Demystifying contemporary tomb robbery: highly professional, high-risk areas have been formed in Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi
The New Tomb Raider: The Evolution of the Ancient "Industry"
China News Weekly reporter/Xu Dawei
Issued in the 970th issue of China News Weekly at 2020.11.2
On April 23, 2020, a thrilling centralized arrest operation quietly started in Anhui.
The Huainan City Police in Anhui Province carefully arranged 5 arrest teams to conduct arrest operations in 5 counties and cities at the same time. All 11 tomb robbers were arrested on the same day and more than 40 various cultural relics were recovered.
Before this arrest, the Huainan police conducted an in-depth investigation of the case and found out the organizational structure of the gang.
This is a tomb robbing team composed of 17 people. The group members come from Shandong, Shanxi, Hefei, Lujiang and other places in Anhui. They robbed ancient tombs in Anhui.
Shen Jun, head of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Shou County Public Security Bureau of Huainan City, told China News Weekly that even during the epidemic, this group of tomb robbers started to commit crimes in Lujiang, Anhui, and the crackdown was urgent.
Tomb robbery is an ancient "doing". As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, after the "birth of courtesy and happiness", the wind of thick burial began, and tomb robbery began to prevail. After two thousand years, it has not been cut off.
In some areas of China, tomb robbery was once rampant.
According to the information provided by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage to China News Weekly, driven by huge profits, criminals have continued to commit crimes in recent years.
Since 2019, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage has received more than 200 criminal cases of various types of cultural relics. Large sites and tombs such as Song Tomb in Gongyi, Henan, Zhaowang Mausoleum in Hebei, Balingshan Ancient Tombs in Hubei, and Wuyue State Qianjin Tomb in Zhejiang, have been stolen. .
On the other hand, cultural relic crimes tend to be grouped, professionalized, and intelligent, and crimes are becoming more concealed. The situation in combating cultural relics crime is very severe.
The relevant person in charge of the Criminal Investigation Corps of the Public Security Department of Shanxi Province told China News Weekly that the use of high-tech methods in cultural relic crimes has increased in recent years, and equipment such as telescopes, infrared night vision devices, and metal detectors have been used to rob tombs.
The criminal division of labor is more detailed and one-stop operation has formed a criminal network of underground cultural relics that integrates theft, excavation, transportation, harbouring, and sale of stolen goods.
It usually only takes a few days from inland theft, excavation, transportation to ports, smuggling out of the country, until the cultural relics appear in overseas trading markets.
Tomb Robbery of the Contemporary "Teaching Captain"
Tomb robbers are often referred to as "Squad Lieutenant Touching Jin".
According to historical records, Mojin school lieutenant originated in the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. In order to make up for the lack of military pay, Cao Cao established military ranks such as Faqiu Zhonglang and Mojin school lieutenant, who specializes in stealing tombs for money and subsidizing military pay.
"Ghost Blowing the Lantern" by Tian Xia Ba is a fantasy novel with Mo Jin school captain as the protagonist. The series of film and television series adapted from it has aroused the enthusiasm of "tomb robbery".
In the setting of the novel "Ghost Blowing Lantern", the world of tomb robbers developed to the later stage, and gradually formed four martial art sects: touching gold with symbols, making hills with seals, moving mountains with skills, and unloading ridges with Jiajia.
The "Lieutenant Touching Jin" is usually described as a capable person who is good at "comprehensive fighting".
The unique skill of touching the gold vein is to find dragons and acupuncture points, and to judge the direction of Fengshui based on the situation of mountains and rivers and the changes of stars, because the ancient large-scale tomb sites will always look for Fengshui auspicious points.
After positioning, you can directly break through the thieves and go straight to Huanglong, avoiding early loss of manpower.
In reality, the process of tomb robbery can be roughly divided into tomb exploration and positioning, hole drilling, and finally "clearing the hole" by a dedicated person.
Among them, exploring the tomb, drilling holes, and "clearing the pit" all require professionals to perform operations.
Generally speaking, visiting the grave is the most difficult and important link.
Judging from the detected cases of tomb robbery, the tomb robbers are often very precise about the location of the tomb.
Wu Ya, deputy head of the Criminal Police Detachment of the Huainan Public Security Bureau, told China News Weekly that the Huainan police found from some of the tomb robbers arrested there were county and city chronicles of various places, which recorded the distribution of ancient tombs in detail.
