Tracing the time and space of Chinese jade culture
The composition information of 364 jade artifacts in Sanxingdui has been disclosed
Since the first jade artifact unearthed in Moon Bay of Sanxingdui in 1929, Sanxingdui jade artifacts have finally ushered in a truly unique "highlight moment".
In April 2021, the School of Archaeology, Culture and Museology of Peking University and the Sanxingdui Museum of Guanghan, Sichuan conducted a joint study on the jade artifacts unearthed at the Sanxingdui site. This is the first systematic and comprehensive scientific and technological inspection of all the jade artifacts in the Sanxingdui Museum of Guanghan, Sichuan. It is also the first important cross-disciplinary collaboration between the School of Archaeology, Culture and Museum of Peking University and the School of Earth and Space Sciences (hereinafter referred to as "School of Earth and Space").
"Up to now, our team is the first to conduct systematic, scientific and comprehensive research on Sanxingdui jade, including the unearthed No. 1 and No. 2 pits, as well as the town and tomb sites of Sanxingdui. It is now a museum and cultural preservation. We have carried out scientific testing and analysis of all the jade unearthed in the central warehouse. There are 364 pieces in total. The measurement focuses on the two aspects of'material' and'shape'." The team leader of this scientific research project is from Beijing. Lu Hao of the University’s School of Archaeology, Culture and Science explained the peculiarities of this study.
After the field data collection of the Sanxingdui Museum was completed, the scientific research team quickly sorted out and summarized the data results, and the latest research results were published in the September issue of the domestic authoritative academic journal "Journal of the Palace Museum".
It can be said that such a project with instrumental measurement and data analysis as the research method fills the gap in the research field of Sanxingdui jade.
At the same time, the data on the raw materials and morphology of the Sanxingdui jade obtained in this study can provide a basic basis for the future comparative study of the Sanxingdui jade with the jade of other regions and ages, and help to interpret the early Chinese. The time and space development context of jade culture.
During the concentrated report on the Sanxingdui excavation, a reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily met the three main members of the research team: Lu Hao, Fu Wanlu, and Chai Jun in the conference room of the School of Archaeology, Culture and Museum of Peking University.
The three Peking University doctors seem to be very young. Lu Hao and Fu Wanlu are all "post-85s" who are engaged in post-doctoral research at the School of Archaeology, Culture and Museum and the School of Geospatial Art, Peking University. The youngest Chai Jun is from the Peking University Geospatial Academy. PhD student.
Talking about their "reasons for forming a group," the three replied unanimously: "We have common ideals and unified goals."
Why do people pay more attention to bronze and gold in the research of Sanxingdui, while ignoring jade?
"Everyone is paying more and more attention to the Sanxingdui site, and it is urgent to know its cultural origin, as well as its communication and interaction with other cultures, so in fact, the research on cultural relics of each material needs to be supplemented. Yes, jade is no exception. We just want to overcome difficulties and do this work.” Lu Hao said, this is also the main motivation for the three of them to do this research.
In fact, the jade artifacts were the earliest found in Sanxingdui artifacts.
In 1929, farmer Yan Daocheng found more than 400 exquisite jade tools in a pit while digging in the Moon Bay platform of Sanxingdui, Guanghan. For a time, the "Guanghan jade" became famous, which opened the prelude to the 90-year-old Sanxingdui archaeology.
However, nearly a century later, bronze and gold wares have become more popular parts of the cultural relics unearthed at the Sanxingdui site.
As for why there has been relatively little research on jade artifacts, Chai Jun explained: “Most of the jade artifacts in Sanxingdui are plain, without many decorations. The Liangzhu site in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River earlier than it and the Jinsha site later than it. Their jade tools are richer in decoration and craftsmanship."
The lack of textual evidence and obvious totem patterns, these seem to be disadvantages, but are an advantage in geology.
