Master Archaeologist

Chapter 263 Advanced Jade

It took another two days before all the cultural relics under the bed in the inner coffin room were cleared out.

The ones that are easy to extract are all sorted and extracted individually.

Those that are not easy to extract are extracted as a whole and sent to the laboratory for cleaning.

Generally speaking, most of the cultural relics under this bed are the daily utensils of the owner of the tomb.

Including tripods, incense burners, tables, lacquer trays, lamps, lacquer boxes and the like.

One of the most special is a large and striking bronze piece!

A branch lamp!

According to the "Inner Biography of Emperor Wudi": "The Queen Mother of the West sent an envoy to call it the Emperor's Day. On July [-]th, I will come here temporarily. The Emperor will clean up the palace and light the nine-light lamp."

Although the Queen Mother of the West is only a legendary figure, the lamp of nine lights should be a lamp with nine branches like a tree lamp.

To put it simply, this thing is a combination lamp that is as tall as a person, and then branched out into many branches, each branch is a bean-shaped lamp.

There are nine branches, that is, nine branch lamps, and five branches, that is, five branch lamps.

And the lamp unearthed in the tomb of Liu He, Marquis of Haihun, is a five-branch lamp.

But unfortunately, due to geological changes, this branch lamp has been broken, and it does not return to its original upright appearance in the inner coffin chamber, and collapsed into a bronze pile.

It will take a lot of repair work in the follow-up to repair it.

In addition to the lamps, there are also a large number of exquisite lacquered woodware in Liu He's inner and outer chambers!

Lacquer woodware was a relatively precious thing in the Han Dynasty. Not only was it expensive, but it was only available to noble people.

By analogy, only 184 pieces of lacquered woodware were unearthed at Mawangdui.

However, more than 1000 pieces of lacquered woodware have been unearthed in Haihunhou's tomb, many of which are inlaid with gold and silver ornaments.

And, that's not all, there are lacquered woodware still unearthed.

Among them, the most exquisite piece of lacquered woodware is a "makeup box" from the Han Dynasty!
This cosmetic box is called——奁 (lián)!
The mirror box used by ancient women for dressing up is a dressing box for the ancients to hold combs, makeup and powder, and most of them are wooden lacquer boxes.

The three sons' dowry and lacquer dowry unearthed from the tomb of Haihunhou in Nanchang this time are as exquisite as new after more than 2000 years.

There are gold pastes, gold inlays, and silver buckles, which are equivalent to the most high-end "dressing boxes" or "cosmetic boxes" in the Han Dynasty.

This Sanzi Lian is a large round box, which contains three small boxes that are horseshoe-shaped, rectangular and round, all of which have silver buckle craftsmanship and persimmon stalk patterns.

This "makeup box" is naturally not Mrs. Haihunhou's, but Haihunhou himself!

In the Western Han Dynasty, men and women of the aristocratic class needed to dress up, and the requirements for makeup were very high.

In fact, there is a tacit agreement between the East and the West.

Regardless of whether it is the East or the West, in the early feudal era, as long as you are an aristocrat, regardless of whether you are a man or a woman, you need to dress up carefully. This is called "the demeanor and temperament of the nobility".

Not to mention that Chinese men have always had long hair. Compared with women's hair volume, they need to be groomed even more.

Therefore, in the Western Han Dynasty, nobles were very fond of this novel and gorgeous multi-children's dowry.

At the same time, this kind of dowry has various shapes, unique shapes and exquisite workmanship, which fully represent the level of lacquerware production technology in this period and the aesthetic standards of the Western Han people.

The Sanzi Liao unearthed from the tomb of Haihunhou was specially used to hold dressing utensils.

In the horseshoe-shaped lacquer dowry, archaeologists discovered combs and grates (bì), the number of which is clear and very well preserved.

You know what a comb is for.

The grate is a hair combing utensil with a beam in the middle and dense teeth on both sides. It is a hair combing utensil with denser teeth than a comb.

These are obviously hair combing tools used for Haihunhou's daily hair.

Except for these lacquers, of course.

As a traditional Chinese nobleman.

Jade is naturally indispensable.

Remove those practical utensils such as jade bowls and jade ear cups.

In the inner and outer chambers of the tomb of Marquis Haihun, Chen Han also found a goose-shaped pendant, which can be called the highest level of Hanyu!
On November 2021, 11, Chen Han cleared and unearthed many jade pendants on the east side of the main coffin, near the main coffin.

One of the jade pendants is extremely rare in workmanship!
This palm-sized jade pendant is exquisitely crafted, with patterns of dragons and tigers carved on it.Lifelike!

Through the shape of this jade pendant, Chen Han speculates that it is a violin-shaped pendant.

The so-called 韘-shaped pendant is actually a kind of jade pendant evolved from the original 韘 (she) in the Shang Dynasty, which is the finger that assists archery in the hand.

Its shape still maintains the hollow shape of the middle, but compared with the simple appearance of the wrench finger, the visor-shaped pendant liberates the nature, engraved with various patterns, and gradually evolved from a practical device to an ornament.

In the Western Han Dynasty, most of the goose-shaped pendants were ornaments, often hung on the waist, commonly known as chicken heart pendants, mostly oval in shape, with a pointed top and a round hole in the middle, similar to the shape of a chicken heart.

This precious goose-shaped pendant is decorated with Longhu patterns, with high quality and exquisite shape.

In terms of exquisiteness, it is even more exquisite than the goose-shaped pendant unearthed from the Nanyue king's tomb!
This kind of high-grade jade pendant is obviously not something that ordinary people can wear.

What is even more surprising is that after the jade pendant was sent to be cleaned, the jade pendant, which had been dormant for more than 2000 years, was still crystal clear since it still had a warm luster.

This is clearly made of the finest jade!
What's more, there is more than one surprise in the shape of the pendant!
On December 2021, 12, after cleaning, another exquisite jade pendant with dragon and tiger patterns appeared in front of everyone, and it was basically the same shape as the unearthed jade pendant.

Chen Han found that the jade pendants cleaned up this time had golden dragon, tiger and bird patterns clearly visible, but the materials were different.

The first pendant-shaped pendant should be fat-creating white jade, and the second piece may be sapphire according to visual inspection, and it must have been used by high-level nobles.

In fact, judging from the unearthed jade pendant, it belongs to one of the chains of evidence that can prove his identity and point to the identity of the owner of his tomb.

In the Western Han Dynasty, Liehou was not qualified to use this kind of creamy white jade and sapphire jade.

Such an exquisite gong-shaped pendant can only be used by emperors and princes and kings!
In this large tomb of the Western Han Dynasty in Nanchang, such a high-standard jade pendant was found. Obviously, the identity of the owner of the tomb was once again pointed to the only possible one.

Haihunhou Liu He!
Of course, in addition to these two jade pendants, there are many other jade pendants that were found in the inner coffin chamber.

Soon after that, another jade pendant was unearthed, which was composed of springs, jade figures, jade tubes, etc. This kind of pendant composed of several pieces of jade is very exquisite.

Among them, the dancer jade pendant, which is not as big as a palm, is carved with a dancing woman.

She is dressed in Hanfu, with her left hand above her head and her right hand on her waist. She has a graceful waist and a full body. She is translucent and lifelike. It seems that she will spin in the blink of an eye.

This jade pendant can be called a fine jade in terms of material, color and craftsmanship.

This is not finished!
Jade rings inlaid with onyx, decorative belts made of jade, diamond-shaped inlaid jade, a large number of agate gemstones...

A series of precious artifacts made of jade and precious stones were unearthed one after another, all of which showed the status of the owner of the tomb!
(End of this chapter)