Professor Meng shook his head and said, "You're not strong enough, Xiao Liu, why don't you lend a hand..."
Even with Xiao Liu's help, they couldn't even open the coffin lid before Zhuang Rui saw the situation and said, "Teacher, let me try..."
After handing the camera to Dr. Ren, Zhuang Rui put on a pair of gloves, placed his hands on the front of the coffin, and with a forceful push, a "crackling" sound of stones rubbing together rang out. The coffin lid, which fit perfectly with the coffin itself, slowly moved backward.
"It's really not light..."
Zhuang Rui weighed it in his hand; the coffin lid must have weighed several hundred kilograms. He wondered how the ancients had managed to move it up the mountain and place it in this tomb.
"Depend on!"
When a crack appeared in the coffin beneath him, a stench that Zhuang Rui couldn't quite describe wafted out of the coffin, causing him to quickly release his grip and back away.
"Ugh...what..."
Leaning against the wall covered with reliefs, Zhuang Rui bent over and gagged several times. The smell was so awful that he almost fainted.
Dr. Ren took a bottle of medicated oil and rubbed some on Zhuang Rui's nose and temples, saying apologetically, "Zhuang Rui, put some medicated oil on. I forgot to tell you, try to hold your breath when we open the coffin..."
"This, this smells awful! It's been a thousand or two thousand years, how come the smell hasn't dissipated yet?"
It took Zhuang Rui five or six minutes to catch his breath. Looking at the stone coffin with a crack, he simply didn't have the courage to go forward anymore.
Seeing Zhuang Rui's appearance, Professor Meng smiled and said, "This stone coffin is very well sealed, and since this tomb hasn't been opened for one or two thousand years, the smell has all accumulated inside. Xiao Zhuang, it's alright. Although the smell is unpleasant, it's not poisonous..."
Professor Meng has presided over many scientific expeditions to open coffins, and he also participated in the excavation of the Ming Tombs as a staff member in the last century. He has smelled all kinds of unpleasant odors. At this moment, he was standing not far from the coffin, seemingly unaware of the smell wafting out.
Zhuang Rui caught a whiff of that smell again, which even his medicated oil couldn't mask. He quickly said, "I'll just pull the coffin lid down from the back..."
"Be careful, Xiao Ren and Xiao Liu. Get the rope and bar ready. Lower it gently later..."
Professor Meng directed everyone to stand at the bottom of the coffin. Stone coffins are extremely rare in ancient tombs, and with such exquisite reliefs on them, they are a precious work of art in themselves.
When Zhuang Rui pulled the coffin lid out about a meter, Dr. Ren and the others secured it with ropes. The four of them stood on both sides and lifted it up. Instantly, the stench became even stronger, filling the entire tomb chamber.
Zhuang Rui had already put on a mask and sprayed a lot of medicated oil on it, but he still felt a little uncomfortable. He said, "Teacher, should we use a blower to circulate the air in the tomb first?"
The soft tubing they brought in for the blower was over a hundred meters long, enough to pull into the recruitment room.
"No, the stench means the items in the museum aren't severely decayed. If fresh air comes in, there probably won't be anything left..."
Professor Meng shook his head. At this moment, he also put on a mask and leather gloves, in case there were corrosive substances in the building.
"Brocade?"
Under the light, Professor Meng looked into the stone coffin and let out a gasp, which sounded somewhat muffled through his mask.
Although Zhuang Rui disliked the smell inside the coffin, he was genuinely curious about what could have caused the old professor to lose his composure like this. He quickly took a step forward to the stone coffin and peered inside.
"Where are the bodies?"
Zhuang Rui forced himself to endure the foul stench and looked up, only to find some textile-like things inside the building; the corpse he had imagined was nowhere to be seen.
"The body is at the bottom; we need to clear away the things on top first..."
Dr. Ren, also wearing gloves, came to the stone coffin. The cleaning of the artifacts inside the stone coffin was mainly carried out by him and Professor Meng.
The other people were carrying plastic bags and paper bags, each labeled with a number indicating the order in which the artifacts were unearthed. This is why some research papers specify which artifacts were unearthed from a particular tomb.
