Flower turtle
Pottery net pendant
Cantonese bream large pharynx
Skull of a large yellow croaker
Vertebrae of the giant yellow croaker
Ear-shaped ear snails
Museum Quest
Recently, the Museum of the King of Nanyue in the Western Han Dynasty, which is known for its playfulness and profundity, published two articles in a row, sending out two questions that travel through time and space: Do you know what fish the King of Nanyue loves to eat? Do you know what shellfish the King of South Vietnam loves to eat?
At first glance, isn't that a joke? Who knows?
Needless to say, thanks to the tireless efforts of archaeologists, people today can really understand the taste of the Kings of South Vietnam more than 2,000 years ago. At least, we can know that he loves to eat yellow croaker and also loves to eat bamboo shoot snails.
The King of Nanyue was buried with him
There are carp yellow croaker and Cantonese bream
Why? Let's take a look at what the experts have discovered through archaeological excavations. Let's start with the fish.
In the tomb of Zhao Xuan, the King of Nanyue, archaeologists have found the remains of several fish species, all unearthed in the back room where food delicacies are stored. It mainly includes Cantonese bream, yellow croaker and carp. The remains of the Cantonese bream were unearthed in a Yue-style copper ding and a copper jian in the back chamber of the tomb of the King of Nanyue. Among them, this Yue-style copper ding not only contains Cantonese bream, but also large yellow croaker, pig and chicken, which is obviously a pot of smorgasbord. Experts from the Museum of the Nanyue King of the Western Han Dynasty said: "The copper jian was originally a water vessel, but the South Vietnamese state seems to have converted some of the water vessel into cooking utensils, so it is not surprising that there are fish in the copper jian." ”
It is distributed in the Pearl River system, with a straight lateral line, smooth dorsal fin spines, long and stout, living in the middle and lower layers of water bodies, especially inhabiting the slow flow of rivers with more silt or gravel at the bottom of rivers, and prefers to eat aquatic plants and mollusks. The giant yellow croaker is a warm warm inshore swarm migratory fish distributed in the South China Sea, the East China Sea and the southern Yellow Sea, mainly inhabiting the coastal and offshore waters within 80 meters of the middle and lower layers. According to historical records, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, there was already fishing for large yellow croaker in the East China Sea. The large yellow croaker excavated from the tomb of the King of Nanyue not only has a relatively complete skull, but also has 16 vertebrae, so it is speculated that the total length of this fish is more than 50 cm, which is a large fish. These fish, today Guangdong people also love to eat.
Another, more common fish is the carp. The remains of carp excavated from the tomb of the King of Nanyue can be found in a small Yue-style copper ding in the hou chamber, and through the remaining pharyngeal bones, gill caps and other parts, archaeologists have determined that there are at least 2 individuals in the ding. Carp is one of the most diverse, widely distributed, longest-lived and highest-yielding freshwater fish species, and usually inhabits the bottom layer of aquatic and grassy bodies in rivers, lakes, reservoirs and ponds, mainly benthic animals. They live alone or in small groups, are adaptable, hardy, alkali-resistant, resistant to hypoxia, and can lay eggs in running water or still water... In short, it is extremely adaptable. Most of the carp are delicious and rich in nutritional value, and some species have been modified to become ornamental fish, such as goldfish and koi. But this fish, which is highly valued in the East, has become a headache for invasive species in the West. Of course, this is another story.
Experts from the Museum of the Nanyue King of the Western Han Dynasty told us that in the tombs of the South Yue Kingdom, clay pots containing turtle feet, barnacles, wedge-shaped axe clams, and fish bones were often unearthed, but the fish were not found, "This can't help but make people guess that the fish food that was once taken for granted by the local Yue people was transformed into a fine dish for the Nanyue King during the Nanyue Period, after the careful cooking of the imperial chef." "The west room of the tomb of the King of Nanyue is a burial chamber for servants, and one of the martyrs is buried with 2 iron fish hooks and remnants of fishing lines, which experts speculate may be a servant in charge of fishing and hunting.
King Zhao of South Vietnam
Your favorite food may be "dog claw snail"
Let's look at shellfish again.
There are many shellfish species excavated from the tomb of the King of Nanyue, including at least green cockles, ear-shaped ear snails, grooved bamboo shoot snails, wedge-shaped axe clams, barnacles, turtle feet, river clams and so on. These shellfish were unearthed in the hou and east ear chambers, most of which were packed in various containers, and many of them were scattered on the ground, presumably due to the overturning of the utensils.
As we all know, cooking seafood is a major specialty of Cantonese cuisine, and the history of eating seafood is also long. Zhang Hua's "Naturalist" of the Jin Dynasty said that "people in the southeast eat aquatic products" and "aquatic products, turtles, mussels, clams, and snails think that they are precious, and they are not afraid of their fishy faces." Heng Kuan's "On Salt and Iron" also mentions that "Gaiyue people win the mussels and Jane is a big prison". In ancient times, people called the livestock used in the sacrifice of swallow cooking "prison". The sacrifices are made with cattle, sheep, and cattle, which are called "great prisons", also known as "tai prisons". These records show that the ancient Yue people liked to eat clams, snakes, mussels and other aquatic products.
