A group of people from the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences were busy in the east side room.

On the other side, the staff of the Guangzhou Institute of Archaeology are also fighting in the west room.

The size of the west chamber is basically the same as that of the east chamber, otherwise the overall chamber cannot be symmetrical.

The burial chamber, which is also more than seven meters long and 1.62 meters wide, seems a little too slender.

The entire burial chamber is made of sandstone masonry, and the four walls are stacked with sandstone blocks.

As a result, over time, some of the sandstone loosened and fell into the burial chamber.

A piece of sandstone at the top of the partition wall on the north side of the doorway broke and fell into the burial chamber, and by chance it smashed into the head of one of the people in the burial chamber, causing the bones of the head to shatter.

Why "one of them"?

Because compared to the east side room where the martyr lady was buried, the west side room was buried by some people of lower status!

After Director Fu led people into the east side room, the first thing he saw was a pile of white bone residues on the ground!

Moreover, the specifications of these martyrs were obviously of the lowest level, and like the musician in the West Ear Chamber, there was not even a coffin, and it was placed directly on the paving plank.

Of course, the planks that had been laid on the ground had rotted.

However, after the wooden planks decayed, they still left a centimeter thick black rotten ash, and it was evenly spread across the floor of the burial chamber, which was clearly the remains of the paving planks.

Inside the tomb, the martyrdom of five people located in the southern half is more obvious.

Although they did not have a coffin, the bones were well preserved.

The five people were martyred in a parallel diagonal direction in the southwest and northeast, with their heads and feet placed in opposite directions, and bronze mirrors were placed beside them.

The first person was martyred, located at the southernmost point of the chamber, with his head facing northeast and his feet facing southwest, and the skeleton was poorly preserved.

Only part of the skull, teeth, vertebrae, ribs, humerus, and femur remain, and the length of 1.25 meters from the foot to the head is no longer determined.

However, because one bronze mirror covers the face, some of the facial bones and teeth have become patina, and they are relatively well preserved.

There were not many burial goods with him, only 1 bronze mirror and 1 jade ornament.

Because the teeth were relatively well preserved, Director Fu and others could easily identify that the deceased was about 20 years old and was buried at a very young age.

However, due to the mutilation of some of the bones, the sex of the deceased could not be determined.

The second person is martyred, next to the first person who was martyred, but the head is in reverse direction to the first person's martyrdom, that is, the head is facing southwest and the feet are facing northeast.

The bones of the second martyr are even smaller, with only a few broken limb bones and a few teeth.

However, because the limb bones are still there, the human shape can probably be seen, and it is relatively easy to identify.

This person was martyred, and he couldn't tell the gender anymore, but judging by the remaining teeth, he should have been an adult when he died, and all the baby teeth were replaced with permanent teeth.

His burial goods were even more scarce, and only a small gold ornament was found on his head, presumably a headdress hanging from his forehead.

The third person next to him was martyred, and he continued to return to the burial position with his head to the northeast and his feet to the southwest.

The burial style of this martyr was supine and straight, and the bones were relatively well preserved.

Part of her skull and teeth are covered under a bronze mirror, the cervical vertebrae are not perpendicular to the vertebrae, the sacrum and pelvis are basically preserved, the leg bones and phalanges are also partially preserved, and the right hand bone is roughly visible.

Her residual length is about 1,55 meters, but due to the incomplete preservation of some phalanges, she should actually be a little taller than 1.55 meters.

She is also the best-preserved of the martyrs in the room.

Because it is well preserved, it can be clearly identified through the bones that this person was a middle-aged woman about 40 years old.

In addition, there are traces of red cinnabar on her head, back and some bones, indicating that she may have applied cinnabar to her body after her death.

It's just that not all the dead who have been smeared with cinnabar can be as incorruptible for thousands of years as Mr. Sui.

It is worth mentioning that her funeral goods are also very rich, compared to the previous two who only have one or two burial goods, she has eight funeral goods!

The First Cause of All Worlds

They are copper mirror, copper smoker, copper frame jade, pottery smoker, small jade ring, small jade Huang 2 pieces and a small jade seal.

The most important thing is that the small jade seal, which was unearthed on the south side of her lower limbs, is certainly her burial goods.

It's just that there is no inscription on this jade seal, just a yellowish-white, soft square covered button.

However, according to the size of the seal, the side length is 1.5 centimeters, and the height is 1.2 centimeters, this person should have been a middle and high-ranking official of the South Vietnamese State before his death.

Most likely, it should be in charge of managing the maids of the palace of the queen of Nanyue.

During the Qin and Han dynasties, the number of emperors' harems swelled, and there were as many as 1,000 maids, so there must have been a female official who led the management of these maids.

Like the head of the eunuchs.

It's just that the female official system in the Han Dynasty is not recorded in historical books, and there is only occasional sporadic information between the lines, and the specific official titles and responsibilities are confusing to modern people.

We can only see a little bit of record from the history books.

For example, "The Book of the Later Han Dynasty: The Biography of Chen Fan": "Zheng Sa and Mrs. Zhao's daughters are still in turmoil in the world. ”

"The Old Rites of Han Officials": "To the two Shangshu Lang Bo and the two female attendants, they all choose the upright ones to be upright." ”

"Hanyi": "In the seventh year of Yongping, the Empress Dowager Yin collapsed...... The 300 waitresses are all vegetarians, participate in white vegetarians, and lead the coffin elegy. ”

The "female scholars" and "female waitresses" here may be some levels in the female official system of the Han Dynasty.

Correspondingly, the South Vietnamese State should also have its own system of female officials.

And this man was martyred, a little over forty years old, and he was a woman, and he was also martyred.

Obviously, it should be the female official leader who assists the queen in managing the harem.

It's just that even if she becomes the head of a female official, she still has to be martyred.

Maybe Zhao Hu thinks this person is good, and he manages the maids of the harem in an orderly manner, and he is a talent, so he plans to take her underground to continue to help manage the maids of the harem~

And the appearance of the female officer also provides a guess for the identity of other people's martyrs.

Perhaps, these martyrs in the west room may all belong to the maids of Zhao Hu, the king of Nanyue.

First of all, because these people were martyred without coffins, this shows that their status must not be high.

In contrast, the coachmen outside the door all have coffins, so the status of these people is lower than that of the coachman, and the status of the musician is the same.

Obviously, that is only possible with servants and slaves.

Secondly, these people in the west room were martyred, including the fourth person in the back, whose status is, and their burial goods are basically some small jade ornaments, belt hooks, and covered with copper mirrors.

This burial practice of covering the face with a bronze mirror, which has not been seen in other regions, is the first case.

But assuming that the sex of the martyrdom is female, then it can be explained by covering the face with a copper mirror, women love beauty and prefer to use a copper mirror, so after death, the copper mirror is covered, which is a kind of "dream come true" meaning.

Therefore, it is more likely that the people in the west room were all women!

It was a female official, with a group of maids under her command, who followed the martyrdom of Zhao Hu, the king of Nanyue, and prepared to go underground to continue serving the monarch!