History of grave robbery

First, the history and process of China folk tomb raiding

The real folk tomb raiding activities are very secretive (not counting the destruction by warlords in troubled times), which can be said to be self-contained, and some unique tricks are "never revealed".

In the modern sense, China has organized and targeted "archaeological excavations" initiated by the state for less than one hundred years. I remember reading several excavation reports decades ago more than ten years ago, which is not so much "excavations" ... as "a record of grave robbery". Because of its methods, means, etc ... It's all a set of grave robbers, and there is no "own" thing.

Up to now, some means may be advanced ... some high-tech components have been added, such as ground penetrating radar, metal detector, gas analyzer and so on, but the principle is still the same. The real folk grave robber is restricted by all kinds of restrictions. He can't carry a radar to rob a tomb, and even a Luoyang shovel has to be dismantled and "hidden" ... so he has his own unique skill.

If he wants to finish the seemingly "impossible task" in a unit time, he has to think of various ways, some of which are very subtle. For example, if you dig down a hole of more than ten meters, there will be no soil on the ground! A layman like me can't even think about it.

how is that possible? ! ..... Don't believe it! But I believed it later, because I believed it when I saw it on the spot. Let me find a hole at the scene ... I can't find it walking around! When I turn around, people say, "Right here where you are standing ... right at your feet, you are standing right on the mouth!" " It startled me.

Get out of the way quickly ... and then people find a shovel to dig where I am standing. A minute later, I see a hole ... It turns out that I am standing on a "grate", and the grave robbers will seal the hole when they finish their work. Now open it ... It's only a hole the size of a sewage manhole cover. After opening it, look down, and go straight for more than ten meters. You can't see the bottom of it in the dead of winter. People also say ... You can go down if you have the courage! The bottom is very strong and won't collapse. You can go down and have a look at the tomb.

I said forget it. A hole as high as four or five stories ... makes me dizzy. And what's even more strange is that ... It's surrounded by a plain, flat land, and crops are planted. There is such a manhole cover in the green tent, and there is no mound outside for hundreds of meters and miles. It's impossible to put the mound outside, and the hole is so small that it has to be sealed when working. No one can see it! ..... Although I don't know the specific practice ... But we must admit this fact! I was told that this hole was opened by grave robbers more than a year ago. After more than a year, the hole is still strong and won't collapse.

I really don't know how to do it. Eyes to see ... Don't understand.

There is also "Look at the terrain", which is even more mysterious. People who don't know can't see it when they walk beside the tomb, but people who know the ropes can see it from a few kilometers away. Some grave robbers "like" to come out and "walk around" in the snowy weather ... especially like to snow with "very fine snow particles", and the reason is related to "soil".

soil is divided into "cooked soil", "living soil" (also called "flower soil") and "dead soil". Experienced grave robbers can see at a glance whether there are tombs here or not, and even at a glance they can see what era tombs are.

The graduate student of the Department of Archaeology I know was once arranged by the school to explore the Three Gorges when he graduated from university (the rescue excavation of prehistoric culture has now been submerged after the Three Gorges rose), and he told me … what kind of soil has what kind of characteristics, and it is very clear. And interestingly, he himself admits: our level is not comparable to that of real grave robbers, and our experience is far from perfect. We mainly focus on theory. You dig up something ... to analyze it, look at its characteristics, and when it was analyzed. That's ok, but if you really want to "find a grave" ... that would be a joke.

First of all, the tombs of various dynasties have their own characteristics, such as the characteristics in shape, and so on. If you master these characteristics, you can get twice the result with half the effort.

You can use the probe to explore first, and "feel" whether there is a tomb according to the feeling on your hand. After being confirmed, shovel, such as: a shovel goes down to 1 meters, and then ... look at the depth and what is brought out of the shovel. The depth is also a sign. There are sawdust, cinnabar, pit ash and so on ... These are all characteristics; Then, square the shape of the tomb with a trowel. Is to fix the coordinates.

If you hit one on the left ... and miss it for ten meters, it's "over", then go back to the right and continue to hit ... and so on, the dots are connected one by one, which is the shape of a tomb more than ten meters underground. Then, according to the characteristics of the shape, depth, pit ash, wood (or stone and brick) of the tomb, the age of the tomb, the position of the tomb door and so on can be inferred.

Generally speaking, the objects in the tombs of any dynasty have their own rules. When you look at the shape of a Han tomb, the Eastern Han Dynasty or the Western Han Dynasty, you will have an "image" in your head ... where the coffin should be, where the pottery is buried, where the metal utensils are, and what will be in the ear rooms on both sides ... and so on.

When you really go down ... go straight there and dig it (Han tombs are usually collapsed and filled with earth, which is called a tomb ... actually, they are all soil, but they are moving in the soil, and everything is in the soil). This is the characteristic of the "left shoulder and right foot" I mentioned in the above post ... Generally, expensive funerary objects will be placed in the coffin of the tomb owner, with the left shoulder and right foot.