"The data-based method is just suitable for studying things that are invisible to the naked eye. The research of optical instruments and geometric morphology is used to supplement the jade." The youngest Chai Jun took the initiative to take on the task of "science popularization", he continued. "The research on ancient jade articles is mainly divided into four aspects:'materials, workmanship, shape, and patterns.' Carry out systematic testing, identification and quantification."
Limited by the lack of non-destructive testing conditions in the early research stage and insufficient research on the "materials" of ancient jade artifacts, the materials of jade artifacts unearthed at the Sanxingdui site have been lacking in comprehensive testing and research.
Therefore, it is very necessary to conduct scientific and systematic scientific and technological testing of the jade artifacts unearthed in Sanxingdui. Such testing can provide data for important information such as the composition and age of the jade artifacts of Sanxingdui, and provide a basis for the traceability of the jade artifacts of Sanxingdui.
Are the jade materials of Sanxingdui local or foreign?
The three men form an army, each with its own division of labor.
Lu Hao, who has a background in archaeology, culture and science, is responsible for the overall direction control of the project, determining the technical route, and taking the work of contacting museums and local villagers on himself; Fu Wanlu is good at researching geochemistry and jewelry and jade. Responsible for designing experimental methods; Chai Jun is skilled in geology and geometric morphology, and is responsible for the operation and execution of high-precision instruments and the digital analysis after jade measurement.
In March of this year, the team was established, and Lu Hao immediately led the team members to start the next field study plan.
Such a large number of exquisite jade tools were unearthed at the Sanxingdui site. Where did these jade materials come from?
Are there any important jade production areas near Sanxingdui?
This is critical to the future traceability of the Sanxingdui jade, and it has also become one of the important issues facing the Lu Hao team.
"We have to find out whether there are similar materials in the place near Sanxingdui. It is recorded in the literature, but we did not personally see it, so everything must be surveyed on the spot." Lu Hao said that they must find nearby mines and go there. The system collects samples, and with these jade specimens for comparison and research, can we provide more real and useful data for the tracing of the origin of the jade at the Sanxingdui site.
In April 2021, the project was officially launched, and the three set out on the journey to Sichuan.
The first stop the team went to after arriving in Sichuan was not the Sanxingdui site, but a jade mining port on the mountain in Madeng Township, Wenchuan City, which was abandoned in 1967.
According to the literature, there used to be a nephrite variety Longxi jade (amphibole jade) suitable for making jade.
According to Lu Hao's description, researchers have visited this location in the past, but due to the limitations of the conditions at the time, there was no accurate GPS positioning.
The mountains here are high and steep, inaccessible, and complex in terrain and structure. They are also affected by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. Aftershocks and landslides are very common. It is absolutely impossible to rely on the team to bump into the mountains without being familiar with the mountain roads.
They realized that it was necessary to find a local person as a guide.
Speaking of the experience of finding a guide, Fu Wanlu used 8 words to describe: "A match made in heaven, a coincidence by chance."
Wenchuan is an area where the Qiang people gather more. The mountain where the mining site they are going to is located in Alqiang Village.
Since there are relatively few related materials on Longxi jade, before leaving, Fu Wanlu saw a collection of Longxi jade specimens in a county-level museum while looking up the literature, so she asked a colleague who happened to work in Wenchuan to go to the museum to inquire about it. Condition.
"The museum is very small and it is not open at ordinary times. So when I asked the managers of the museum about questions such as where the specimens came from and the scale of the mines they produced, they couldn't explain it clearly." Fu Wanlu said .
The team leader, Lu Hao, had worked as a grassroots cadre in Xiong'an and had rich grassroots work experience. He immediately contacted the secretary of the village branch where the small museum is located.
The secretary heard that he was here to do scientific research and was very cooperative. He recommended to Lu Hao a villager of the Qiang nationality with a history of running mountains and picking jade for decades.
It was this person who became the effective guide for them to go up the mountain to collect samples.
Lu Hao, Fu Wanlu, and Chai Jun all called him a "folk wonder man."
Fu Wanlu said: "Although he is an ordinary local villager, he loves jade and has been running around for more than 30 years. He is very capable of self-learning knowledge and has a good understanding of the surrounding terrain. He is really a strange person."
