Experts excavated the ancient tomb and came across a cultural relic that disappeared in an instant. Fortunately, they took a photo soon. What is that?

Lotus root is a kind of food that many people like very much. Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty once wrote a poem entitled "Twenty-four Kinds of Lotus Roots Painted by Shen Zhou", which wrote: "The lotus house is green and the lotus festival is lush." Although lotus root is a common occurrence, our archaeologists did not expect that a pot of lotus root soup with clear color could be found in a thousand-year-old tomb.

Ancient tombs have always been full of mystery, but for archaeologists, this is not the case. Archaeologists go in and out to excavate ancient tombs, the main purpose of which is to protect precious cultural relics and provide evidence for historical research. Archaeological work is also very hard, and it is common to travel across mountains and rivers and have a picnic. But for many archaeologists, what they are most afraid of is not hard work, but encountering some extremely precious and easily damaged cultural relics. In fact, fear is not accurate, because generally speaking, almost all archaeologists will be surprised when they meet these cultural relics.

▲ Archaeological excavation site

0 1

The first such cultural relics are bamboo, wood, silk and silk products. Articles made of these materials will be stored in dark and damp graves for a long time, and will become decadent after hundreds and thousands of years. Once a large amount of oxygen is pumped into the grave, it will be oxidized soon. These precious things will not only lose their original color, but also cannot be repaired at all.

The second is those items that are very easily damaged. Such as light jade, porcelain, glassware and even carbonized ancient eggs. These things are often damaged with a touch, and a little carelessness is a huge loss.

▲ Eggs found in Western Zhou Tombs

The third kind is the lotus root soup we mentioned earlier, and you can't touch it at all. Touch the pot with lotus root soup a little, and the lotus root slices in the soup will disappear with a pat. So where did this lotus root soup come from?

As we all know, Mawangdui Tomb is a very famous Han tomb in China. Mawangdui Tomb is the family cemetery of Li Cang, the prime minister of Changsha in Han Dynasty. Archaeologists discovered countless treasures from the tomb of Mrs. Xin Zhui, the wife of Li Cang, when excavating Mawangdui tomb. Because this ancient tomb is so famous, the cultural relics in it are also widely known, such as plain gauze clothes weighing less than 50 grams, exquisite and luxurious lacquerware, metal utensils, jade articles and so on. There are all kinds of furniture and daily necessities, and even the bones of rabbits, dogs, pigs, deer, cows and other animals.

▲ Splendid Luo Qi unearthed from Mawangdui Tomb.

02

And, of course, Mrs. Xin Zhui's famous wet corpse, which will not rot for a thousand years. The pot of lotus root soup we are talking about is in a wooden box in front of Mrs. Xin Zhui's grave. In this wooden box, there are some cereal crops such as rice, wheat, barley, millet and millet. In addition, there are special containers for holding different fruits such as melons, dates and pears.

When archaeologists saw these things, they found that grain and bean crops were very dry because of their age, so the light and oxygen projected from the outside had no effect on them, but those fruits and vegetables soon began to change color. Photographers of the archaeological team have taken the time to photograph these things.

▲ Vegetables and fruits in the ancient tomb

Just then, a worker found something under the wooden box, which seemed to be a good lacquer ware (lacquer tripod) with a lid. So the staff carefully walked over and gently uncovered the lid of the lacquer ware, and suddenly found a pot of lotus root soup with clear color inside! There are soup and lotus root slices in it. The color of lotus root slices looks fresh. Although there is sour taste, it is not pungent.

03

The staff let this happen, so they picked up the lacquerware with both hands and prepared to hand it over to other staff responsible for picking up cultural relics. However, with his movements, he suddenly found that the lotus root slices in the soup actually began to melt, as written in "Surprise at the First Moment": "In the blink of an eye, Jinshan became an iceberg."

▲ Old photos of lotus root soup

After a while, some lotus root slices in the soup disappeared like ashes. The staff immediately called the photographer to take pictures, and the photographer of the archaeological team was experienced. As soon as he saw this scene, he ran over without hesitation, raised his camera and pressed the shutter on this pot of lotus root soup. When the photographer was ready to take the second photo, the lotus roots had completely disappeared. Finally, many archaeologists and paleontologists came up with an explanation for this phenomenon: because these lotus root slices have been preserved in ancient tombs for thousands of years, their fibers have aged to a certain extent, and this phenomenon called fiber disintegration will occur when the container is slightly shaken.

label

In fact, this phenomenon in this pot of lotus root soup also answers another doubt in historical materials, that is, the earthquake. According to historical records, there was a small earthquake in Changsha during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and there was no earthquake record since then. There is no fiber disintegration in this basin of lotus root soup until it is unearthed, which shows that the historical records are accurate and there has been no earthquake in Changsha for a long time.