"Books?"

Adjani looked at the strange object in Zhang Nan's hand and was a little puzzled, could such a big pimple be a book?

Super slab bricks are about the same.

Zhang Nan smiled, and gently put the huge "book" on a light table prepared for the digging guy to put water cups and drinks, and then said: "It should be a book, feeling." ”

After speaking, he looked at the pit: the bottom of the pit was still mixed with rotten wooden planks and various crowns with the same pile of soil, and Jerry, who originally wanted to take over the cleaning work, also stood on the side and did not move, because he also heard Zhang Nan say "book".

Experts are also curious - this will be a book?

Everyone had questions, Zhang Nan turned around and carefully observed the "mud lump" on the table, and said to himself: "I heard that in southern China, there was a very interesting thing in Fujian Province south of my hometown.

There is a man-made house, and as a result, a few books were dug up from an ancient tomb of the Southern Song Dynasty about 800 years ago, and they were taken to a group of brick families for identification, saying that they were taken from an ancient tomb when building a house, but unfortunately those people didn't believe it at all!

Conventional thinking, the damp underground environment unearthed 800-year-old ancient books, in the eyes of those who can only talk about it, it is simply impossible!

Even if the tomb hadn't been soaked in mud and filled with mud, the paper wouldn't have been able to survive in a dark and damp environment for 800 years—800 days!

But those books are really rare books of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the brick family not only can't recognize them, but also think that the "stories" made up by the holders are too funny.

There was no way, the guy who dug up the books didn't have the habit of collecting old books, and in the end, these extremely precious Song classics were cheaper than the dealers of cultural relics. ”

At this point, Adjani listened to the story, and Jerry couldn't help but ask: "Boss, I know that in a suitable storage environment, whether it is Chinese paper or European parchment, it can be preserved for thousands of years, but what method can be used in the underground environment?"

"With wax.

When the ancient books of the Southern Song Dynasty were dug up, they were tightly wrapped and sealed in a layer of wax several centimeters thick, completely isolating the air and water from the outside world.

Protected by wax, time stands almost still for it, and the outside world cannot damage the books.

I just didn't think the Knights Templar in the Middle Ages would do the same, so I don't know if they came up with it themselves or if they learned it somewhere else. ”

Everyone had never heard of this method of preserving books before, and it was novel, so I saw Zhang Nan gently sharpening the "book case" with a knife, scraping off a little "book shell" cortex, and then heating the tip of the knife with a lighter: the black-brown substance scraped on the tip of the knife melted.

Sure enough, it wasn't some mastic, it was wax, but it had turned black because of too much time. In addition, although wax is generally impermeable to water and breathable, it will be penetrated by some mineral elements in the environment for a long time in the underground environment, and it will become this unsightly color after hundreds of years.

I didn't smell the smell of the waxy melted and turned into green smoke, and it was better not to be a guinea pig if I didn't know much about the substance.

Putting the knife aside, he said to Adjani, who was curious about the baby: "There was no paraffin wax in the Middle Ages, so I don't know if these waxes are made of animal fat or beeswax, or even how to dissolve amber beeswax and add it to the first two waxes.

Alchemy was popular in the Middle Ages, and God knows what was added here. At that time, the general animal oily wax will decompose after a few decades, and there should be a lot of messy things added to this thick shell, and you can only figure out the ingredients when you go back to a laboratory to analyze the ingredients. ”

Adjani nodded, she didn't want her man to put his man at risk.

The paraffin wax that Zhang Nan said is extracted from oil, and the main material for modern people to make candles was certainly not available in the Middle Ages.

Jerry on the other side heard him say this and asked, "Boss, what kind of wax was used to preserve books in ancient China?"

"The varieties of wax were similar to those in Europe at that time, generally animal fat and beeswax.

However, the preservation of books should be a very special kind of wax, we have a kind of tree fruit can be squeezed wax, the nature is much more stable than animal wax, I guess those ancient books of the Southern Song Dynasty are sealed with plant-based wax. ”

The difference between the East and the West is not the point, the point is to use the same concept to preserve things.

"Won't open it?"

Adjani felt from what Zhang Nan said that he didn't plan to crack the waxy shell of the "book" here, and everyone was still waiting to know what kind of books were closed in this big brother.

Zhang Nan's mouth cracked, and he said: "It is almost a miracle that the ancient books of the Southern Song Dynasty in China can be preserved, not about time, but after being knocked open by someone, the waxy protective layer did not turn into ash immediately." ”

As he spoke, he lightly knocked on the "book knot", "The paper inside has not seen oxygen and sunlight for hundreds of years, and if I knock it here, I am afraid that it will become fly ash in the blink of an eye." ”

It's a question, and everyone wants to know what kind of book is in it that deserves the knights' such protection.

But what if you can't touch the air?

It is difficult for others, but it is easy for Zhang Nan to solve, just change your thinking.

"Construct a set of equipment for the study of bacteria and viruses, isolate the operation, and replace the ordinary air in it with an inert gas, so that you can knock it on and see. ”

It's a good idea!

It's through the whole glove, and then the people outside can look through the books placed in the cabinet, which is how all virus labs operate.

"What about the future?"

It was Charlie who asked this.

Zhang Nan smiled: "In the future, I will talk about it in the future, it's a big deal to make an inert gas cabinet to put books, it's better than turning gray." ”

In fact, it is also a way to slowly increase the oxygen content, but this is all in the future: how to operate in the future depends on what kind of book is sealed in this waxy pimple.

The "Jacques de Molay Cross" records that the Order also hid four copies of the "Golden Blessing-Yin", but it seems that only this one has been preserved in this burial pit, "... Maybe it's too late, or maybe it's not enough sealing materials, or it's more likely that it's hiding just thinking about burying the treasure temporarily, and then it can be released after a while.

But they don't have a chance. ”

It is possible that the "Golden Gospel" in ancient Rome was not a religious word, but actually indicated that the book was beautifully bound and written, and the font was also special, and it was written in special gold font, so there may be any books in this big lump.

In the days of the Knights Templar, this ancient Roman book was also an absolute treasure, and it is said to be now. Whatever the book says, it's going to be a big discovery.

As for the question of why this pimple is so huge, it is not a problem in the first place: ancient books are relatively large at the beginning, and in general, the more important the book, the greater its external size!

Seemingly...

Modern books seem to have this habit, as if the size of the book can be a notch higher.