"Is the character on this the character for 'longevity'?"
Zhuang Rui saw a large "longevity" character on the brocade inside the coffin, surrounded by many decorative patterns. Although it had been sealed for thousands of years, it was still as good as new.
"This is a longevity quilt made of Han Dynasty brocade. It has been unearthed before, but those tombs have all been looted. This is the first time I have seen such a complete brocade. It is a priceless treasure..."
Professor Meng looked at the brocade and continued, "This is called Two-Color Gold Treasury Brocade. All the patterns on it are woven with gold and silver threads, with gold thread as the main thread and silver thread as the decoration for a small part of the patterns. In ancient times, only the royal family could use it..."
While Professor Meng was talking to Zhuang Rui, he suddenly saw Ren Chunqiang reach out and lift a corner of the brocade, and hurriedly shouted, "Slow down, don't..."
Professor Meng called out a little too late. Dr. Ren's hand had already grasped the brocade. Zhuang Rui saw it clearly: the brightly colored brocade, which looked as if it had just been made, had already turned to ashes in Dr. Ren's hand.
"Sigh, it's not your fault. These textiles are very difficult to preserve. Xiao Zhuang, take pictures of all these brocades for future reference..."
Professor Meng sighed. He had originally wanted to observe for a while longer, but Dr. Ren had already taken action. The colors of the brocade that had been touched were slowly fading. Presumably, once the outside air circulated in, the brocade would be gone.
Upon hearing this, Zhuang Rui immediately picked up the camera and filmed every pattern of the brocade. He now knew that his master's body was under the brocade quilt.
As the air in the tomb gradually cleared, the brocade inside the stone coffin became increasingly dull in color, a far cry from its previous radiant appearance.
"Alright, let's begin. Be careful, lift the lid one floor at a time..."
The brocade could not be preserved, which only made Professor Meng feel sad for a while, but the excitement of discovering a complete Han Dynasty tomb surged into his heart again.
It's important to know that most of the Han Dynasty tombs unearthed in modern times are empty. Even the tombs that aren't empty usually have very few items left, as they've been almost entirely looted by tomb robbers throughout history.
Although only a complete burial chamber has been discovered so far, there is sufficient reason to believe that the possibility of the tomb being looted is very small, and perhaps some discoveries that will shock the archaeological world will indeed emerge.
"The first unearthed artifact, a pair of gold-threaded bracelets..."
"Item number three unearthed: a phoenix hairpin..."
"This...this is a golden phoenix crown. Be careful, place it carefully..."
It's unclear how many layers this longevity quilt has, but as each layer was lifted, burial objects were revealed on almost every layer, mostly belonging to women. After the head of the coffin was cleared out first, the most important artifact of the day finally appeared.
Zhuang Rui could clearly see in the camera that it was a phoenix crown. The entire crown was woven from gold and silver wire, with a hollowed-out shape and a three-dimensional feel. It was also inlaid with dozens of pearls and gemstones.
The crown has two phoenixes that sing loudly, with jeweled ornaments in their beaks. The pearls and gold and silver reflect each other, making it extremely magnificent.
After Professor Meng removed the phoenix crown from one side of the skull, the entire tomb chamber shone brightly.
After carefully storing the phoenix crown, Professor Meng and Dr. Ren gradually cleaned the brocade. More than two hours had passed, and they had actually found 231 cultural relics in just this one coffin.
The skeleton of a woman, with black hair still remaining near her head, was finally revealed to everyone.
Chapter 892 Human Sacrifice
To be honest, seeing the corpses inside the eerie coffin in this gloomy tomb was completely different from the corpses he had seen outside. Even though Zhuang Rui was an atheist, he couldn't help but feel a little creeped out.
It is estimated that Zhuang Rui is the only person in the room who is participating in an on-site archaeological excavation for the first time. Apart from him, everyone else ignores the skeleton. Professor Meng is even wearing gloves and has already begun to examine the teeth of the skeleton.
