Master Archaeologist

Chapter 154 Two Careless Craftsmen

Stretching out his hand, he carefully picked up the stone inkstone from the ground.

Kong Jianwen looked at it very curiously.

Chen Han also came over.

There was also a lot of dirt on this set of stone inkstones.

After sweeping away all the dirt sticking to the inkstone with a brush, the condition of the inkstone clearly appeared in the eyes of the two of them.

A streak of reddish black ink remained clearly on the inkstone, and even spread to the inkstone, looking messy.

"This should not be a funeral object, but a practical device?"

Chen Han rubbed his chin, and said with certainty: "The ink on this inkstone is the same as the ink color of the painted cloud patterns on the wall and top of the front room, both black and red."

"This should be the tool left behind by the craftsman responsible for painting the murals on the tomb chamber after painting the murals."

"Look for it, maybe you can find a brush."

The writing brush appeared very early.

Although the saying that "Meng Tian invented the brush" is widely known.

But in fact, Meng Tian improved the brush, and the prototype of the modern brush was indeed determined after Meng Tian.

However, this does not mean that before the Qin Dynasty, there were no brushes.

It has been confirmed that, at least in the Shang Dynasty, brushes have been created and used as daily writing and painting tools.

Through the research on the Yin Ruins, it is certain that although the characters of the Shang Dynasty that we can see today are all oracle bone inscriptions, they were carved out by knives.

But in fact, in daily life, merchants, like the later Qin and Han Dynasties, wrote on bamboo slips or wood chips.

It's a pity that because the writing materials and calligraphy cannot be preserved for a long time, only the oracle bone inscriptions carved on the hard oracle bones have survived.

This led to the misunderstanding that "there are only oracle bone inscriptions in the Shang Dynasty".

"Only the ancestors of Yin have books and codes."

The "Book" and "Dian" in this sentence, in oracle bone inscriptions and seal scripts, do not represent oracle bones, but "books" composed of bamboo slips and wooden slips!
Even a complete set of writing instruments was unearthed from a prehistoric tomb in Zuojiagong Mountain, Changsha, Hunan.

It shows that in prehistoric times, the ancestors already had the habit of writing with a brush.

Even if it is not writing words, it may be making symbols or drawing!
"It should be." Professor Li nodded, agreeing with Chen Han's thoughts.

"Professor Li! We found a stone inkstone here!"

At this moment, Lin Ya and Zhuang Yunpeng who were cleaning the aisle in the west ear room also found a stone inkstone.

Holding them in their hands, they ran to Chen Han and Professor Li.

The four compared the stone inkstones in their hands.

The two inkstones are almost identical, even the layer of ink sticking to the surface of the inkstone is similar.

Obviously, they were all left by the craftsmen who painted the murals at that time.

"It's strange, why didn't you take the stone inkstone away? It's a practical tool, so it shouldn't be left in the front room, right?"

Professor Li was a little puzzled.

How could these craftsmen do such careless things, leaving all the stone inkstones for painting in the front room.

According to the views of that era, the craftsmen who left behind these two stone inkstones were committing a serious crime!

You know, this is the tomb of the king of Nanyue!

It's not a cat's or a dog's tomb, anything can be stuffed into it.

The princes and kings have their own burial system. It is clear what should be buried with them and what cannot be buried with them.

What is certain is that the tools used by the craftsmen who built the tomb must never be used to bury the king of Nanyue.

In a sense, this behavior is even an insult to the owner of the tomb.

Why, leaving this stone inkstone in the front room means that I, the king of Nanyue, work as a painter?

Did you paint murals for others during your lifetime?
This is an insult to a prince!

"Tsk tsk." Chen Han also shook his head and sighed, "I hope these two craftsmen who left the stone inkstone in the front room were not executed."

These two are really careless.

The Nanyue officials who finally inspected and accepted the mausoleum project were too careless.

Unexpectedly, no two stone inkstones were left behind.

However, this old incident of 2000 years ago, everyone just sighed briefly.

"Teacher, the front room has been cleaned up. Can we start cleaning the east and west ear rooms?" Lin Ya eagerly looked at Professor Li, looking forward to it.

To be honest, the cleaning of the front room is really not a bright spot.

Except for the beginning, the set of jade pendants and bronze mirrors that the man died with were more exquisite.

The rest of the funerary objects are almost all accessories of carriages and horses.

Among the 60 cultural relics cleared from the front room, more than 40 are ornaments on a set of chariots and horses.

Chariots and horses can be unearthed in almost most of the noble tombs of the Western Han Dynasty.

It is something that even tomb robbers are not too rare to steal.

Although the chariots and horses are also made of copper, the copper used in this thing is too little, and it is very troublesome to collect.

If you have the skill to pick up chariot and horse parts one by one, it is better to hold a tripod, which is quick and valuable.

Therefore, most Western Han tombs, including stolen tombs, have unearthed a large number of Western Han chariot and horse accessories.

For archaeologists, this thing is really not a novel and rare cultural relic.

Closely connected to the thing ear room of the previous life, it is the place where "big goods" can really be produced!
The general burial objects, except for those personal burial objects that need to be placed in the coffin of the tomb owner, most of the other valuable burial objects are placed in the ear chamber.

It's a room of treasures.

"East and west ear chambers." Professor Li adjusted his glasses.

"We need to give the brother units some space."

"Over the west ear room, colleagues from the Guangzhou Institute of Archeology strongly demand to be responsible for the excavation and cleaning work."

"So we are not responsible for the west ear room."

"As for the east ear room, colleagues from the Guangdong Institute of Archeology have already gone in to investigate."

"One of the top cover stones in the east ear room has broken and fell, and it is lying in the middle of the room."

"Because the stone is too large to be transported out of the aisle, it is necessary to cut through the original rock on the roof of the room, and lift the stone away with a crane from above."

"And because the roof of the chamber is originally the original rock layer, we had to dig a hole to hang the stone up."

"This matter is already being arranged, and an engineering team will come to excavate it tomorrow."

"Wait a minute."

This Nanyue king's tomb was dug down to the rock layer.

Part of the east wall of the east ear chamber, as well as the top of the head, is already bedrock, which greatly increases the amount of work required for the construction of the tomb.

At the same time, troubles arose in cleaning up the archaeological team.

There are three roof stones in the east ear chamber, but one roof stone broke off and got stuck in the east ear chamber at an angle.

In order to clean the east ear chamber, the broken roof stone must be removed first.

However, the top of the east ear chamber is bedrock, so if you want to remove the roof stone hanging, you have to dig a big enough hole on the top of the east ear chamber.

This is also quite a hassle.
(End of this chapter)