The lighting fixtures set up by the equipment in the construction site are not only leakage-proof, but also bright enough, and after multi-point laying, there is almost no shadow in the basement, and the effect of shadowless lights is almost formed. Ｘ

Not bad!

The heat light source is still warm, as long as you don't stick your hands on it as a pig's trotter roast.

There are also disadvantages: slightly harsh!

But then again, this glare also has the advantage of being glaring, and the accumulation in the last two meters is basically items rather than ordinary gold and silver goods, which is quite bright and attractive to look at.

There are not many things, and judging from the number of remnants of the wooden box left after decay compared with the number and volume of the artifacts exposed, there were more boxes than those that did not rot.

Zhang Nan carefully took out a silver-inlaid gold goblet from the pile of rotten wooden boards, which was like a goblet with a diameter of twelve or thirteen centimeters added to the foot of the cup.

The mouth of the bowl is covered with a circle of gold, and the gold is also inlaid with a circle and a dozen gems of various colors.

Looking at the light, two of them were probably red spinels, the size of a thumb nail, which basically maintained the original form of the stone, and polished it, which was a common technique in gemstone processing in the Middle Ages.

As for the other gemstones, the blue one may be a sapphire, or it may be any kind of blue semi-treasure that looks beautiful at the time, and it is difficult to recognize.

Is green an emerald?

Maybe it is, or maybe it isn't, but the people who would have a very different concept of gemstones than modern people.

There are also two yellow ones, and there are ** citrine in ten;

Well, this Zhang Nan knows, it's just white crystal.

White crystal of this size is worthless today, but it was still a gemstone more than 600 years ago, especially when it was cut into an oval shape and then carefully polished, and it was expensive!

Zhang Nan held up the silver-gray-black, gold-shining, and gem-dazzling cup in his hand, and Jerry Goodencowan on the side said: "Boss, this cup looks like a Hungarian craft, with a heavy Eastern Roman Empire style. ”

Wearing a mask, his voice is a little muffled.

"It's not uncomfortable when I'm drinking, and this circle of gems is much more pleasing to the eye if it goes a little lower. ”

Upon hearing this, Jerry added, "I see that this circle of gold and precious stones was added later, and it may have been a silver cup at first, and it may have been engraved with a pattern on it. ”

If you look closely under the light, it seems that there are patterns, but the oxide layer on the surface of the silver cup is very thick, which is not clear, and it should be visible after cleaning later.

Zhang Nan smiled sullenly, "This pattern will be even more cheesy if you add it."

It's vulgar, a nouveau riche temperament!

No wonder some people say that Byzantium's artistic customs, after Hellenization, the artistic temperament of ancient Greece was basically not inherited, and they played this splendid set. ”

"That's not entirely true, Byzantine art developed fairly well in the Middle Ages, and Western Europe was called vulgar, not only vulgar but also that...

Crude and stupid!"

Jerry has a slightly different point of view, but the main line is the same.

Precious metals and a bunch of gem inlays, the most important and valuable objects of the Middle Ages are in a typical state, and there is almost no aura.

Compared with the art forms of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, according to the concept of modern people, the goods of the Middle Ages were vulgar and devoid of aura, the most typical of which were those reliquaries and reliquaries.

The more gem-encrusted the better, like some oversized jewelry boxes!

To be honest, those "amazing" large jewelry boxes have no aura as the pepper pot that Zhang Nan often uses: the ancient Roman pepper shaker is pleasing to look at.

However, vulgarity also has the benefits of vulgarity, anyway, Zhang Nan thinks that he is a vulgar person, and he is still a vulgar person who basically has no saving value.

The goblet was sent, and these utensils could not be rinsed directly with tap water, and after cleaning the basement today, Jerry had to be busy for a few days.

There were many boxes and few utensils, and it didn't take long for Zhang Nan and the others to discover why this was the case: there was a small amount of rotten and black stuff in the bottom mud.

