It didn't take long for Captain Zhou to arrive.

He thrust his hand into the gap between the stone ball and the surface, but it didn't get in. The sediment layer is different from the sand layer above and is already very solid. "There's also a stone pillar or tower down there." Captain Zhou said as he asked the soldier to take out the tools from the dump. "Let's see what's going on below."

I nodded, took the probe shovel and connecting rod from the toolbox he had brought, and expertly assembled them. With the stone ball as the center, Captain Zhou determined a few points, and the two of us went separately to explore the cave.

My first exploration was a little more than a meter down. At this moment, I was convinced that it was time to unravel the mystery.

The deepest cavern is only a little more than five meters. In order not to destroy what is underground, we did not dig more caves, but left this pit with this team of engineers.

Squad Leader Liu took the soldiers back to the camp to standby, Captain Zhou went to the headquarters to report the situation, and I went to the camp to prepare more tools. Such a large area of exploration is not something that one or two people can deal with, although Captain Zhou did not say it, I can also estimate that other archaeological team members will be dispatched to excavate this exploration pit together. And the next work will inevitably be extremely hard, and we will no longer watch the soldiers scrape the soil like an overseer, and we will have to complete these tasks in the future.

After packing up my tools, I slept for a while. In the afternoon, I was called up to a meeting at the headquarters. The three captains of the archaeological team all arrived, and according to the situation of the exploration party, the archaeological team decided to transfer three more archaeological team members to excavate together, and the focus of the meeting was to discuss which exploration party to abandon. This is because all the archaeological team members participating in this project have a prospector in charge of the work, and if they are withdrawn, the expedition they preside over can only stop work.

This discussion is not very difficult, and the one who gives up will only be the slowest progress and the least gain, so it was quickly decided. But even so, it is difficult to completely unearth this exploration before the end of the year. Chief Seven said that he could not accept this, and he proposed a plan to speed up the progress and let the engineers continue to assist in the excavation.

Our response to this proposal was unanimous: it was unacceptable. This job requires professional skills, although it is all soil digging work, and you can't do this job if you plant corn, otherwise you can only mess up.

It is clear that we are very divided on the ultimate purpose of this project. As for our view of protecting monuments and cultural relics, Chief No. 1 scoffed. However, on this issue, the three captains of the archaeological team were very persistent, and after some disputes, a compromise was reached: the excavation of non-key locations was handed over to the engineering corps.

In this way, it is necessary to dig down more shovels to avoid omissions and damage to cultural relics. After the meeting, the archaeological team members who were transferred to me, concentrated on the exploration pit and began to dig the cave intensively. This has the advantage of being able to draw a more detailed diagram of the underground structure.

The next day, Captain Zhou, Captain Xiao, and two other archaeological team members entered the exploration pit together. He was accompanied by ten engineers. According to the escape pod seats, this pit can only be used by a maximum of sixteen people. The last place is occupied by a liaison officer of the headquarters, whose main job is to contact the headquarters at any time, report the progress of the work, and then coordinate the working relationship between the archaeological team and the engineering troops. After yesterday's dispute, the Command's attitude towards the archaeological team has changed, and although they do not think that the archaeological team will deliberately delay the progress of the project, it is highly likely that they will inadvertently affect the progress.

The site was a bit chaotic, and we carved out several areas for the engineers to dig in, and the depth at which they were allowed to dig was marked for each face. Our five archaeological teams work on the points closest to the surface of the earth for cultural relics or relics. Captain Zhou and I are responsible for the stone balls that have been exposed to the ground.

The stone ball was completely exposed that day, and as expected, there was still one underneath. It is a huge stone carving.

At the end of November, a large section of the stone carving was exposed, and although it has not yet been seen in its entirety, it can be judged that it is a stone pillar. Judging from the excavated part, the stone pillar is round, with a diameter of 60 centimeters, and the ball at the top of the stone pillar is supposed to represent the sun, and the surface of the stone pillar is carved with human beings and monsters, which seem to be carved in grades or categories. Both humans and animals raised their heads and faced the round ball on the top of the stone pillar, with different expressions and postures, some with frightened faces, some with solemn expressions, and some with reverent gazes.

But the image carved on the top layer is puzzling. This layer is carved with four human faces, showing the four emotions of human beings, joy, anger and sorrow. And these four people are not looking upward, but bowing their heads slightly. There are also these four facial reliefs, although the expressions are different, it can be clearly seen that the carving is the same person, which seems to indicate the four states of a person. The shape of this stone pillar is incomprehensible, and before the stone pillar is fully revealed, we did not focus on studying the carving of the stone pillar, let alone have the luxury of immediately figuring out its actual function and significance.

This stone pillar is very highly carved, buried in the ground and eroded for thousands of years, and the surface is eroded, but these animal sculptures are still lifelike and have vivid expressions. Captain Zhou and I have a very consistent judgment on it, and we both think that it is a totem pole. Represents the object of worship of this relic: the sun. Of course, it doesn't matter if it's right or not, because it's just the initial impression and won't affect the later appraisal.

At the same time, others made a different discovery. Not far from us, Captain Xiao Guolin dug up a section of brick wall. The wall is made of green bricks, and a small section is covered with green tiles. This discovery also caused a small sensation, if this ruins and the previously unearthed cultural relics are an archaeological date, then this discovery can advance the age of bricks and tiles by a large margin.

Because this exploration pit is progressing so fast, it has left other exploration parties far behind. The command held an enlarged meeting, and finally made up its mind to concentrate on digging this exploratory pit and abandon the rest of the exploratory parties for the time being. In this way, it is possible to completely clean up this probe before the arrival of the wind season, and a phased conclusion can be drawn.

After the meeting, all the archaeological team members put down their work and gathered in my exploration. Captain Zhou was relieved from heavy manual labor, and he became the only one of all the archaeological team members who did not work in the exploration pit. In fact, his age and physical condition are indeed not suitable for such heavy physical labor. In addition, at this stage, the relics are gradually unearthed, which is really not suitable for the extensive work mode of the engineering troops, and the main work of the engineering troops has changed from excavation to carrying and cleaning.

At this time, the composition of sixteen personnel in the pit was like this. Ten members of the archaeological team, five engineers, and a coordinator of the command.

http://www.qidian.com

Starting Point Chinese www.qidian.com welcome book friends to come and read, the latest, fastest and most popular serialized works are all original at Starting Point!