Some ancient literati, as well as emperors and generals, prepared rich food in the tomb when they were buried. It is precisely because of this that traces of food will be found in ancient tombs discovered by many archaeologists today.
Whether rice or noodles are the staple food, fruits for dessert after meals and various delicacies will be found in various ancient tombs. It can be seen that the ancient people attached great importance to the requirements of food, and they must be accompanied by food when they died.
It is because of these foods that we archaeologists can have enough evidence and materials to prove some historical situations. It is no exaggeration to say that these foods are of great help to archaeological research. Sometimes, the archaeological value of food is far more important than those cultural relics.
This is the case with an ancient tomb discovered by archaeologists in the last century. This ancient tomb of Liao Dynasty was discovered in Hebei Province, and a table of unfinished food from thousands of years ago was unearthed, which made people begin to understand that the ancients used to eat these things.
There is a table in this ancient tomb.
The owner of this tomb, Zhang Wenzao, lived in Liao Dynasty. His tomb was discovered by accident by an old farmer while irrigating the soil. At that time, archaeologists learned that when they found this ancient tomb, they were actually very worried that the antiques inside would be looted by grave robbers. However, after arriving at the scene for observation, there was no sign that the ancient tomb was stolen, so archaeologists at that time attached great importance to this ancient tomb.
When they opened the door of the ancient tomb, the first thing they saw was not a cultural relic full of historical charm, but a banquet. Next to the banquet, there is the coffin of the hero, and there are all kinds of food scraps and messy dishes and chopsticks on the wine table. It can be said that this tomb is a strange tomb. Archaeologists saw this scene as if they saw ancient people eating delicious food on the wine table.
Seeing this banquet, we will also be curious. What kind of food did ancient people eat on the wine table? It can be seen from the textual research data of archaeologists at that time that the banquet was mainly some fruits and cakes. Although most of the food has gone moldy, we can tell from the residue that they are eating the fruit from the tomb, which is almost the same as the fruit we eat now.
Surprisingly, there are chestnuts in the whole table. Because chestnut itself is a kind of food that will not go bad easily, archaeologists found the shell of chestnut on the wine table at that time. A rough calculation shows that they ate 30 chestnuts at that time.
Second, the wine on the wine table makes up for the wine history of Hebei.
However, there is something unexpected on the wine table here. The archaeological value of this thing is greater than the sum of all the cultural relics in the entire ancient tomb. This thing is grapes.
In Zhang Wenzao's tomb, archaeologists found a large number of grapes, and the grapes found in these tombs were of far-reaching significance to the study of the whole grape development history of Hebei Province at that time. It can be said that the appearance of these grapes made up the historical blank of grape development in Hebei Province at that time.
And this is not the most important historical value. The most meaningful value these grapes bring us is that by studying and investigating the time when these grapes appeared, we can confirm the time of communication between China and foreign countries, so as to have a clearer understanding of the development process of the whole Chinese nation.
After studying the grapes and wine unearthed in the ancient tomb, experts came to the conclusion that people began to drink wine thousands of years ago. This further proves that wine appeared in Hebei province thousands of years ago, so the long history of wine in Hebei province is also recognized by the world. It can be said that the grapes and several pots of wine found in this ancient tomb really filled the historical gap in Hebei and even China.
However, in addition to food and wine, there are a large number of painted walls in the tomb, mostly related to ancient food culture. One of the paintings is of great research value. This painting is a picture of warm wine, which vividly depicts Zhang Wenzao's love for wine when he was alive.
According to these murals, we can find that in ancient times, Hebei people actually demanded a high standard of living. Zhang Wenzao himself has his own love for food, wine and things in life. It can be said that he is a person who knows how to enjoy life very much.