Lu Hao recalled that the process of searching for this "wonderful man" was not particularly smooth, and he almost came out of nowhere when he visited him on the first day.
In the mountains, mobile phones often have no signal, and the mountain roads are steep and there are no road signs. You can only judge whether you have reached the designated meeting place by relying on some typical roadside signs communicated before.
After arriving at the designated place, the phone could not reach anyone. The three waited until night fell before they came. Moreover, because of the dialect accent problem, the first time they communicated with each other was not particularly smooth.
Lu Hao said, "He said he would take us the next day. He didn't mention the specific conditions of the mountain road, but said that it was a little difficult to walk." Based on years of fieldwork experience, the three brought a geological hammer, compass and magnifying glass. A practical tool necessary for the field, minimized the counterweight, and set off with the guide the next day.
As a result, the guide’s performance exceeded their expectations. Not only did he have a good understanding of the jade output in the entire area, he also gave a general introduction to the points that need to be on-site surveyed this time, because he took into account the Wenchuan University After the earthquake, the original road collapsed, and a relatively reasonable route up the mountain was redesigned.
He also considered the problem of going up the mountain to collect specimens. He called back his son who had been transferred from the army to work in the county in advance to help. That time he went to the mountain to survey and collected dozens of kilograms of rock and jade samples along the way. It was also thanks to the father and son that he went down the mountain. With the help of people, these "precious" materials can be brought down the mountain and sent to the laboratory.
The way up the mountain is not easy, the angle of the mountain is very steep, almost 60 degrees.
In retrospect, Fu Wanlu was a little scared: "We really went on the way up the mountain by goats. We stepped on the steps of the goats. We had to use both hands and feet like the goats." Since it is not the main road, this road is basically just Only human feet are wide.
The road is narrow, and there are still thorns all around, all the way up and down, the clothes and shoes of the group of people are pierced with a lot of thorns.
The day was 8 o'clock in the morning, and it took 4 hours to go up one way, and didn't go down until more than 5 o'clock in the afternoon.
During the whole process, everyone in the team did not take a break, except for the temporary stop of sampling, they were always on the move.
As the only woman in the team, even Fu Wanlu, who has many years of field work experience, found this experience "unforgettable for life".
At the same time, in order to make it easier for future researchers to find the way, they all fixed points along the entire trail when they were climbing up the mountain.
"If other people look for this place again, the information we provide is the best reference and guide." Lu Hao said.
Through this field geological survey in Wenchuan, Sichuan, it was found that amphibole jade, serpentine jade, marble, quartzite and a small amount of turquoise can be collected at the Longxi jade mine mouth and upstream and downstream of the river.
Comparing the material combination and proportions of the jade tools unearthed in Sanxingdui, it basically supports the hypothesis of “obtaining materials on the spot” and “producing on the spot”. The record of the "out of water".
After using the portable, non-destructive advanced instruments, what difficulties did they encounter?
The preliminary field sampling work was completed. In April 2021, the next step of the team's work was shifted to the existing collection of jade in the museum.
The inspection work is very large in terms of difficulty and engineering quantity.
One of the difficulties is that the current Sanxingdui Museum does not have corresponding detection technology and advanced detection equipment. After the destructive use of corundum and singe jade and the natural erosion of long-term burial, the transparency, color, structure and even physical appearance of ancient jade artifacts will occur. For the secondary changes, the material needs to be analyzed by geochemical scientific and technological detection technology; the amount of engineering is that the shape and size of the jade are different, and how different objects are placed during the inspection must be made accordingly. Differentiated adjustment.
Research barriers must be overcome one by one.
Lu Hao brought 4 sets of the most advanced non-destructive portable testing instruments for jade, including the handheld XRF analyzer Tracer5i and the Raman spectrometer BRAVO.
The former can quickly and non-destructively determine the chemical composition of jade; the latter can eliminate or reduce the fluorescence interference of unearthed cultural relics caused by surface soil humus, and achieve non-destructive and non-destructive phase analysis, which can be used as a comprehensive judgment jade raw material Auxiliary means.
