The discovery of the five human martyrs has cast a haze in the hearts of the researchers of the Guangzhou Institute of Archaeology.

In Guangzhou, there has never been a tomb with a martyr.

In the Lingnan area, there are indeed many Neolithic sites.

However, the Neolithic prehistoric humans in Guangdong did not develop classes, systems, and cultures.

Most of the Neolithic sites found in the area have been excavated with stone tools, pottery, and a small amount of jade.

It should be some tribal unit of Neolithic humans.

In the Neolithic period, burial was not very popular, at least not human.

People were productive at the time.

Even if there is a hostile attack between two tribes, the people of the other tribes are usually used as slaves, and they are reluctant to be used for burial.

After the end of the Neolithic Age, the Baiyue tribe in Lingnan brought advanced bronze culture to the local Baiyue after some of the Yue people from Wu and Yue went south.

At this time, these Baiyue people also did not have the custom of burial.

Therefore, some Baiyue tombs found sporadically in Guangzhou are also rare burial pits.

As for the later tombs of the Tang, Song and Ming dynasties, not to mention, the Chinese people had long abandoned the backward burial system at that time.

Well, except for Zhu Yuanzhang's brief re-pick-up for so many decades, but it was only three generations, and when he arrived in Zhu Qizhen, the god of war of the Ming Dynasty, he also abolished the funeral again.

The people have never recovered.

This tomb of the king of Nanyue is already the only tomb with human martyrdom discovered and participated in by the Guangzhou Archaeological Institute.

Seeing so many maids accompanying the funeral still made these researchers from the Guangzhou Institute of Archaeology feel inexplicable.

Still, the work that needs to be done is to be done.

The bones of the five martyrs in the southern half were cleaned up, and the few burial goods they had were collected one by one.

The clean-up of the northern half began immediately afterwards.

On the ground in the northern half of the west side chamber, there is also a pile of bones.

However, it is clear that these bones are not human bones, but a large number of animal remains such as cows and pigs.

Although the remains of these animals are scattered and may be related to the drift caused by the intrusion of groundwater, they can be roughly divided into three areas.

Area A, near the doorway, is located south, mostly cow vertebrae and a few ribs.

Area B, a piece to the northeast, is basically a pig skeleton, and the surface of the bone is dark black, which should have been buried after barbecue.

In addition, 4 iron nails were also cleaned up around the skeleton in this area, all of which were glued to rotten wood, and the tail of the nail was 1 cm, and it was bitten into the wooden board when it was unearthed, which should be a nail in a wooden box.

It is speculated that these pigs should have been buried in wooden boxes.

Zone C is the northernmost point, which is mostly the ribs of young pigs, as well as some mandibs and limb bones.

In addition, a small number of chicken and fish bones were unearthed on the ground near the doorway.

At the beginning of the clean-up, no one thought it was strange, and it was normal for the ancients to use animals for burial.

It can be traced back to the Neolithic period.

After all, animals are equal to food, and the burial thing is a very simple idea, hoping that you can be full after death.

Man, the world is the most full, and eating a full stomach is the most simple wish of all human beings.

This is especially true in ancient times when the vast majority of people did not have enough to eat.

However, as the clean-up work progressed, Director Fu gradually began to discover that something was wrong.

A pile of pig bones unearthed at the root of the east wall in Area C was found to be most of the bones of a headless pig after being cleaned up.

The bones of the rest of the cattle and pigs, after cleaning and identification, were found to be mostly ribs, limb bones and vertebrae, and the skull was also missing.

It seems that these cows and pigs were not all cows and pigs when they were buried, but they were decapitated and tailed.

This means that these pigs and cattle are not the burial objects of the tomb owner, but are used to worship and sacrifice to him.

Because the sacrificial animals, in Chinese culture, need to be decapitated with the head and tail, or the head alone is sacrificed.

Although the final use is the same, it is for the owner of the tomb to enjoy after death.

But the funerary goods are the things that the owner of the tomb himself brought to the ground after his death.

The sacrificial objects are the descendants of the tomb owner, and the nature of the things sacrificed to the tomb owner has changed.

This is of great significance for the study of the tombs of high-ranking nobles of the South Vietnamese Kingdom.

In the Central Plains, dating back to the Neolithic Age, after the burial of high-ranking nobles, a sacrificial area would be specially prepared next to the tomb.

"High in the Sky"

In the past, the sacrifice was simple and rude, that is, some sacrificial animals, and even human sacrifices in the Shang Dynasty, to announce the ancestors and sacrifice the ancestors.

After the sacrifice is completed, the sacrifices are buried in a specially carved sacrificial pit.

In this regard, from the Neolithic period to the Spring and Autumn Period, the tombs of high-ranking nobles can basically be found to accompany the sacrificial pit proof.

However, the sacrificial offerings of the Nanyue Kingdom will be directly put into the west side of the room and buried with the owner of the tomb.

This must have been the first priesthood before the tomb owner was buried in the burial chamber.

Because according to the order of putting the burial goods, it should be put first in the back storage room and the east and west side rooms, and then place the coffin and burial goods of the tomb owner in the main burial chamber, and finally put the burial goods in the left and right ear chambers and the money room, and then seal the tomb.

These offerings were even placed in the burial chamber one step ahead of the tomb owner.

This unique sacrificial culture is worth studying in depth.

This may be related to the funeral culture of the local Baiyue tribe, which is of great significance to supplement the unique funeral culture of the ancestors in the Lingnan area.

This is very important to the Guangzhou Institute of Archaeology.

It can even be used as a long-term research topic in the future to continue to explore the funerary culture of the Nanyue Kingdom and even the Baiyue tribe.

After writing down this incident, the Guangzhou Archaeological Institute continued to clean up.

At that moment, something happened that I couldn't tell if it was a surprise or a fright.

When cleaning the bones of several cows in the middle of the room, among the bones, the Guangzhou Institute of Archaeology found several human teeth.

Judging by the degree of wear, these human teeth probably came from a young man in his twenties.

At the same time, at the northernmost end of the room, under several lacquerware and two bronze mirrors, another human tooth molar was found.

It was also from a young man in his twenties.

That is, in the northern part of the west chamber, two more people were martyred, and they were placed together with these animal sacrifices.

With the addition of these two, there should be a total of seven martyrs in the West Ear room.

A total of eight bronze mirrors were unearthed.

If you guess a little more extremely, according to a bronze mirror, it can cover the face of a martyr.

Perhaps, the people who were originally buried here were not martyred, but perhaps an eighth.

However, this eighth person was martyred, because of water and corrosion and other general causes, even the strongest and most preserved teeth in the bones were completely rotten.

Even after death, eight maids were buried with him!

The luxury of the king of South Vietnam can be seen!