museum
Which pipe fitting was picked up from the construction site? It is called the Eastern Han Dynasty three-pipe head copper tent. In the midst of strategizing, the decisive victory is thousands of miles away. The "curtain" is the military tent. Build a tent like building blocks, you can easily put it into the "trunk", open the package, take out the components, and assemble the wooden tent frame and components according to the marks above, which is the "tent" built by the people of the Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago.
The mural of the Han tomb of the Tiger Pavilion is a picture of Mi County, Henan
Renderings of the restoration of the rectangular tent
"Tractor steering wheel"
Bronze sun wheel-shaped Sanxingdui Museum
Although it is certainly not a steering wheel, some researchers believe that it may be an ancient wheel, but most people believe that this shape is a "sun-shaped vessel". It is a permanent artifact in the temple of the ancient Shu Kingdom, or used for sacrificial ceremonies, nailed to a certain object, as a symbol of the sun to accept people's worship. Because of the many heavy weapons unearthed from the Sanxingdui sacrificial pit, such as the bronze Daliren, the bronze god tree and some other bronze heavy vessels, a large number of various sun ornaments show that "sun worship" is quite prominent in the religious culture of the ancient Shu Kingdom in Sanxingdui. It can be inferred from this that in the ancient Shu Kingdom of the Shang Dynasty, it is likely that there were special rituals to worship the sun, and they had a pivotal position in many rituals of the ancient Shu Kingdom.
Sanxingdui Bronze Sun Image Collection
"Cafeteria Rice Plate"
Three Kingdoms period Yue kiln celadon checkered box Zhejiang Provincial Museum
This plate was unearthed in the tomb of Zhu Ran during the Three Kingdoms period, which has been more than 1,800 years ago. Identification showed that the lunch box was made of celadon. Doesn't that sound familiar? This lunch box is divided into multiple small grids, and it is also equipped with a spoon, isn't this the lunch box for cooking in our canteen? Judging from the number of grids, in addition to four dishes and one soup, there must be two side dishes, and I have to say that the ancients were quite good at living. Similar to it is this one:
Eastern Jin Dynasty, blue glazed round maule, The Palace Museum, Beijing
Do you still think it's strange for the ancients to eat on a "dinner plate"?
Vernier Caliper
Han bronze calipers Yangzhou City Museum
There is no cursor, but it is a caliper, and the length of the object can be measured by moving it back and forth. After it was excavated that year, some experts exclaimed, "It turns out that it is here". It turned out that in the late Qing Dynasty scholar Wu Dacheng's "Weighing and Measurement Experimental Examination" and Rong Geng's "Qin and Han Jin Wenlu", it was recorded that bronze calipers appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty and Wang Mang's era. However, there has been a lack of actual physical evidence to prove it. The appearance of this cultural relic fully confirms the record in the book about the "existence of bronze calipers in the Wang Mang period".
What do you think? After some small "research" just now, do you feel that these cultural relics are not so mysterious? When we are trying to understand an unknown excavated artifact, referring to known artifacts and historical documents is a crucial approach. Museums play a key role in this, as they are a temple of knowledge, bringing together many slices of history. Here, we can make detailed comparisons between cultural relics, explore similarities and differences, and provide powerful clues for interpreting unknown cultural relics.
At the same time, museums are not just places to "show off cultural relics", there are many intrinsic connections between their exhibits, showing us the stories of various civilizations and fields under the premise of solid research by archaeologists. So, by going to a variety of museums, we can avoid looking at an artifact in isolation. The many cultural relics are interrelated and reflect each other, allowing us to know and understand them from a broader perspective, so as to appreciate the depth and richness of history and culture.