In addition, Lu Hao also invited five senior engineers from an imported testing instrument company to Sanxingdui with the team, just to cooperate with the team's more precise scientific research work.
The reason for choosing the most advanced testing instrument with the two characteristics of "portable" and "non-destructive" is also based on the supreme principle of "protection of cultural relics is the first".
Cheshire added: “Because when we do geological jade composition testing, we usually need to collect samples and take them back to grind them into powder. The advanced equipment of Mr. Lu can ensure that the jade artifacts are not damaged. The cultural relics are very good. Precious. While doing research, we must try our best not to bring any detrimental damage to the cultural relics."
Although the testing equipment can be portable and non-destructive, it is not easy to properly test these various jade shapes.
Some need to be tied to an iron frame because of the exhibition, some are covered in a glass showcase, some are very heavy, and some are very long. Even if you use portable instruments, you need to use jade in different situations. Set up in different ways, and check one by one while maintaining a stable state.
"The instrument has just been attached, it can't be'posted' up, nor can it be too far away." Lu Hao said.
The Sanxingdui Museum specially dispatched the professional staff who do the preservation and restoration of the museum to them, which gave the Lu Hao team a lot of help.
"They specialize in restoration and know the characteristics of each cultural relic best, so they are very familiar with where there are cracks in these cultural relics, where are the repaired places, and where are the original materials. They can give us a good reference when testing. "Fu Wanlu said.
Among the co-authors who published the paper this time are Zhu Yarong, Yu Jian, and Zhang Yuefen from the Sanxingdui Museum in Guanghan, Sichuan.
Using a Raman spectrometer, it takes 60 seconds to make a point to test, and each point is moved at an interval of two millimeters. Each sample must be tested 2-5 times, and finally the average value is taken.
Chai Jun said: “To maintain a stable state, one night down, the hands are actually quite tired, thanks to the help of the museum staff. They jointly explored a "one-by-one discussion" inspection plan for jade cultural relics.
Although this plan was a bit tossing, Lu Hao felt that it was worthwhile. “Although it would be very troublesome to take one, test one, and change one, it will take as long as possible to protect the safety of cultural relics. No matter how long it takes.”
The problem of tools and methods is solved, and there is a situation that the team did not anticipate in advance.
At the end of March this year, after the Sanxingdui site reopened the excavation of artifact pits, the archaeological team disclosed the progress of major projects to the public for the first time. After the "Archaeological China" major project progress meeting was held in Chengdu on March 20, the mysterious "golden mask", The unearth of cultural relics such as bird-shaped gold ornaments has quickly become a hot topic on the Internet, attracting the attention of people across the country, and the Sanxingdui Museum has naturally become a popular place to visit, with tens of thousands of tourists every day.
If the measurement in the museum is carried out according to the regular working hours, there are too many tourists, which is almost impossible to complete.
"If we want to test the cultural relics in the exhibition hall, we can only do it after get off work is cleared. Although it takes overnight, it is indeed a very wonderful process. At night, there is quite a taste of'museum night'. !" Fu Wanlu joked.
Therefore, from 6 pm to 1 am every day, it becomes the regular working time of the team.
In fact, it is not completely accurate to say that the day and night are reversed. The jade tools that are not stored in the exhibition hall and kept in the museum's cultural preservation center require the team to conduct inspections during the day.
In the cultural preservation center during the day and then in the museum to inspect the jade cultural relics at night, the team unknowingly formed a "white + black" work model.
One is to shorten the time required to obtain data for testing and to save research funds, and the other is to minimize the extra workload of museum staff for a long time.
This pace of work has lasted for nearly a month. In this short period of time, they have scientifically tested and analyzed all the existing jade artifacts in the Sanxingdui Museum and Cultural Protection Center warehouses, totaling 364 pieces.
On average, 20 pieces of jade are measured every night, and the measurement efficiency depends on the size and shape of the jade.