Among these criminal gangs of tomb robbery, some people have specially studied this.
"China News Weekly" learned that the "Atlas of Cultural Relics" published by some cultural relics systems has also become a reference book for tomb robbers, and even the latitude and longitude of some ancient tombs have been marked.
In addition, some tomb robbers will also study Feng Shui astrology.
For example, in the "Wuwangdun" tomb robbing case detected by the Huainan police, the gang member Xia Yuzhen from Qixian County, Henan Province, because of his superb tomb robbery skills, he was good at seeing feng shui, making probes, and fixing the tomb room. Many tomb-robbers gangs across the country have been invited to serve as the "Golden Lieutenant".
Wuwangdun Ancient Tomb is located about 150 meters south of Xuwa Village, Sanhe Township, Shannan New District, Huainan City. It was identified as a key cultural relic protection unit in Anhui Province in 1981.
Archaeological exploration shows that the Wuwangdun tomb is a large-scale tomb in the shape of "A". A large carriage pit with a length of nearly 150 meters was found on the west side of the tomb.
Experts said that this ancient tomb should belong to a large tomb of the rank of a king after Chu State moved its capital to Shouchun.
The "professional level" of some "expert-level" tomb robbers has surprised some cultural relic experts.
In 2005, the Xi'an police received a report of a tomb robbery.
After the investigation of the case, cultural relic experts found that the owner of the tomb was Empress Wu Clan of Tang Zhenshun, that is, Concubine Wu Hui, who was the favorite concubine of Emperor Xuanzong Li Longji in his early years.
The tomb was looted by criminals a long time ago, and the most precious sarcophagus of Concubine Wu Hui was sold to the United States for $1 million.
The tomb robbery caused a sensation at the time. Hai Yan's novel "The Pirates of Chang'an" published in 2013 was written on the background of this incident and was adapted into the movie "Chang'an Road" in 2019.
The protagonist Yang Bin was full of "legendary" in the tomb robbery in Jingling, Shaanxi that shocked the whole country.
According to reports, he worked as a photographer, opened a clothing store, and taught himself knowledge of cultural relics, from history to feng shui to gold and stone, from professional journals to academic papers, and became an "expert" level cultural relic appreciation master.
After that, he began to recruit troops to "stick the pot", using his knowledge of Feng Shui to determine the location of the tomb, and became the leader of the tomb robber group.
At the end of 2003, Yang Bin aimed at Jingling near Pangliu Village, Chang'an District, Xi'an City through the accumulation of rich cultural relic knowledge.
He made careful preparations. Not only did he arrange in advance the explosives, winches, cranes, cutting tools and guns needed for the tomb robbery, he even set up secret guards at the gates of nearby villages and police stations.
From May to June 2004, the Yang Bin group entered the ancient tomb six times. Each time it took an overnight period, the 27-ton sarcophagus was cut into 31 pieces and sent to Guangzhou.
During the tomb robbery of the Yang Bin group for more than two months, even the archaeologists and police officers who had worked for many years had to lament its professionalism.
First of all, none of the tombs that Yang Bin chose to start with was a national or provincial key cultural relics protection unit.
But Yang Bin was able to judge the grade and value of the tomb without any information.
Secondly, the 35-meter-deep thief hole pointed directly to the door of the stone tomb, and there was no waste at all.
If it is not for the precise control of the straight tomb passage, it is difficult to imagine how tomb robbers can hang out the bulky sarcophagus.
In addition, there were as many as 20 people involved in the tomb robbing, but in two months, six tomb robbing were carried out, but there was no sound of it.
Finally, Yang Bin never sells stolen goods locally, but directly contacts foreign or even overseas buyers.
This also made the Xi'an police unable to grasp his handle.
According to media reports, the files in Yang Bin's hard drive not only classified the categories and forms of Han and Tang cultural relics in detail.
It also carefully marked the location of the tombs in Shaanxi, which can be called a realistic version of "Tomb Robber Notes".
Zhu Fenghan, a professor in the Department of History of Peking University, told China News Weekly that the ancients paid great attention to the location of tombs in ideal locations. For example, the tombs of the Liao Dynasty were generally located in the southeast, backed by mountains, and there was a big river in front.
However, this is only a general rule. To determine the exact location of a tomb, scientific exploration is still needed to locate it.
Nowadays, the accurate operation of the tomb thief often benefits from advanced equipment.
