Master Archaeologist

Chapter 273 Money Mountain!

"How much? Dozens of tons of copper coins?!"

Chen Han looked at the staff member who came to deliver the letter in great surprise.

What is the concept of dozens of tons of copper coins?
In the Han Dynasty, one tael was 24 baht, and one tael was equivalent to nearly five five baht coins.

In the Han Dynasty, 16 taels was a catty, so there was the idiom "half a catty eight taels".

And a catty in the Han Dynasty was only about half a catty in modern times.

So if it is a modern catty, there are about 160 copper coins!

One kilogram is about 320 copper coins!

One ton is already an astronomical figure.

Dozens of tons, I can't believe it.

I am afraid that copper coins can be piled up into a copper mountain!
The staff member who came to pass the letter answered with certainty, panting: "At least there should be more than a dozen tons, which fully fills a storage room. This storage room has already been named the money bank."

"The location is the first room on the west side of the back storage room!"

The layout of Haihunhou's tomb is an approximately square tomb.

There are two car and horse warehouses on the left and right in the front. After the middle corridor comes down, there is the main tomb, and on both sides of the main tomb is the East XZ room.

And behind the main tomb, there is a row of back storage rooms.

Archaeological teams from the provincial and Shaanxi archaeological institutes came to help clean up and excavate these hidden rooms.

At present, a wine storehouse, a grain storehouse, and two rear storage rooms on the west side have not been cleaned up.

Unexpectedly, one of them turned out to be a bank full of copper coins!

Ignoring the hypoxic workstation that had gone away, Kong Jianwen and director Wen led Chen Han and others, and immediately went down the tomb passage and rushed to the back storage room.

What a joke!
A whole stash of copper coins was stuffed.

None of the archaeologists present had seen such a thing!
The tomb covering an area of ​​[-] square meters is either big or small.

A group of people quickened their pace and arrived at the back room after a while.

Following the pace of the guides, everyone entered one of the five rooms in the back storage room.

As soon as they entered the door, densely packed copper coins stacked together appeared in front of everyone.

These copper coins are all strung into strings with hemp rope, and then piled up into "money mountains".

Although after more than 2000 years, most of the hemp ropes used to wear copper coins have decayed, leaving only a few traces.

But because it has been fixed for a long time, even if the hemp rope breaks and rots, these copper coins basically remain in a bunch of bunches, stacked together.

Even, a lot of copper coins have been glued together long ago, which is stronger than stringing them with hemp rope.

"It is said in the history books that during the reign of Wenjing, there were so many copper coins in the treasury that the hemp ropes of the money were rotten and broken. It is even more shocking to read the words alone, and there is no such real scene at all!"

Kong Jianwen murmured: "It can be regarded as an insight into what it means for a capital to accumulate tens of thousands of dollars, which is irreversible."

The archaeologists of the Nanchang Institute, who had been busy in the money bank for a long time, came forward and said, "We have already inspected some of these copper coins."

"All of them are five baht coins made during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, with the word five baht engraved on them!"

"Roughly estimated, there should be more than ten tons, more than 200 million pieces!"

Director Wen smashed his mouth and said dryly: "It's a big scene."

"The Marquis of Haihun sent so much money into the tomb because he was afraid that he would have no money to squander after his death."

These copper coins were not put into the tomb after Haihun Hou was expelled from the country.

The nobles in the Han Dynasty would start preparing to build their own tombs before they were alive.

Up to the emperor, down to the princes and princes, and even high-ranking nobles such as Guanneihou, they basically repaired the tomb in advance.

The emperor began to build the imperial mausoleum immediately after he ascended the throne, and repaired it as long as he was in power.

The princes and kings are similar, they all start building mausoleums immediately after inheriting the throne.

It is estimated that the second-level nobles such as Liehou and Guanneihou are similar.

At least judging from the specifications of Haihunhou's tomb, it can't be repaired within a few years.

And there is no trace of hastily started, or hastily completed.

This shows that although Haihunhou died at the age of 33, the construction of this tomb may have started after he became Haihunhou.

It was built for at least four years before his death, and two or three years after his death, and it may not be completely completed.

This also shows that when the tomb was built, Haihunhou himself participated in the planning, and even led it himself.

And this back room, which is all used to hold copper coins, was obviously planned by Haihunhou himself, and it was prepared in advance, not made by later generations.

This is surprising.

Counting the large tombs of the Western Han Dynasty in detail, most of them were buried with precious gold, and they were buried with five baht coins, but it will never be exaggerated to more than ten tons.

Because for the senior nobles above Liehou, they actually don't use copper coins at all in their daily life.

No matter whether it is communication or trading between princes and princes, they usually use gold as the currency, and it is impossible to use copper coins, which are inconvenient for transactions.

Because it involves transactions between princes, if copper coins are used for settlement, it will cost tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of copper coins, which may not be able to be pulled away with several carriages.

Therefore, copper coins, in the eyes of nobles above Liehou, are far less important than gold, and are not as useful as gold.

Maybe the treasury of Liehou's mansion is full of copper coins, but there is very little chance to spend them.

Not to mention taking it to the grave.

But Liu He brought 200 million five baht coins to bury him
"I'm afraid this has something to do with Liu He's rough life." Kong Jianwen sighed: "Liu He's fate has been ups and downs, with several ups and downs."

"He probably also developed a fearful character."

"So after dying in another world, Liu He didn't want to treat himself badly anymore, and that's why he brought so many five baht coins into the grave."

"This is the same as the mentality of some people who are afraid of poverty."

Chen Han nodded in understanding.

Thinking of Liu He's rough life experience, it seems understandable that he was so afraid of running out of money underground.

At this time, several archaeologists from the Nanchang Institute of Archaeology approached and asked, "Professors, how should we extract these five baht coins?"

Because of the long history and the experience of an earthquake, the placement of these five baht coins has become disorganized.

And many are glued together.

Regardless of the appearance, these five baht coins still look like one piece.

But in fact, all of them are in the unit of "one", sticking together into mountains of money, which is difficult to extract and process individually.

This made the Nanchang Archaeological Institute, which had never seen such a big battle, a little helpless.

Regarding this, Director Wen was a little embarrassed.

How can I say that the Nanchang Institute is also his subordinate unit, so he was helpless when he encountered this kind of thing.

He said with a somewhat dissatisfied expression; "What else can I do, of course the whole set has been extracted!"

"A mountain of money is only a few meters long and one or two meters wide. Just put crates around it and send it to the rear laboratory."

At the rear, there is a chemical potion specially used to separate copperware from copper coins. As long as these mountains of money are soaked in it for a period of time, they can easily be turned back into copper coins.

This is not difficult to deal with.

However, Director Wen thought about it for a while, and then said: "Leave a few of them as they are, and then they can be extracted as a whole, and they can be directly displayed in the museum."

This kind of copper coin mountain that has been stacked for more than 2000 years still looks quite shocking, and it is very suitable for the public to visit!
No matter how detailed it is in the book, it is not as effective as seeing it with your own eyes!

(End of this chapter)