But for the team, the exhaustion caused by staying up late is far less than the excitement and sense of accomplishment brought by scientific research. Everyone enjoys it.
The information on the composition of 364 jade artifacts has all been disclosed. What is the real significance?
At the end of the inspection work, the Lu Hao team obtained precious scientific data materials for the inspection of the Sanxingdui jade.
According to the test results of XRF and Raman spectrometers, the jade artifacts unearthed at the Sanxingdui site are mainly made of amphibole jade, accounting for 72.25% of the total, followed by sandstone and serpentine jade, and other materials include slate, marble, and dolomite. , Agate, turquoise, etc., with a wide variety of materials.
This shows that the ancient Shu ancestors who lived in the Sanxingdui area already possessed a certain aesthetic appeal, spiritual belief, etiquette tradition, and processing level of jade.
In addition, the paper also mentions that among the jade artifacts unearthed in Sanxingdui, there is almost no mixed use of jade and stone in the same shape. The concept of "Jade" and "Stone" are separated, forming a specialized collection and processing of amphibole jade.
The number of jade cong and jade biscuit in the Sanxingdui site is relatively small, while there are more jade zhang and jade chisel. The round sculptures of animals and figures are made of sandstone and other coarse-structured "stones". The accessories that were common in Shang Dynasty such as Huang and Jun have not appeared. This reflects the difference between the ancient Shu civilization and the Central Plains civilization; foreign cultural factors such as jade zhang, jade ge, jade bi, jade cong, inlaid jade bronze medallion, bronze tiger, etc., reveal the difference between the Sanxingdui culture and the Central Plains culture and the culture of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Infiltration and integration.
The next stage of their team will be through the systematic detection of zircon, apatite, and sphene in the jade tools to obtain the hydrogen and oxygen isotopes, rare earth elements and age characteristics of the Sanxingdui jade materials, which are related to the reported Xinjiang Hetian jade. The data is compared to determine the source of Hetian jade, which accounts for 90% of the Sanxingdui jade.
This method also provides a new technical route for improving the traceability system of the domestic Hetian jade production area, which can be applied to the traceability of ancient jade from other cultural sites, and is of great significance to solving the problem of traceability of ancient jade and the evolution of jade culture.
Lu Hao and the team members know that their research still has a long way to go, and many conclusions have not yet reached the stage of conclusiveness, but at least they have formed an exclusive and mature research method, which in Lu Hao's words means "work hard" It’s important to take the first step forward."
In the past, the research fields of vessel shape and ornamentation were mainly carried out through qualitative description and picture comparison. In their research, they determined the general principles of quantitative research, through principal component analysis and cluster analysis of geometric morphology, to visualize Reflect the similarity of the shape of the vessel; they determined that the statistical analysis of three-dimensional size data can quantitatively reflect the change of shape.
"We did the first step. We published all the composition information of these 364 jade artifacts. If you have the same artifacts in other places during the same period and want to do research, you can use our data for comparison." Lu Hao Then he said, “In the future, we will compare Sanxingdui with other jade tools unearthed in different eras and regions using this method for data comparison. That is to say, our detection method has established a unified ruler with only unified standards. In order to make a better comparison."
After finishing Sanxingdui, they also plan to use the method of establishing this database in other cultural sites in the future, to conduct similar comprehensive inspections on the jade unearthed in those places, combining different eras, regions, and different topographic maps, maybe You can try to restore a "Jade Road" that belongs to ancient China.
What is the spread path of jade culture?
For archaeologists, tracing the root has always been one of the most fascinating and difficult parts.
Lu Hao has his own ambitions and archaeological blueprint, "I want to build a large database of Chinese jade in the next 10-20 years. No one in China has done it yet. Now we have taken the first step. I believe in success. It’s just a matter of time.” Lu Hao said, this is his wish as a scientific and technological archaeologist, as well as his professional attitude and ambition as a research team at Peking University.
Text/Reporter Lei Ruotong
Photo courtesy / Lu Hao and Fu Wanlu's scientific research team