That is to say, before you dig the tomb, you have the concept of the whole tomb in your mind. When you really dig it down, you will go directly to the place where you want to find something ... Some tombs, such as the Ming and Qing Tombs, will have a very thick top (think about it ... how strong the blue bricks with seven vertical and seven horizontal floors and fourteen * * * floors will be! ), it is necessary to avoid the top of the tomb when digging holes. Otherwise, if you hit the top of the tomb ... You may not finish your work in one night, but do you dare to come the next day? Maybe the police are already waiting for you.

So, once the shovel touches the brick (the shovel will carry brick dust when it is lifted), you should avoid the top of the tomb when opening the hole. Anyway, the shape of the tomb has been "square", and you know the position of the entrance, the wall and the top of the tomb, so when you open the hole, you will naturally find other places to hit ... This "other place" may sometimes be near the entrance of the tomb, and sometimes it may be near the back wall of the tomb, which is all possible, completely according to the tomb. Second, the history of grave robbers

The methods and techniques of robbing tombs and finding treasures have a long history in China. The earliest tomb that was stolen in history was Shang Tang, the first generation of Shang Dynasty. It was 3,6 years ago, and the robbery first appeared in the late Western Zhou Dynasty more than 2,77 years ago. Someone got a jade seal from the excavated tomb with a cross on it, and no one knew it. The rules and methods of grave robbery were used to rob the tomb. Like Dong Zhuo and Sun Dianying in the Republic of China, they are all very popular. They use a large number of soldiers to carry sticks with open fire. There is also a large number of people who steal. They are concentrated in Henan, Shaanxi and Changsha, Hunan. Professional thieves are usually two people in partnership. Many gangs are few, and they do less alone, because one person can't take care of it. They need one person to dig, and the party style is not correct. Friends can kiss each other, but father and son rarely cooperate with each other. When looking for partners, we need to be very careful to prevent anyone from being greedy. These people have long been engaged in grave robbery, have rich experience, are good at camouflage, and are very good at anti-theft organs. After they determine their goals, if the small tomb doesn't take much effort, they will dig it up in a few nights and take out the goods and leave. If it is a large or medium-sized tomb, they will take farming as the name. Covering up a two-month poaching activity with a green gauze tent. Second, building a house near the tomb to hide people's eyes and ears, and then digging a tunnel from the house to the tomb, you can't see anything from the outside. Third, secretly digging a tunnel while building a fake grave near the tomb, and stealing property into the tomb. Changsha tomb raiding is definitely in the south, and Luoyang shovel is not very good. After the ancients summed up the experience of many parties, they looked forward to it, smelled it and asked to cut it. That is to say, grave robbers often know the skill of geomantic omen, judging the size of a cemetery by geomantic omen, and playing with the skill of nose. They can determine which generation of tombs they belong to with a handful of soil. They are amazed by the letter. There is a legend that there was a grave robber who was robbed for three generations and developed a skill, but he was caught in the 198s. He should have died, but because of his skill, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and worked for the archaeological cause all his life. Three questions were mostly eloquence. Talking about the past and discussing the present with the elderly, in order to get the information about tombs. Four cuts mean pulse diagnosis. There are three layers of arguments. One is to judge the age and size of tombs according to the soil layer. The other is to touch the objects on the deceased in the coffin of the tomb, from the head to the mouth to the feet, which is a pool of indifference. It must be a delicate mind. The third is to touch the unearthed objects by hand to judge the value of the objects. The matter of robbing the tomb and finding treasures has been around for a long time. Today, the tools are more modern, collectivized and intelligent. They use military compasses for detection, detectors, detonators, explosives, chainsaws, cars for transportation, and mobile phones for communication. Therefore, if you want to learn this skill, it is complicated and arduous, and there is a long way to go. Modern grave robbers have carried forward the tools for grave robbery ... The general Luoyang shovel has been eliminated, and the shovel used is modified on the basis of Luoyang shovel.

Because the wooden pole connected to the back of Luoyang shovel head is too long ... and the target is too big, it is abandoned, and screw pipe is used instead ... half a meter up and down, which can be nested layer by layer ... and extended at will. When I look at the terrain at ordinary times, I take it apart and carry it in my shoulder bag.

Similarly, the tombs dug are different ... and the tools used for robbing tombs are also different. A heavy shovel evolved from Luoyang shovel was used to explore the Han tombs, a flat shovel (similar to crescent shovel of Lu Zhishen) was used to dig the Tang tombs, and a rolling fork and a skimming knife were used to tamp the soil when entering the Han tombs (most of the Han tombs were pits and collapsed).

Generally speaking, the Western Han tombs have no wing rooms, and the Eastern Han tombs have two more wing rooms, which is a sign. The tomb of the Tang Dynasty was built by tomb bricks, and there was no bonding between the bricks, so it was built into a dome.

however, Han tombs with brick tombs are not common (except for the big tombs), and most of them are graves or wooden squares on them. Tombs in Ming and Qing Dynasties are mostly brick structures, with lime and iron pieces embedded between them. Some tombs in Ming Dynasty have a top thickness of more than two meters (with seven spokes and seven coupons) ... very strong.