For example, in the detection of the stolen excavation of the Wuwangdun Tomb, a large number of professional tools such as Luoyang shovel, detonators, earthen explosives, elevators, infrared night vision devices, walkie-talkies, and miniature probes were seized at the arrest site.
Huang Shengzhong, head of the Criminal Police Detachment of the Huainan Public Security Bureau, introduced that these tomb robbers did not "start work" immediately after stepping on the spot. They often took several days to carry out concealed operations.
After the "stepping" is over, they will set up a hidden camera there to conduct anti-reconnaissance.
After the safety is determined, the work will start.
Due to the large number of members of the tomb robbing gang, in order to prevent the use of mobile phones to leave traces, they communicated via walkie-talkies at the tomb robbing site.
"Luoyang shovel has been eliminated," Gao Kun, head of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Public Security Bureau of Shannan New District, Huainan City, told China News Weekly that most of the tomb robbers now use probes to detect the location of ancient tombs. "Basically 3 to 5 probes When the needle goes down, the location of the coffin can be determined."
According to legend, Luoyang shovel was invented by villagers near Luoyang, Henan, China in the early 20th century. Later generations gradually improved it and were widely used for tomb robbery.
The "ten tombs and nine empty spaces" in the Manshan area of Luoyang, where the ancient tombs are most concentrated in China, are used by tomb robbers, and the "Luoyang shovel" has become "notorious".
Since then, archaeologists used Luoyang shovel for archaeological drilling, so the original tomb-robbing tool Luoyang shovel has become an important archaeological tool.
After completing the exploration of the location of the ancient tomb, hacking holes is another technical task.
At the site where the Wuwangdun tomb was stolen, according to the confession of the main tomb-robber, the group drilled a 16-meter-deep vertical hole directly above the north of the Wuwangdun tomb in 2015. Later, the vertical hole collapsed and another shot was made next to the vertical hole. A 60cmX60cm oblique hole entered the first tomb and found that the tomb was filled with water, which was pumped for 3 days.
Go down after the water reaches waist depth. The tomb is about 3 meters wide, 4 to 5 meters long, and 2 meters high. The tomb robbers found chimes and other cultural relics on a bar in the water; a month later, the gang went down for the first time A 70cmX70cm oblique hole was opened on the rectangular wooden wall on the right side of the tomb. After entering another rectangular tomb, a few cultural relics were stolen for the second time.
After the suspect wanted to get through the main room, the wall from the side room to the main room was two meters thick. Because the wooden structure of the main room had collapsed, the suspect could not enter and could only reach in with his hands. The walls of the tomb were all painted.
According to Gao Kun, the tomb robbers used the "squeeze blasting and digging method" three times to rob the ancient tombs of Wuwangdun in Huainan.
Squeeze blasting means that explosives are buried in the ground and the soil is squeezed to both sides during the explosion to form a cave that can accommodate people up and down.
The use of squeeze blasting has several advantages. One is that the hole is formed quickly, which is less energy than a Luoyang shovel; the other is that the wall of the cave is not easy to collapse due to the effect of squeezing; the third is that there is no soil on the ground and cannot be found; the fourth is, Because it is blasting underground and the sound is low, I am not afraid of being heard.
This requires the blaster to accurately calculate the amount of explosives.
Yang Yong, head of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Public Security Branch of Xiejiaji District, Huainan City, recalled that when he first started working in the 1990s, tomb robbers often took advantage of thunderstorms to commit crimes, which could cover up the sound of gunfire, and digging holes were mostly done with shovels. Dig.
Yang Yong told China News Weekly that with the use of new technology and new equipment, a tomb used to require one or two months of work, but now it only takes a few days to complete the pirating operation.
A number of police sources interviewed told China News Weekly that, in fact, today's tomb robbery has evolved from barbaric excavation to technology-based excavation.
The secret tomb circle
In October 2018, the Huainan City Police learned that some key members of the tomb gang who had robbed the Wuwangdun Tomb had prepared a large number of tomb robbing tools and deliberately went to Huainan again to rob the ancient tomb of Lianpo.
In order to prevent the gang from carrying out destructive excavations of the tombs again, the Huainan City Police dispatched more than 80 capable police officers to Henan, Shandong, Jiangxi, and Huainan to carry out a centralized network collection operation.
Prior to this, the Huainan police conducted in-depth management of the case and figured out the basic structure of the gang.
