Noble dragon and phoenix patterns, a large number of funerary objects, mysterious causes of death, can the mystery of this Qidan woman's identity and cause of death be solved by archaeologists one by one? On March 9, 2003, behind the rolling rocks, a grotesque stone wall suddenly appeared in the Tuerji Mountain quarry in Horqin Left-wing Houqi, Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia. This stone wall is obviously not naturally formed, and there are obvious artificial carving marks on the boulder. Six days later, the Inner Mongolia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology immediately sent an archaeological team to the scene after hearing the news. Deputy director Tara is in charge of this archaeological excavation. Tara has more than 20 years of professional archaeological experience, and her professional sense of smell tells him that there must be something unusual behind the stone wall. Tara decided to start digging from this stone wall. On the morning of April 23, a tunnel was finally revealed, but at its end, a huge stone gate stood out. Tara judged that the back of the stone gate was probably the tomb left by the ancients. According to the preliminary judgment of the tomb shape, it is a Liao Dynasty tomb. The huge stone gate collapsed, but there was no expected hole in the tomb behind the stone gate, and a wooden door stood in front. Sediment with a height exceeding 1 m is deposited there, and archaeologists are still unable to enter the ancient tomb. Three hours later, the silted sand was cleared, the wooden door was completely exposed to the sun, and a rusty copper lock locked the ancient tomb. Experienced archaeologists are worried about the organs hidden behind the door. They began to explore carefully. Under the wooden door, Tara found two bronze bells, one large and one small. Obviously, they were buried with the grave. On the afternoon of April 23rd, the tomb was finally opened. Tara's eyes searched eagerly in the dim light of the flashlight. He saw a red coffin in the middle of the ancient tomb. This is an undisturbed grave with a magnificent golden phoenix on the coffin. In ancient times, when the hierarchy was strict, the pattern of Phoenix could not be used casually, because it was a symbol of royal women. Tara couldn't believe her luck. Is there a Khitan queen or princess buried in this ancient tomb? -At the beginning of May, after more than a month of hard excavation, Tara finally walked into the ancient tomb to find the secrets of the Khitans. ...
The next discovery surprised Tara even more-a silver box was engraved with a golden dragon. Tara couldn't help looking around because he suddenly felt that the tomb was badly built. Compared with the funerary objects in the royal style, it is extremely uncoordinated. It is a nearly square tomb, with a width of less than 4 meters and a height of only over 3 meters at the top. The walls around the tomb are made of rough stones, and the space inside is extremely narrow. Except the coffin, all the funerary objects were cleaned up, but the archaeologists didn't find the epitaph. On the morning of June 2, the coffin was transported to Hohhot, more than 500 kilometers away from/kloc-0, and parked in the constant temperature and humidity laboratory. People will soon open this dusty 1000-year-old phoenix coffin. 10 The day after the coffin was transported to the laboratory, archaeologists carefully opened the huge coffin lid, and people found that there was an inner coffin inside the Phoenix coffin. On the coffin lid, it was still a golden phoenix. What is even more surprising is that there is a golden dragon in the middle of the phoenix. This is the first time people have seen dragons and phoenixes meet in an ancient tomb. The identity of the owner of the tomb is extraordinary. In the laboratory, experts conducted a systematic and comprehensive archaeological study of the tomb owner. Tara transferred a medical X-ray machine from the hospital, hoping that X-rays could find the secret hidden under the dead body. Starting from the head of the deceased, as Tara expected, some shadows of different shades gradually appeared, about three or four centimeters wide, but Tara and the experts present didn't know what it was, because it was not the burial objects of the Khitans that people were familiar with in the past. The x-ray machine moved to the victim's chest again. Soon, something with a clear outline appeared on the screen. Sure enough, there are many funerary objects hidden in the body of the deceased, which are typical jewelry and ornaments of the Khitan people. It was found that among the many funerary objects on the tomb owner, two things were unknown. One is that there are many irregular spots on the chest of the deceased, and Tara has a hunch that they may be related to the death of the tomb owner. There is a strange thing on the dead man's head, and only a few deep shadows can be seen on the screen. Tara speculated that this may be a landmark item showing the identity of the tomb owner. The extraction of funerary objects is about to begin, and the Khitan women show their faces in people's expectation. The shadow that once appeared in the X-ray machine shows its true shape. Gold headband decorated with phoenix pattern. Obviously, this is not a funerary object that ordinary people can have. In the tombs discovered in Liao Dynasty, the Khitans wore masks instead of headscarves, which was a symbol of the Khitans' power and status. In addition to masks, important Khitans should wear metal mesh clothes when they are buried after death. Like masks, this is the most common thing in the tombs of Qidan nobles or royalty. For example, Princess Chen was buried in a silver net. But people didn't find net clothes in the lower body of the deceased, only a few copper bells and a whip. Wang Dafang, an expert in the history of Qidan, is very interested in the bronze bell and whip that have just been extracted. According to the historical records of the Song Dynasty in China, the Khitans believed in a mysterious religion called Shaman, and shaman wizards were generally held by women. On this basis, Wang Dafang boldly speculated on the identity of the tomb owner, thinking that the tomb owner might be a shaman wizard. According to the historical records of Song Dynasty in China, the Khitans believed in Shamanism, and shamans were usually played by women, but Tara denied the speculation about shamans. Tara