When Zhuang Rui saw Professor Meng take out a magnifying glass and almost put his face right up to the skull, his hair nearly stood on end. Zhuang Rui asked himself honestly, he probably couldn't be that dedicated.
Archaeologists need to have a wide range of knowledge, including not only history and chemistry, but also some basic knowledge of medical anatomy, so that when they see a dead person, they can tell whether the death was natural or unnatural.
"Judging from the wear and tear on this woman's teeth, she shouldn't be very old, no more than thirty. Could she have been buried alive with someone?"
After examining the remains, Professor Meng's expression turned somewhat grave. Everyone present knew that burying living people with the deceased was a common custom in ancient funerals. Sometimes, the deceased's wives, concubines, and servants were buried with them, which was called human sacrifice.
The practice of burying living people with the dead can be described as a cruel and barbaric system in ancient China. It was somewhat curbed after the Qin and Han dynasties, and was often replaced by wooden or terracotta figurines. After the Qin and Han dynasties, it was rare for people to be buried alive with the dead.
However, the practice of human sacrifice resurfaced during the Ming Dynasty. Emperor Taizu of Ming set a precedent, and Emperor Yingzong of Ming ended the practice of human sacrifice. Human sacrifice continued during the reigns of Emperors Huang Taiji and Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty, and it was not until the reign of Emperor Kangxi that the feudal practice of human sacrifice was finally ended.
"Teacher, could it be that they died later and were reburied?"
Dr. Ren had a slightly different opinion. Before the Qin and Han dynasties, human sacrifices were not buried in such elaborate ways. Most of the time, people were buried alive in a burial pit, or the people were driven into the tomb chamber, the tomb door was closed, and they died inside.
Only during the Ming and Qing dynasties were concubines forced to commit suicide, and then they were given coffins and buried in the tombs on either side of the emperor. However, it is clear that this is definitely not a Ming or Qing dynasty burial practice.
Dr. Ren's point about reburying the deceased after death is a common practice in the Ming and Qing dynasties, especially the Qing dynasty. After the emperor built his mausoleum, if the empress died early, she would be placed in the mausoleum first, and then the tomb would be opened and she would be reburied after the emperor died.
This is precisely why the locations of the Qing Dynasty emperors' tombs are the clearest and most widely known; otherwise, Sun Dianying wouldn't have been able to so easily loot the tombs of Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Qianlong.
Professor Meng shook his head and said, "Impossible. This cliff tomb is very difficult to open after it was sealed. It must have been a funerary sacrifice. However, with such a stone coffin, this woman must have been of very high status..."
The tombs of ancient emperors, especially those of the Qin and Han dynasties and the Yuan dynasty, were extremely secretive. Generally, only the royal family knew about them, and the records were incomplete, only showing the general location. Once a tomb was sealed, it would never be opened again.
After Professor Meng finished speaking, he carefully searched inside the coffin again, hoping to find some items that could identify the owner. Unfortunately, apart from the burial objects, there were no inscriptions.
"Alright, take out all the jade plugs from the nine orifices. These are the things tomb raiders love most..."
With the discovery of the woman's remains, Professor Meng's interest in the ancient tomb grew even stronger. He was now certain that there was a main burial chamber inside, and even many other burial chambers like this one, since it was impossible for the tomb owner to have only one wife.
In layman's terms, the "nine orifices" refer to the two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, mouth, anterior urethra, and posterior anus of the human body. The jade plugs on the bones of the corpse had basically fallen into the coffin and were quickly picked out.
The jade plug at the anus was removed by two staff members after they had collected the remains into a bag.
Zhuang Rui took a look at the mouth-holding object; it was a jade cicada, also called a "king's mouth," which was believed to be placed in the mouth of the emperor after his death.
This is a jade cicada with a large head and eyes, and a narrow, elongated trapezoidal body and wings. The carving is exquisite. When the jade cicada is held upside down, it vaguely resembles the character "八" (eight), a typical example of Han Dynasty eight-stroke carving.