The gang includes 16 persons who carried out the pirate excavation, 3 persons for convening preparations, 1 person for technical guidance, 1 person for reselling cultural relics, and 3 persons from the funders. The criminal chain of underground cultural relics was formed with a one-stop operation of capital contribution, detection, theft, transportation, reselling and smuggling. .
Among them, the funders and key members of the tomb robbers are all from Henan. The local "boss" in Huainan plays the role of logistical support and funding of the group. The personnel from Shandong are responsible for the sale of cultural relics, forming a tri-provincial integration of Henan, Shandong and Huainan locals. Regional grave robbers gang.
The police found that judging from the detected cases of robbery and excavation of ancient tombs, the robbery gangs were either locals or involved or assisted by locals, so it was not easy to find them.
Huang Shengzhong, head of the Criminal Police Detachment of the Huainan Public Security Bureau, has rich experience in combating cultural relics crimes. He told China News Weekly that from a national perspective, the implementation of crimes such as the looting of ancient tombs has formed several high-risk areas, such as Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi and other places have formed a high degree of professionalism.
"They have a circle with each other, they are connected through the Internet, and they communicate across the country." Xu Hu, director of the combined warfare room of the Criminal Police Detachment of the Huainan Public Security Bureau, told China News Weekly. Judging from the cases cracked by the Huainan police, these tomb robbers People often have a WeChat group with many "insiders". Through their specific channels, they can find professional and technical personnel and even channels for selling stolen goods across the country.
Due to the certain connections between various criminal groups, a tomb site was discovered by a certain group, which often caused multiple groups to flock to it.
Floating in many places to commit crimes, forming a national linkage, is a new phenomenon in the crime of robbing ancient tombs. Tomb robbers in various places even "learn from each other's strengths" and learn from each other in the process of tomb robbery.
Yang Yong, head of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Public Security Branch of Xiejiaji District, Huainan City, felt this deeply.
Yang Yong introduced that the density of ancient tombs in Xiejiaji District is high. The tomb of Chunshenjun, one of the Four Gentlemen of the Warring States Period, and the tomb of Yuan Shu during the Three Kingdoms Period of the Eastern Han Dynasty are both in the jurisdiction.
In 2009, the local public security agency detected a tomb theft case under the supervision of the Ministry of Public Security. 22 tomb robbers were local villagers.
In 2017, the local police detected a theft of the tomb of Princess Chukaolie. Among the 8 tomb robbers captured, 5 were from Qi County in Kaifeng, Henan and Quwo County in Linfen, Shanxi, two high-risk areas across the country. The tomb robbers collaborated with 3 local villagers to rob the tomb.
The reason for the collusion is that the local people in Huainan cannot master the blasting and excavation technology.
In fact, in the process of tomb robbery, an "organization system" is needed, and the division of labor among members is clear.
Gao Kun, head of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Public Security Branch of the Shannan New District Public Security Bureau of Huainan City, who has been engaged in combating cultural relics crimes for many years, told China News Weekly that gangs robbing ancient tombs usually have funders, commonly known as "stickers."
Most of these people are small local bosses with a certain degree of economic strength, and their level is not too high.
For example, in the case of robbery uncovered in Huainan, the identity of the funder was complicated. Some used a sauna, a construction foreman or even a car transporter. They often had a certain amount of savings in their hands. They thought that if they succeeded, they would get a huge amount of money. profit.
Before the implementation of tomb robbery, the organizers of the gang would often use some small favors to buy the local villagers near the tomb to form internal and external collusion.
These locals who were bought were called "landlords".
In the tomb gang, another key role is professionals who understand drilling and blasting techniques. They are called "engineers."
At the crime scene where the tomb robbery is carried out, they often serve as the on-site technical commander.
These "engineers" must understand astronomy, geography, geomantic omen, astrology, meteorology and even soil erosion.
They used technology as a link to gather these people together to carry out the tomb robbery.
In the case of "Wuwangdun" robbing the ancient tomb, Xia Yuzhen, a member of the gang, is such a role.
When the "engineer" completes the location of the tomb and the drilling and blasting operations, migrant workers called "coolies" are needed to excavate and borrow soil, and finally "clear the pit" by professional personnel.
The "6·15" series of robbery of ancient tombs in the North Taosi Cemetery is a major tomb robbery in Shanxi Province in recent years.