The depth of the Ming tomb from the ground is generally less than six meters, and it can be excavated overnight without special methods. The Han tombs are about 11 or 12 meters away from the surface of the earth, while the tombs of the Western Zhou Dynasty are deeper. If the excavation is to be completed overnight, special methods must be used.

Especially the Han tombs and the Western Zhou tombs have a long history, and the signs are hard to find. There is a process of "finding a place" first. Determine the location, explore the bar, shovel, look at the pit ash, and determine the shape and orientation of the tomb (that is, determine the age) ... Then we can get ready and use special methods to complete the excavation overnight.

Grave robbers have a very strong goal of robbing a tomb. For example, when they enter the tomb, they will dig directly to the coffin position ... Then they will look for things in the "left shoulder and right foot" and then search in the ear room (Dongcang Xiku) ... As for other positions, it depends on the length of time. If the time is short, they will be abandoned. There are many experiences when we look at the terrain. For example, the ancient tomb-robbing pits such as "Qin Buried Ridge and Han Buried Slope" are all square pits, but in modern times they are round pits. This is the so-called "ancient square near garden" to counter tomb-robbing. The origin of the legend of "suspected tomb" is the most common way to counter tomb-robbing, which is to hide the tomb site, so that the tomb robbers do not know where it is.

It is said that one of the main starting points of the ancient tombs was to prevent illegal excavation, because they were not sealed and trees were not set on the ground. The grave robbery in the Three Kingdoms period at the end of Han Dynasty led to the so-called "suspected grave" and "virtual grave" in various forms of anti-grave robbery, that is, the situation of confusing grave robbers with true and false tombs.

Among them, the "suspected tomb" set by Cao Cao is the most famous. According to folklore, Cao Cao has as many as 72 "suspected graves", some of which are even set in the water.

Quanzhou folks once said that General Shi Lang had seven "virtual tombs", which were located at the gates of several ancient cities in Quanzhou. The traditional anti-tomb-raiding methods include stone-walled iron walls for firmness, sand-accumulated water for anti-theft chisel, and the way of killing tomb-raiders with crossbows and arrows and poisonous smoke.

The ancient tomb was seriously stolen, and the losses caused by it are immeasurable. Taking the thousands of Han tombs that have been excavated in China as an example, it is reported that only three tombs have survived.

"When we were excavating an ancient tomb, we were most worried that the tomb had been looted by grave robbers." A scholar who has been engaged in archaeological work for a long time said this.

"From the archaeological point of view, the ancients regarded death as life, and the ancient tombs became important cultural relics in the study of ancient society. The cultural relics in the ancient tombs represent the history imprinted by a long civilization. For. Iii. Introduction to the History of Tomb Robbery in Ancient China

The History of Tomb Robbery in China

is a relatively complete monograph reflecting the history of tomb robbery in China. The author is Wang Zijin, a famous historian. It introduces in detail the phenomenon of tomb robbery and the struggle against tomb robbery in various times, interspersed with various tomb robbery psychology and phenomena caused by tomb robbery, such as resurrection, seeking relatives, fighting dry bones and whipping corpses, as well as the historical development of tomb robbery technology and objective cultural discovery.

The History of Tomb Robbers in China

Author Ni Fangliu (author)

This book refers to the historical records, and it is divided into emperor chapters-six tomb-robbing emperors, king chapters-four tomb-robbing kings, minister chapters: whipping corpses and stealing treasures, Confucianism chapters: one tomb-robbing scholar, and soldiers. Fourth, the history of grave robbery in China

A typical case of appalling grave robbery

1. Bulldozers were used for grave robbery

In the spring of 1982, hundreds of farmers gathered at the Song Dynasty kiln site in Jianyang, Fujian, and in just one month, it destroyed 2, square meters of the kiln site. By March, 1983, more than 4 people were still unable to gather, and bulldozers were used frantically. Within eight days, 23, square meters of kiln site was dug up with bulldozers, and the loss of cultural relics could not be counted.

2. Strike on agriculture and education, robbing tombs together

From June to August, 1983, there was a sudden wave of grave robbery in Huaiyang County, Henan Province. Farmers didn't farm, workers didn't go to work, teachers didn't attend classes, and hundreds of people robbed tombs crazily every day. There were 75 stolen ancient tombs, 8 ancient tombs during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and 666 tombs of Han Dynasty, and the stolen cultural relics could not be counted.

3. Tomb-raiding, but also all-in-one responsibility

From April 1985 to 1986, 18 townships in Longquan County, Zhejiang Province set off a tomb-raiding frenzy. In less than a year, more than 3,6 ancient tombs in the county during the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties were looted, among which 1 village cadres were involved.

The most shocking thing is that Shaanxi.