The jade cicada's head has no holes; it was purely used as a burial jade. The jade material is top-grade white jade, but it has blood stains on it. The entire surface of the jade cicada is slightly reddish, and the stains have penetrated deep into the jade. When you hold it in your hand, the blood-red light flows, and it is clearly not an ordinary item.
"What's wrong, Zhuang Rui? You've got it all stuck in your head, haha..."
After Dr. Ren finished cleaning up the contents of the coffin, he saw Zhuang Rui playing with the jade cicada with great affection. He couldn't help but say that he knew Zhuang Rui had developed his expertise from collecting antiques to archaeology. Seeing these things was like a teacher seeing documents in an ancient tomb—he wanted to take them home and study them slowly.
"Hehe, Brother Ren, it's true. Do you know how much such a small gadget costs?"
Zhuang Rui smiled. This jade cicada was the best he had ever seen, both in terms of its carving and the quality of its jade. If the identity of the tomb's owner could also be verified, this single item alone could fetch an astronomical price.
"One hundred thousand? That's about right, isn't it?"
Dr. Ren was also curious after hearing Zhuang Rui's words. He usually focused his attention on academics. Although he could authenticate some cultural relics, he didn't know much about the market price of antiques.
So even this price of 100,000 was just Dr. Ren exaggerating. In his opinion, since this jade wasn't cultured white jade and its texture was stained with blood, it probably wouldn't fetch a high price.
"One hundred thousand? Brother Ren, one hundred thousand yuan can't even buy the carving skills of this jade cicada..."
Zhuang Rui laughed upon hearing this, rubbed the jade cicada with his thumb, and continued, "The patina is a natural blood stain, white jade with a reddish tinge, and it's carved with the Han Eight Cuts technique by a famous master. If such a jade cicada were to go to auction, the starting price would be over 2 million..."
"Two...two million? This...this little thing can...can be worth that much money?"
Ren Chunqiang almost thought he had misheard. He had also excavated many ancient tombs with Professor Meng. Almost as long as the remains were intact, jade artifacts could be unearthed. There were at least dozens of such artifacts by now. However, he did not expect that such an inconspicuous item would be so expensive.
"Hehe, Brother Ren, 2 million is just the starting bid. It's normal for it to end up costing 5 or 6 million... However, most jade pieces aren't that valuable. You can usually buy one for around 100,000. It's just that this one has a very beautiful patina, excellent craftsmanship, and good jade quality, which is why it's a bit more expensive..."
Burial jade also varies in quality. Burial jade from before the Qin and Han dynasties was actually very cheap because it was not pure jade. It was almost entirely half stone and half jade, with more than half being stone, so it was naturally not worth much money.
Therefore, the price of burial jade in the market is very unstable. High-quality burial jade can be extremely expensive, while low-quality jade may be so cheap that no one wants it.
However, the jade cicada in Zhuang Rui's hand is definitely a top-quality burial jade. If he saw such a beautiful jade cicada at an auction, he would definitely acquire it regardless of the cost.
Hearing Zhuang Rui's words, Dr. Ren was dumbfounded. He now truly understood why those tomb raiders dared to take the risk of excavating ancient tombs. It was simply a matter of risk-free profit. As long as they put in a little effort, the returns were incredibly generous.
Looking at the jade cicada in Zhuang Rui's hand, Dr. Ren's eyes had changed. He only earned a little over 100,000 or 200,000 yuan a year, but this small item could almost ensure that he would live a life of comfort for the rest of his life.
"Alas, wealth can be tempting. Xiao Ren, Xiao Liu, remember, these things are relics of the nation's historical heritage, reference points that bear witness to history. You must not be tempted by them..."
Professor Meng, listening to Zhuang Rui and Ren Chunqiang's conversation, suddenly interjected with a remark that made Ren Chunqiang and the other staff members present realize the situation and nod in agreement.
Professor Meng's words were by no means unfounded. Among the many museums in the country, there are not a few bad apples who sell precious cultural relics from the museums to cultural relic smugglers. This has happened many times before.
The harm caused by these people is even more unforgivable than that of tomb raiders. They knowingly break the law and have caused some national treasures to be lost overseas, which is basically impossible to recover.