A total of 15 criminal gangs robbing and excavating ancient tombs were eliminated in this case, and 45 criminal cases of cultural relics in Taosi North Cemetery were cracked from 2010 to 2016. 138 cultural relic criminals were arrested and 215 various cultural relics were recovered. Among them, one There were 6 cultural relics at the first level, 1 cultural relic at the second level, 5 cultural relics at the third level, and 203 general cultural relics. More than 7.039 million yuan of funds were seized, frozen and seized, 40 sets of real estate were seized, and 144 vehicles were seized and seized.
According to Han Zhihui, the head of the Linfen Case Investigation Center of the Shanxi Provincial Public Security Department to combat cultural relics crimes, some of the gang members who understand feng shui and technology will visit tombs, and some can seek protection locally and contact organizers who hire tomb robbers.
Han Zhihui told China News Weekly that this kind of ancient tomb-digging gangs have distinct levels and clear division of labor, and each level does not know each other.
If cultural relics are found in the tomb, the "coolie" responsible for digging the soil will immediately withdraw, and the personnel who specialize in identifying cultural relics will go to the pit to "clear the pit".
They pack the cultural relics into bags and use lifting equipment to lift them. The tomb robbers who participated in the early excavation did not know what cultural relics were unearthed in the tomb, which also brought difficulties to the public security organs.
Han Zhihui told reporters that the circle of tomb robbers is relatively large, but in the division of roles, the three roles of liaison, tomb explorer, and pit clearing are necessary, and the hierarchy is relatively stable.
"But they are also interspersed with each other. I can do it for you or for others." A number of police interviewees pointed out to China News Weekly that the seemingly complicated division of labor in the tomb gang is actually the most important thing. The role is the "contact person" in the gang. They have deep connections, and the secret grave robber circle provides them with an accessible underground network.
The profitable dark industry chain
From organization to theft and excavation, to transportation and sale of stolen goods, this is a black profit chain full of huge profits, and it is interlocking.
Once the tomb robber succeeds in the luxurious tomb, the profits are amazing.
In 2015, the Chaoyang City Public Security Bureau of Liaoning Province cracked the largest cultural relics case since the founding of New China in 9 months, and it was even called the "largest tomb robbery in New China": a single case controlled the number of suspects and recovered the largest number of stolen cultural relics In this case, 12 criminal gangs were destroyed, 225 suspects were controlled, and 2,063 cultural relics were recovered. Experts estimate that the market auction value is as high as RMB 500 million.
These stolen cultural relics included the precious jade pig dragon, cloud-shaped jade pendant, horseshoe-shaped jade hoop, square jade bib, etc., covering 1,168 (sets) of cultural relics from the Neolithic Age to the Qing Dynasty.
The Public Security Bureau of Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province recovered all these precious cultural relics after disposing of 10 tomb robbers.
This is a neatly scaled chain of tomb robbers: among the 10 members of the tomb robbery gang, there is Yao Yuzhong, known as the "Patriarch".
Yao is the core figure of the tomb robbing gang. He has been immersed in the tomb robbing for more than 30 years. He is known as the "Grand Master" and the "No. 1 Master Outside the Pass". He claims to be able to "see the mountains" and "locate" the tomb robbery by watching the Feng Shui astrology.
In the tomb robbery team, there are also four public officials, including senior archaeologist Liu Mou, and Deng Mou, a rescue excavation technician who guards the stolen site, and more are farmers who are responsible for digging.
In addition, the unearthed cultural relics dealers who possessed the cultural relics collection certificate and operated the cultural relics shop “saw the pulse” on the ground for the tomb-robbing gangs, making the tomb-robbing gangs gradually form an illegal cultural relics trading chain from the looting of cultural relics.
According to media reports at the time, the cultural relics dealer Li ran two antique shops. He engaged in illegal cultural relics trading under his status as the “President of the Kazuo County Cultural and Cultural Museum Association,” and he often rushed to the site to collect the stolen goods as soon as possible.
The existence of cultural relics dealers such as Li made the removal of cultural relics stolen by the tomb gangs very fast. The price of cultural relics was mostly hundreds of thousands of yuan, and the highest was a jade pig dragon with a price of 3.2 million yuan.
“Cultural relics are not only released quickly, they are often changed hands many times within a short period of time.” At that time, police officer Cai Binghui of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Guangming Branch of the Chaoyang Public Security Bureau, who was in charge of chasing stolen goods and handling cases, told the media that a golden hairpin with a double dragon pattern was caught It was sold from Fuxin to Fushun, and from Fushun to Taiyuan.