It's pepper.

Apparently the owner of the castle hid a few boxes of pepper in the cellar more than 600 years ago, which would have been water-impermeable, and probably dry.

It may also be that the enemy invades on a large scale, and the good things are hidden first, and as a result, the battle is lost, the people are killed, the fort is burned, and these precious goods are quietly lost underground and decay over time.

I wonder if the former owner of the castle would feel sorry for him for losing so much pepper, because this spice was so expensive at that time!

More than 20 years later, no one joked: if a poor man travels to medieval Europe, and he can only take one thing with him, what do you bring?

Pepper!

You don't need to bring white pepper, just black pepper with a slightly lower price and a stronger aroma.

In Zhang Nan's previous life, the wholesale price of a kilogram of high-quality black pepper was more than 30 yuan, and the international market was a matter of a few dollars. No more, buy a thirty or fifty pound with you, and travel back to the middle and early Middle Ages, then you are a local tyrant, as long as you don't rob people!

In the Middle Ages, when pepper was most scarce, this small spice could really be exchanged for gold by weight, and it was no problem to go out without money, just bring a small bag of pepper, it could be used as money, it was hard currency!

This was the case, because pepper was not produced in Europe, and the Arabs took it from India to Egypt, where it was wholesaled to Venetian merchants who did business, and then brought back to Europe by Venetian merchants and wholesaled again.

The Arabs are in business, and pepper has gone through such layers of wholesale plus Guanshan Wanli, so the price of this pepper is ridiculously expensive when it is retailed in Europe, especially in Western Europe!

In fact, Europeans didn't know about pepper at first, and it was only after the Roman legions rampaged on the European continent that they brought the habit of eating pepper to Europe.

Although it was the aristocracy who was lucky enough to eat pepper at the beginning, the old Chinese saying "if you are good at the top, you will be very good at the bottom" is applicable whenever and wherever you want.

When the aristocrats added pepper to their dishes, the lower classes would follow suit and think that it was a very noble and elegant way to eat, so they tried to add pepper to the dishes as well.

Besides, it's delicious, especially when eating meat, relying on the cooking level of European people, if there is no pepper...

I don't want to talk about the taste.

The more people who add pepper and the more pepper they add, the more expensive pepper becomes;

The more expensive it is, the more people will eat it, and the more you eat, the more expensive it is!

Then came the rise of the Is-lan world, where Europeans were cut off from the Orient in search of spices, and pepper was almost extinct in Europe.

In the days when there was no pepper, Europeans used onions and garlic as substitutes, but they still couldn't find the charm of pepper.

In particular, the upper class people, who were accustomed to eating meat in large quantities, could not tolerate it, and the only way to preserve meat at that time was to dry it or salt, and this kind of meat was difficult to swallow for a long time without pepper seasoning!

As a result, the anxious Europeans tried to develop commerce and trade in many ways to increase the amount of pepper shipped to Europe, and on the other hand, they desperately searched for new sources of pepper in the process of conquering other countries by force.

At that time, the fat rich people were directly called "pepper bags", and the Europeans would kill each other for a small bag of pepper, even at the cost of life and soul!

If you arrive in Venice with dozens of kilograms of pepper on your back, congratulations, you'll either be a rich merchant right away, or you'll be a dead body on a street corner or in a canal the next day!

In 1095, Pope Urban II convened a huge Europe-wide mobilization meeting for the Crusades in Clermont, France, and one of the driving forces for the crusade was pepper!

Pepper has long been used in Europe instead of gold and silver bookkeeping, and can also be used to buy land, dowry, and even to buy a city, and many European monarchs also used the weight of pepper to assess taxes.

Zhang Nan held a few black, almost charred peppers in his hand and said a joke to Jerry: "Fortunately, we are not digging up the pure treasure of the rich in the Middle Ages, otherwise it would be fun to do this." ”

The story of King Solomon's treasure,