In August, 2008, just as the Beijing Olympic Games was in full swing, an ancient tomb group that shocked the world was accidentally discovered in Fengqi Park, Xi 'an, Shaanxi Province due to the construction of Metro Line 2, which is now the famous tomb of the Zhang family in the Western Han Dynasty. According to historical records, Zhang Shi 'an was a general of Sima Yi in the Western Han Dynasty, and ranked second among the "Eleven Masters of Qilin Pavilion", second only to Huo Guang.
The discovery of Zhang Shi 'an's family tomb excited all the experts, but unfortunately, when they excavated and investigated, they found that the tomb had already been seized by grave robbers. Therefore, after several months of busy work, experts finally cleared only 13 empty tombs. Maybe it's providence. Just when the experts were disheartened, the tomb of 14 was found on the west side ... After investigation, the experts determined that the tomb was not stolen, but was completely preserved. At the same time, according to the funeral etiquette of the Western Han Dynasty, the owner of the tomb is Zhang Shi 'an's wife. Experts speculate that it should be that the grave robbers piled the excavated soil on the tomb when robbing the tomb, so in the end, Mrs. Zhang Shi' an's tomb escaped.
Thirteen tombs were stolen in succession, but the last one was well preserved. This is incredible. Therefore, experts dare not ignore Mrs. Zhang's grave, but they didn't dig and clean it at the first time. Because from the sealing situation at that time, the situation in the tomb is unknown. Once excavated without authorization, it is very likely to cause permanent damage to the cultural relics in the tomb. Experts held a meeting to discuss, and finally decided to use a high-tech equipment to see what was in the tomb. Therefore, archaeologists borrowed a set of the most advanced endoscopic equipment in the world from Shaanxi Provincial People's Hospital and went deep into the tomb to find out. First, the experts opened a finger-sized round hole on one side of the tomb door, and then extracted a can of "old" gas from the tomb with a compressor and sent it to the institute for testing. At the same time, one end of the image collected by the endoscope goes deep into the tomb, and the other end is connected with large-scale computing and processing equipment.
While moving the endoscope, the experts observed the situation in the tomb through the computer screen. The more experts look at it, the more excited they are. There are no signs of theft in the tomb, and all kinds of exquisite jade and lacquerware funerary objects are unobstructed. In addition, the test results of gas in the tomb came out soon, showing that there was no toxic gas, but the methane content exceeded the standard. Therefore, experts have protected the gas in the tomb and started to prepare for the next excavation and cleaning.
Through the perspective of the endoscope, experts have long known the situation of the ancient tomb, so they seem to be familiar with it when cleaning up the funerary objects. However, for experts, cleaning the funerary objects is more than just taking them out, because they have been stored in graves for thousands of years. If they suddenly come into contact with the fresh air outside, they will soon be oxidized, faded or deformed, which will inevitably bring irreparable losses.
In order to protect these precious cultural relics, experts will spray a special chemical reagent on them before cleaning, then wrap them with plastic wrap to isolate the air, and finally take them back to the museum and keep them in a room full of inert gas. After several months of busy work, experts unearthed dozens of brightly colored lacquerware, as well as exquisite jade, pottery and silk.
Readers may understand that archaeology is an extremely rigorous scientific behavior, and the starting point of everything is to preserve cultural relics well and obtain key historical and cultural information from them.