In the entire black interest chain, different roles often correspond to different profits, but the risks are not equal.
According to Han Zhihui, the head of the Linfen Case Handling Center of the Shanxi Provincial Public Security Department to combat cultural relics crimes, in the entire tomb robbing operation, "coolie" is the most difficult, but the income is the least. Generally, digging an ancient tomb only pays a few hundred yuan. ", they will divide more.
These people are the most "cheap" front-end links in the entire black chain.
However, once caught, they often bear the heaviest criminal responsibility.
Han Zhihui introduced that during the public prosecution stage, these "coolies" and the organizers of the tomb robbery were both responsible for the same crime, that is, tomb robbery.
According to the sentencing standards, digging an ancient tomb is sentenced to five years in prison, and these "coolies" are often aimed at making "small money" without realizing that this is a crime.
The police interviewed told China News Weekly that the stolen cultural relics were sold by special personnel. These cultural relics sellers control multiple channels and have close contacts with some collection circles. They can even be based on collectors’ hobbies, such as Special needs for bronze or jade wares are "purchased by private order".
With the lengthening of the interest chain, the value of these stolen cultural relics has also increased geometrically, and the more profitable it goes to the end.
Shen Jun, head of the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Public Security Bureau of Shou County, Huainan City, had previously participated in the investigation of a case of robbery against the tomb of King Li in Huainan.
Huainan Li Wang Liu Chang was the youngest son of Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty. He only lived to be 24 years old. His son was the famous Huainan Wang Liu An.
The tomb contains jade garments, bronzes and jade.
Shen Jun told China News Weekly that two pieces of jade were offered at 600,000 yuan when the tomb raider first sold it. In the end, the jade was bought by a Jiangsu and Zhejiang merchant for 1.2 million yuan, and he was reluctant to collect it.
When the public security organs recovered the cultural relics, someone had already bid 20 million yuan for the two pieces of jade.
According to a relevant person from the Huainan Public Security Bureau, a pair of bronze tigers stolen from Wuwangdun in Huainan had a first-hand price of 20 million yuan in the black market, and a second-hand price of up to 100 million yuan.
The stolen tiger phoenix drums and chimes from the tomb are all valued at 100 million yuan.
With huge profits, profit-seeking tomb robbers often commit crimes against the wind. Some tomb robbers make a living on this. This also makes the tomb robbers have a high chance of committing crimes again after being released from prison even if they serve their sentences.
"It's a vicious circle now." Shen Jun told China News Weekly that the public security organs have been cracking down on tomb robberies in recent years, but the robbers are still difficult to stop, which makes him deeply worried.
According to Shen Jun's observation, in rural areas with abundant tomb resources, the thinking of "relying on mountains and eating mountains" is still prevailing. Some villagers with weak legal consciousness have the mentality of becoming rich overnight, and they often take risks when driven by their interests.
Some "veteran hands" of tomb robbers make a living on this. They think that tomb robbery is a kind of professional skill, just like technical work.
Earlier, a senior tomb thief captured by the Huainan police had confided in prison that an ancient tomb he fancy is the "Forbidden City" in his heart. If the cultural relics department does not conduct archaeological excavations, he will be the first thing he does after his release. It was this ancient tomb that was stolen.
The police interviewed have a consensus that the key to cracking down on the crime of robbing ancient tombs lies in cutting off the chain of interest, but this is not easy.
Excessive profits may even trigger "black eating black" incidents among tomb robbers due to uneven distribution of spoils.
In the Wuwangdun robbing of ancient tombs, as the suspects of reselling cultural relics came to the case one after another, the Huainan police found through interrogation that the reselled cultural relics and the stolen cultural relics were quite different in number and type. The robbing of ancient tombs was suspected People also cover up and contradict themselves in their confessions about stolen cultural relics.
Immediately, the task force adjusted its thinking and re-examined the tomb robbing suspect. After nearly a month of interrogation, a "case in the case" and "black eating black" accident gradually surfaced.
According to the confession of the criminal suspect of tomb robbery from Anhui and county, during the excavation of the Wuwangdun tomb, he believed that most of the gang members were of Henan and Huainan nationality. They were worried that they would be disadvantaged when the spoils were distributed later. Taking advantage of night cover, the four wooden cultural relics stored in Sun's home were stolen and hidden in Hexian home. The cultural relics were resold to an art auction company in Kunshan through Jiangsu Liyang, Kunshan, and Shanghai personnel.