As early as the Neolithic Age, the ancestors of Lingnan chose to catch fish and shellfish in the hills and sand dunes near the alluvial terraces, lakes or bays of rivers, and they ate the discarded shells and fish bones together with the collection tools and piled them into mounds, known as "dune ruins" or "shell mound sites".
Experts at the Museum of the Nanyue King of the Western Han Dynasty speculated that the green cockle "should be one of the most beloved aquatic foods of the South Yue King", because the copper ding, the barrel, the copper hammer, the copper jian, the copper pot, the clay pot and other containers in the back room contained many green cockles. Due to environmental changes and other factors, the wedge-shaped axe clams have not been seen much in the coastal areas now, but there are many wedge-shaped axe clams excavated from the tomb of the King of Nanyue, about 200 of which are stored in the copper drum of the East Ear Chamber. Another delicacy is turtle feet. Turtle foot, also known as "chicken crown shell", "bergamot shell", "dog claw snail", etc., belongs to the barnacles, generally firmly grown on the reef, to resist the impact of wind and waves, so it is muscular and tastes very delicious. Today it is premium seafood. It is indented into the shell as soon as it is touched, and it is not easy to extract, but the turtle foot excavated from the tomb of the King of Nanyue has as many as 1558 individuals, which is the largest number of aquatic products in the tomb, most of which are preserved in the copper, iron and pottery containers in the back chamber, and there are also a small number of specimens in the East Ear Chamber. It can be seen how much Zhao Xi, the king of South Vietnam, loves it. In addition, it also shows that the level of fishing and hunting technology of people at that time was good. As for the Kasa barnacle, only two individuals were found in the tomb, and since it was not tasty, experts speculated that it must have been "accidentally injured" while digging the turtle's foot, which belongs to the "lying shot".
According to the breed of animals buried with it
It is speculated that the owner of the tomb was buried around autumn and winter
Zhao Tuo, the first monarch of the State of South Vietnam, was a native of hebei today, a standard northerner. However, in the tomb of the King of Nanyue, 14 kinds of aquatic products were unearthed, including turtles, turtles, and the remains of a true bone fish species that could not be determined. The number and variety of animal remains unearthed were very rare in the tombs of the early and middle Han Dynasties. A large number of animal remains are found in all four burial chambers, including more than 30 artifacts in the back chamber. More than 70% of the aquatic animals unearthed from the tombs are birds and 10% are other wild animals. The most abundant aquatic animals are shellfish, indicating that the shellfish aquatic products that the Yue people like to eat have been accepted by the northerners and their descendants from the south, and the King of Nanyue is also fond of seafood.
In order to improve the efficiency of fishing, the Royal Family Food Procurement Team of the King of Nanyue also used nets. The West Ear Chamber of the Tomb of the King of Nanyue unearthed 620 pottery net pendants, divided into two types, the large ones are 244 pieces, the small ones are 376 pieces, because the fishing nets are completely decayed, it is impossible to determine how many sets of fishing nets are contained here. However, in terms of quantity, the area of these fishing nets is not small.
Scholar Wang Jiangke and others pointed out that according to the existing archaeological data, animal remains are often found in Han tombs in China, especially in the early and middle Period of the Western Han Dynasty. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, the phenomenon of burying animals with them decreased significantly. The animals produced in han tombs in all regions of the country generally have the characteristics of the fauna of each region. From the animals excavated from the tomb of the King of Nanyue, it can be speculated that the natural environment near Panyu in Guangzhou during the Western Han Dynasty was an alluvial plain of the Pearl River Delta with intersecting rivers and developed water networks. Among the excavated animals, in addition to those adapted to the freshwater-brackish water ecological environment of the delta, there are also many animals that inhabit tropical oceans, such as turtle feet, green cockles, and wedge-shaped axe clams. Combined with the fact that it was distributed in present-day Guangzhou and the Pearl River Delta at that time, but there are no elephants and Malay crocodiles in modern times, it can be speculated that the average annual temperature in Guangzhou more than 2,000 years ago may have been higher than it is now.
Another aspect that can prove this speculation is that the animals excavated from the main tomb of South Vietnam, such as grass finches and domestic chickens, are generally smaller than the current species. Generally speaking, the tropical areas of the same animal are smaller than the boreal regions because of the need for heat dissipation. However, it is also possible that agriculture was not as developed as it is today, and small birds such as grass finches and sparrows could not find so much rice to eat.
Based on the animals unearthed from the tombs of the Nanyue kings, experts have even boldly speculated on the burial time of the tomb owner. Because the grass finches fly from the north to the south to overwinter in the middle of October every year, this is the harvesting season for coastal residents in Guangdong and Fujian. Shellfish such as cockles have a hibernating habit and are the most fertile in late autumn and early winter, which is the harvesting season. Therefore, it is likely that the King of South Vietnam, Zhao Xi, was buried in the autumn and winter. Text, photo/Guangzhou Daily all-media reporter Bu Songzhu
(Editor-in-charge: Yuan Hanling, Luo Yu)