Chinanews client, Beijing, November 10th (Reporter Shangguanyun) What is "archaeology"?
In the eyes of the famous archaeologist Qi Dongfang, it is to study how to find and obtain the physical remains of ancient human society, and how to study the history of human society based on these remains.
In his recent publication "I am at the Archaeological Site: Ten Lectures on Archaeology on the Silk Road", he also recorded many insights from archaeological work.
Recently, Qi Dongfang shared a lot of interesting archeological knowledge in an interview with a reporter from Chinanews.com.
The Tang Dynasty has always regarded fat as beauty?
In the past decades of work, Qi Dongfang has visited the Silk Road on-site, and he has personally experienced the excavation of the Tubo tomb in Dulan, Qinghai, and the secret investigation of the shipwreck "Black Rock" on the seabed.
Figurines unearthed from the Tang Tomb in Xingyuan, Yanshi, Henan.
Picture from "I am at the Archaeological Site: Ten Lectures on Archaeology on the Silk Road", courtesy of Zhonghua Book Company
In his opinion, archaeology reads books as well, but they read underground ruins. Such books have no words, but they also have a lot of knowledge, such as reflecting the social outlook and living habits of the time.
"Everyone often hears a saying: The Tang people regard fat as beauty, and it seems to be a conclusion." But Qi Dongfang has seen from some of the pottery figurines of the Tang Dynasty discovered so far that this is not the case.
“We have now discovered many tombs in archaeology, and there are figurines in them. We took all the female figurines unearthed in all the tombs together, and then carried out quantitative statistics, and the conclusion is that they are much thinner.” Qi Dongfang said.
In addition, they must be arranged according to different eras. This is called staging. For the three hundred years of the Tang Dynasty, the fashion of each period was different.
He said that almost none of the "fat" figurines were found in the early Tang Dynasty, and they were mostly concentrated in the Xuanzong period.
From this, Qi Dongfang believes, “So, we can say this: Maybe the Tang Dynasty regarded fat as its beauty in a certain period. Generally speaking, the Tang Dynasty regarded fat as its beauty, and it was not rigorous.”
Don't be misled by the TV series
In many cases, the results of archaeological work can also make people "enhance knowledge" and avoid being misled.
"I'm at the Archaeological Site: Ten Lectures on Archaeology on the Silk Road".
Photo courtesy of Zhonghua Book Company
For example, the big ingots with "small ears on both sides and drums in the middle" that are commonly seen in some TV dramas are pretty good-looking, but their shapes do not match ancient real objects.
According to Qi Dongfang, according to the unearthed objects, the middle position of the real ingot is flat.
"In ancient times, ingots were money and currency. Casting required model casting. They mainly relied on material and weight to express value." He explained that most of ingots were ugly in shape.
In some film and television dramas, people often throw out gold and silver ingots to buy things, which is very unreliable.
Qi Dongfang said, “There was so-called silver monetization in the Song Dynasty. Silver can circulate under certain occasions, but the main currency is still copper. There is no ingot in the Tang Dynasty.”
"The value of gold and silver is very high, and it is very different from copper coins." He roughly calculated an account. Take the smallest gold bar found by archaeology at present. If the ancients took it to buy cabbage, it might be enough to buy one. Cabbage in the train skin, "How do I get change?"
"So some ancient novels will write that you use scattered silver to buy things." Qi Dongfang recalled that he had seen a large box of small pieces of silver at the "Jiangkou Shenyin" site. "This is the money at the time. It can be circulated."
"Fictions and film and television dramas are works of art, and you cannot treat them as history," he said.
Archeology is not digging a tomb
Speaking of it, "archaeology" seems easy, but in reality it is by no means as simple as imagined.
Picture from "I am at the Archaeological Site: Ten Lectures on Archaeology on the Silk Road".
Photo courtesy of Zhonghua Book Company
"Some people say that archaeology is to dig tombs. I have to clarify that it is not the case." Qi Dongfang said that archaeological excavations are called relics, including houses and buildings, and "tomb digging" is only part of it. "We generally do infrastructure construction. Tombs were discovered during the process of building houses and laying foundations. Of course, an archaeological team would need to go."
Archaeology is different from epigraphy and appreciation.
He gave a simple example: Take pottery as an example. Every fragment on the excavation site will not be overlooked, and the placement position must be recorded.
After the excavation, restoration work must be carried out, which is also a complicated matter.
Qi Dongfang once mentioned that at the archaeological site, it is rare to see artifacts that are intact.
"To the pottery" is very boring, sometimes it can't match two pieces a day.
Cultural relics unearthed through archaeological excavations often have high academic and historical value.
He said, “For example, if you find a piece of porcelain at the kiln site, you can see through the section how thick the glaze layer is and what color the carcass is, and you can study the craftsmanship at that time.”
"What is discovered in the process of archaeology is often a combination of a group of artifacts. A lot of useful information can be found through comparison and combined research." Qi Dongfang feels that historical research wants to go one step further, and the source of new data is to rely on archaeological excavations.
Qi Dongfang joked, "There is a saying that is'the conclusion of covering the coffin'. For archaeology, it may be'the conclusion of opening the coffin.' There are some legends in the tomb of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty and the tomb of Mawangdui and the Han Dynasty. It’s not like that." (End)