Then the task force immediately went to Liyang, Kunshan, and Shanghai in Jiangsu to arrest the suspect and pursue the stolen cultural relics.
Zhang Libin was the first to find a tomb in the series of robbery and excavation of ancient tombs in the northern cemetery of Taosi in Shanxi on June 15th.
Zhang Libin will explore the cemetery, so he gathered a group of five or six people to robber the tomb.
In 2014, Zhang Libin sold the first pit cargo, and each of the gang members received 300,000 yuan.
Tomb robbers come quickly, which aroused the coveting of local Zhang Xiaojian.
Zhang Xiaojian forced Zhang Weibin to cooperate with him in the tomb robbery.
Han Zhihui, head of the Linfen Case Center of Shanxi Provincial Public Security Department to combat cultural relics crimes, told China News Weekly that in the later stage, Zhang Xiaojian almost monopolized the "grave robbery" of the northern cemetery.
Since then, Zhang Xiaojian organized a group of people to carry out large-scale tomb robberies in the local area.
Due to the uneven distribution of benefits, the gang began to split and gradually divided into 15 gangs.
Profiteering is like a large net of greed, and some public officials have become umbrellas for tomb robbers.
According to the Linfen police, 9 public officials in the "6.15" case were reduced to the "protective umbrella" of the tomb-robber gang. Among them were the director of the Taosi police station and a local criminal police squadron leader.
The relevant person in charge of the Criminal Investigation Corps of the Public Security Department of Shanxi Province told China News Weekly that combined with long-term accumulation of rich experience, the Shanxi Provincial Public Security Agency’s crackdown on the black interest chain of cultural relics crime can be summarized as "three pursuits and one digging" and "four not letting go." .
Three chasing and one digging, namely chasing fugitives, chasing cultural relics, chasing assets and digging into crimes, and eradicating protective umbrellas; four not letting go, meaning that fugitives will not be let go if they are not found, stolen cultural relics will not be let go if they are not pursued, and the economics of criminals If the foundation is not destroyed, we will not let it go, and the crime "protective umbrella" will not be wiped out.
The specific approach is to start with traditional criminal cases of theft, excavation and theft of cultural relics, dig deep, carry out investigation operations, and implement a full-chain attack; second, start from the transaction link, "strike the middle, chase the two ends", Both ends, squeeze in the middle", chase down the entire criminal network, and conduct a full chain of criminals and criminals in various links such as the organizers, investors, implementers of theft, excavation and theft of cultural relics, as well as resale, transportation, sale of stolen goods, collection of stolen goods, and smuggling. Blow.
Huang Shengzhong, head of the Criminal Police Division of the Huainan Public Security Bureau, believes that the success of combating cultural relics crimes depends on the depth of operations.
Huang Shengzhong stated that cultural relic crimes are highly professional, group-oriented, and intelligent crimes. The methods of committing crimes are concealed. The gang has formed a complete black industry chain from funding, stepping on sites, detecting, stealing, transporting, and selling. It will fall short.
Based on the experience of the Huainan police in investigating and handling many cultural relic crime cases, in-depth management and full-chain combat are the foundation for the complete destruction of the cultural relic crime industry chain.
For example, in the investigation of the robbing and excavation of the Wuwangdun ancient tomb, the early stage of the investigation, from receiving clues to the comprehensive research and judgment of the gang organization structure, lasted nearly a month; in the middle of the investigation, after the organization structure of the gang was clarified, the criminal investigation department immediately went to Henan and Shandong. Wait for the province to carry out the preliminary investigation work, the technical investigation, network security conducts comprehensive investigation and control of the gang in a timely manner; after 3 months of in-depth operation, after fully finding out the clues of investors, tomb robbers, and stolen goods, the task force organized 80 More than one police force went to many provinces to carry out a centralized network collection operation, and carried out a full chain attack on the gang.
Tomb Raider
“Because of the serious theft, we began rescue excavations in 2014.” Wang Jingyan, the archaeological leader of Taosi North Cemetery and associate researcher of the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, said in an interview with the media that a conservative estimate of 10,000 tombs of Tao At the Sibei Cemetery, more than 250 large and small tombs have been excavated, including 19 large and medium tombs, half of which have been stolen, and the stolen time was concentrated around 2013.
In the north cemetery of Taosi, densely lined with caves where tomb robbers used rods to explore the tombs, the robbing of ancient tombs here was once very rampant.
