The biggest feature of our big national family is diversity, and the customs and cultures in different places are different, which is also manifested in archaeology in various places. Almost every province has its own archaeological team and cultural relics research team. Their main task is not only to explore, protect and excavate ancient tombs, but also to clean up and reasonably sort out the cultural relics unearthed in tombs. So if you go to a strange place, the best way to understand the local culture is to visit the museum here first.
Friends who have been to Hunan may be impressed by the museum collections there. Hunan belonged to Chu State in the Warring States Period, and Changsha was established here in the Han Dynasty. From the Warring States Period to the Han Dynasty, thick burial prevailed, so the tombs excavated here were very luxurious, including the world-famous Mawangdui Han Tomb and Tianma Han Tomb. It is said that a ton of gold was buried underground. The tomb we are going to talk about today is not as famous as the first two tombs, but its discovery is also of great significance. After the tomb was excavated, it was even sent to the armed forces for gun protection.
It happened at the end of last century,1May 1999, and the Yuanling county government of Hunan Province planned to build a dormitory building at the foot of Huxi Mountain in the west of Chengguan Town. When the construction was in full swing, a special phenomenon appeared: the normal yellow mud gradually turned white! The appearance of "white clay" made everyone feel very wrong. When we continued to dig down, we found charcoal and neatly arranged boards. At this point, people also speculated that there might be an ancient tomb hidden under the soil.
Soon this situation was reported to the Yuanling County Museum. When the cultural relics experts arrived urgently, they initially determined that it was a tomb of the Western Han Dynasty. Due to the destruction of the site, the local archaeological team immediately carried out a rescue excavation of the ancient tomb. Through exploration, it is found that the scale of this Han tomb is unusual. The whole tomb gate is 14m long and1m wide. It is a typical tomb with vertical holes and pits. Only a prince can enjoy such a big grave. So who is the owner of the tomb?
Lacquerware unearthed from the ancient tomb
According to Hanshu, Yuanling was the fief of Wuyang, the son of Changsha King at that time, and Wuyang's country name was Hou. Could this be Wu Yang's tomb? With this question, the archaeological team can only continue to explore and investigate. After nearly two months, the preliminary cleaning work was finally completed, and the archaeological team finally dug up the coffin of the mausoleum. Fortunately, the ancient tomb was well preserved and no trace of theft was found. Finally, when the main tomb was opened, thousands of people and many news media gathered around it. In order to maintain the order at the scene and ensure the smooth excavation, the archaeological team specially applied to the local public security organs and dispatched dozens of policemen with guns.
The excavation results of tombs are also gratifying. From the main tomb and the coffins hidden outside, more than 500 precious cultural relics such as jade, lacquerware, pottery and bronze ware have been unearthed. In particular, the excavation of a seal engraved with the word "Wuyang" confirmed that the owner of the ancient tomb was Hou Yuanling. According to historical records, he was sealed in 187 BC and died in 162 BC, so this ancient tomb has a history of more than 2 100 years.
Lacquerware unearthed in the ancient tomb
In addition, if the most special thing about this ancient tomb is that it unearthed more than 1000 bamboo slips, totaling more than 30,000 words, Hu Pingsheng, a famous bamboo slip expert in China, declared after reading them that the bamboo slips are rich in content, not only with detailed household registration records, but also with a complete cookbook of the Western Han Dynasty. Unfortunately, some contents in bamboo slips were called "superstitious things" by young archaeologists who just returned from studying abroad, and they were not taken seriously, that is, the almanac "Japanese book", which was necessary for every family in ancient times.
It can be said that Japanese books take astronomical calendar as longitude and life events as latitude. It is a reference book of ancient people's daily behavior and auspicious day choice, which is of great significance to people in the old society. The book burned in the Qin Dynasty was specially reserved for this book, but for some scholars influenced by science, studying this kind of book again will undoubtedly rekindle the wind of folk superstition, so although it is a cultural relic, it seems to be "dross" at that time. Among the archaeological finds, this Japanese book was considered worthless at that time. However, whether it is valuable or not is actually a question of "different people have different opinions".