believes that in the Central Plains, only the royal family can use dragons and phoenixes since ancient times, and several dragons and phoenixes must have special grades. Many practices of the Khitan people are the same as those of the Han people, such as its burial customs, which are mostly in the Central Plains. At the same time, he believes that the headband is the predecessor of the mask, so the burial age of the tomb owner is determined in the early Qidan. By June of 14, it was found that the silk clothes on the deceased were close to decay, and peeling became more and more difficult. Archaeologists should be careful and race against time, because there are still many funerary objects hidden in the upper body of the master. A huge necklace appeared, and gold and precious stones sparkled in the light. The X-ray machine showed that the owner of the tomb had more than that, and experts also extracted gold bracelets. Subsequently, people found five gold rings on the fingers of the deceased, which were also inlaid with gems such as turquoise. All the funerary objects are extremely precious and gorgeous, which once again shows that the identity of the tomb owner is extraordinary. Tara is very excited about these jewels, which will be available physical evidence when determining the true identity of the tomb owner. /kloc-at 0: 00 on June, 0/5, the stripping in the laboratory continued, and people were once again surprised: a beautiful silk embroidered dress and a ball dragon embroidered with gold thread were still shining! In order to undress smoothly, people consider pulling out the bones of the deceased first. People didn't expect that the color of the bone was as black as that face. Tara said: our judgment at that time may be poisoning death, and it is highly toxic because her bones are so different. The investigation on the identity of the owner of the tomb needs to continue. Tara is looking forward to finding out the whereabouts of those mysterious spots as soon as possible, but Tara never imagined that an accident was waiting for him. In the early morning of June 15, the archaeological stripping has been going on for nearly 20 hours. In the laboratory, the stripping work is coming to an end. Just as people were about to take out a dress next to the deceased, some silver liquid flowed out of it. It's mercury! The appearance of mercury added a layer of murder to the cause of death of the tomb owner. So, is Mercury the murderer? Mercury can be used for anticorrosion, which has been recorded in the history of China. In the tombs of the Khitans, Tara once found mercury. Experts believe that such a high mercury content is enough to kill people. However, the tomb owner of Mount turky cannot rashly conclude that Mercury is the murderer, because there is a situation that cannot be ignored. The deceased and mercury have been in a closed environment for a long time. In 1000 years, mercury will evaporate continuously, and the mercury in the bones and hair of the deceased is likely to penetrate a little during this period. Moreover, from the point of view that the mercury content of hair is three times higher than that of bone samples, it is precisely because of the large surface area of hair that it absorbs more mercury. In addition, experts also analyzed from the perspective of toxicology that people will die soon after being injected with a large amount of mercury, and the blood has not had time to bring mercury into their hair. If tested immediately, it is difficult to detect mercury in the hair of the deceased. -The important bones and skulls of the tomb owner were put into the incubator, and Tara personally drove to Jilin University in Changchun, where she wanted to identify the bones of the deceased in physical anthropology. Under the microscope, some details that were not found at first were magnified. These are all small bone processes, very sharp, with bone spurs. Thus, Tara has a clearer understanding of the owner of turky Mountain Tomb. She probably died of illness, and Tara felt that the final result seemed to be getting closer. Soon, bad news came from Jilin University: the experimenters failed to get ideal data after two DNA extractions. There are two main reasons for this. One is that the DNA sequence is too old to extract valid data. The other is that the metal content in bone is too high, which seriously interferes with the data display. More than nine months have passed since the ancient tomb was discovered. Although experts from all walks of life have participated in the archaeological research of turky Mountain Tomb, archaeologists have also used various experimental means, but the identity of the tomb owner and the cause of death are still confusing. What is this, a Khitan woman? People want to know her better. Tara invited experts in physical anthropology to restore the portrait, and finally determined that the height of the deceased was 159.2 cm. When the appearance of the Khitan woman was truly presented, her identity was still shrouded in clouds, and the cause of death was not finally found out, which made people feel a little sorry. This is the helplessness of archaeological research and the embarrassment that archaeologists have to face. Tara decided to wait for remote sensing detection and DNA extraction to be carried out again soon. At that time, all the secrets of this Qidan woman in the phoenix coffin may be revealed to the world. Soon, bad news came from Jilin University: the experimenters failed to get ideal data after two DNA extractions. There are two main reasons for this. One is that the DNA sequence is too old to extract valid data. The other is that the metal content in bone is too high, which seriously interferes with the data display.
More than nine months have passed since the ancient tomb was discovered. Although experts from all walks of life have participated in the archaeological research of turky Mountain Tomb, archaeologists have also used various experimental means, but the identity of the tomb owner and the cause of death are still confusing.
What is this, a Khitan woman? People want to know her better. Tara invited experts in physical anthropology to restore the portrait, and finally determined that the height of the deceased was 159.2 cm. When the appearance of this Khitan woman was truly presented, her identity was still shrouded in mist, and the cause of death was not finally found out, which made people feel a little sorry.