For archaeologists, facing the stolen tombs, they often feel sad, but they can only lament.
Yang Bin, the principal culprit in the tomb robbery in Jingling, Shaanxi, shocked the whole country. His hard disk contains photos of the tomb and various cultural relics he robbed and sold. Many of these cultural relics are more precious than museum collections.
The "stone house" stolen by him is very precious.
Shi Xiaoqun, then director of the Cultural Relics Collection Department of the Shaanxi History Museum, once described the impression of seeing the "stone house" for the first time. "It is not exactly as simple as the stone coffins unearthed in the past, plus the white foundation on the convex and concave areas. The three-dimensional effect is beautiful."
Li Wen (pseudonym), a senior expert in Shanxi Province, told China News Weekly that the robbery of ancient tombs has caused great damage to cultural relics, and a cultural relic is often closely related to local history and culture.
Take Jiuwutou's tomb as an example, it fills in the blank that Shanxi had no business culture in the past, and the tomb robbery destroyed the original historical information.
Li Wen believes that cultural relics are not solitary artifacts. A complete tomb, along with bronze, jade, pottery, and gold and silver wares, can help archaeologists to systematically and accurately study the tomb system, ritual system, society, culture, and life at that time. All aspects.
The tomb robbery destroyed the original order, and the archaeologists faced a piece of solitary cultural relics, which brought great difficulties to the research.
Zhu Fenghan, a professor in the Department of History at Peking University, told China News Weekly that the Jinhou cemetery near Quwo in Shanxi had been robbed wildly. "Several tombs were stolen", which seriously affected the use of archaeological materials.
Zhu Fenghan explained that the location of the cultural relics excavated through archeology is very accurate in the tomb, and the mutual position of the cultural relics is also very clear.
For example, some large tombs from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties to the Qin and Han dynasties have a mutual rule in their locations.
According to the ritual system at that time, the number and value of cultural relics, as well as the combination and location of bronze wares such as food vessels, drinking vessels, water vessels, weapons, carts and horses, can give archaeologists clear historical information.
In recent years, at the site of archaeological excavations, experts in scientific and technological protection of cultural relics will also participate in archaeological work. They will promptly carry out technical protection of cultural relics such as cotton, linen textiles and silk fabrics.
Tomb robbers often only care about valuable cultural relics, such as bronzes and jade, but treat some silk and linen products, bamboo slips, etc., but they are brutal and rude.
For the study of the tomb system at that time, silk fabrics, cotton and linen products such as waste curtains, which were very important to the study of the tomb system at that time, often caused devastating damage and were almost irreparable.
In ancient tombs that have been robbed, the remains of human bones are often abandoned by tomb thieves everywhere, leaving the place where the original tomb owner or burial person was.
"Human bone identification is also a very important purpose of scientific archaeology. It is necessary to conduct gender identification and age identification of tombs. These important archaeological information, due to the destruction of tomb robbers, even the owners of the tombs and those who died Being mixed up, we have lost very important historical information." Zhu Fenghan said sadly.
Several archaeologists told China News Weekly that archaeological excavations are often followed by passive "emergency protection" behind the tomb robbers.
Zhu Fenghan introduced that in terms of the principles of cultural relics protection, the general principles of protection of ancient tombs are to give priority to protection, rescue first, use rationally, and strengthen management. “The protection first means that we do not advocate active excavation, but Focus on protection and do not excavate if it is not necessary."
For example, Chinese archaeologists learned a lesson after the archaeological excavation of the Ming Tombs and Ding Tombs in Beijing. When the material and technical conditions were not up to date, they rushed to excavate some cultural relics, such as silk and textiles. protection.
Zhu Fenghan told China News Weekly that relevant departments are now very strict with regard to archaeological excavations of ancient tombs.
Only two cases will be actively excavated. One is the construction of major projects, which requires related cultural relic surveys.
In this case, archaeologists will conduct emergency rescue excavations.
The second type is that the important cemetery has been robbed, and the remaining cemetery will be difficult to protect if it is not cleaned up.
In this case, timely and proactive exploration will be carried out.
A number of experts interviewed believe that the excavation of ancient tombs is too motivated to be prevented by the public security organs alone, and the cultural relics department is restricted by human, material and financial resources, and it is difficult to effectively control the ancient tombs in the area. Cultural relic crime requires higher-level top-level design and multi-departmental collaboration to form synergy.