Boat burial!
At this moment, this concept immediately appeared in Lin Yi's mind.
Boat burial, also known as boat coffin burial, as the name suggests, is to carve wood into a hollow structure, shaped like a ship, and use it to hold the body of the deceased.
Or just use a canoe to carry the body.
Archeology has discovered that this kind of boat coffin is divided into two parts: a bottom and a cover, both of which are cut from a whole section of wood and fit together top and bottom.
The bottom is the main body of the boat coffin, with a rectangular place for holding the corpse in the middle; the cover is semicircular, and the interior is hollow like a boat. It is known in history as "a gully boat coffin", "immortal boat", "boat boat" and so on.
This burial system can be traced back to the Shang and Zhou dynasties.
Modern archaeological discoveries are also mainly concentrated in Fujian and Jiangxi.
In Fujian, boat burials were carried into the water, while in Jiangxi, there were underwater boat burials and hanging boat burials, which were later called hanging coffins.
In addition, the custom of ship burial is also practiced in Jingxiang and Hunan in the central and southern regions.
Only the ancestors of the Ba people in the Bashu region used the boat-coffin burial system, but they practiced the "boat-coffin burial" method.
Later, with the discovery and excavation of the "Jinsha Site", the history of Shu ship burials was advanced by more than five hundred years.
Specifically why the boat coffin was chosen, according to expert analysis, is mainly because at that time the Bashu region was crisscrossed by rivers, and the residents here made a living by boat, and even lived on boats.
Of course they will choose to stay in the ship after death.
However, there are many doubts about the location of the ship burial where the "Western King's reward money" was found.
First of all, it is not unusual to find boat coffin burials here, but the boat coffin burials here are mainly earth burials, not water burials.
Secondly, by the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the burial system here was not much different from that in the Central Plains. They all chose coffins for burial. Why was the "Western King's reward money" found in such a shipwreck?
Lin Yi turned his eyes to Qian Sheng.
Of course Qian Sheng understood what he was thinking. He opened his mouth and shouted to Chen Erwa at the stern:
"Is there really a ship underwater in the place you mentioned?"
Wang Qiang immediately widened his eyes and looked towards the stern of the ship:
"If you dare to lie to us, Master Wang, I will throw you down to feed the fish right now!"
"What kind of idiot is you fooling around with? If you don't believe me, just go down and watch with your boss. It's true."
After saying that, Chen Erwa speeded up the rhythm of the oar, and then the water quickly reached the destination.
"Here we go, which one of you is going down?"
Chen Erwa dropped the anchor, immediately took off her shirt, put on a pair of swimming goggles, and held a waterproof flashlight in her hand. She picked up a bottle of white wine in her other hand and took a swig.
Although it was already summer, the river water was still leaking in the middle of the night. As soon as he drank the wine, his whole body became hot.
"You and Fifth Brother wait above, while Lulu and I go down to investigate the situation."
Lin Yi put on his diving suit while talking.
Bai Lu had already put on her diving suit early, and everything was ready.
Among them, the one with the best water quality is undoubtedly Bai Lu, followed by Qian Sheng, then Lin Yi, and finally Wang Qiang.
But Qian Sheng's body has not recovered yet, and he is afraid that he will be aroused by the river water again.
Wang Qiang's level is limited, and it's not time to use him yet.
The good thing about Lin Yi is that he has a good body and doesn't suffer any loss in anything he does.
Over there, Chen Erwa saw that they were both dressed neatly and had scuba gear on their backs, so she came to the stern of the boat first.
"Follow me!" After saying that, he plunged into the water.
Bai Lu and Lin Yi jumped down after him.
Soon, the three lights gradually disappeared into the river.
Chen Erwa not only dived quickly, but also swam very slowly. Bai Lu and Lin Yi were wearing flippers and could barely keep up with him.
After diving for about ten meters, Chen Erwa turned around underwater, gestured to them, and then shined the flashlight beam downward.
Just under the mud at the bottom of the river, a sunken ship can be vaguely seen.
More than half of it was buried in the sand, only a small half of the stern was exposed, and the cover of the cabin was missing.
The hull was dark and not rotten.
But it can be seen at a glance that this boat has been at the bottom of the river for many years.
Lin Yi and Bai Lu looked at each other and nodded to each other, proving that this little kid was not lying.
So, they all approached the sunken ship together, and used the tools they carried to gently stir up the sediment inside the cabin.
Silt and various sediments from the river bottom immediately floated around, and visibility dropped sharply.
Several people quickly stepped aside.
This is one of the problems that underwater operations must overcome.
Lin Yi gestured towards Bai Lu and Erwazi, telling them to go upstream, and he approached the cabin to stir things up first.
Because in this kind of underwater ship coffin burial, the corpse has already entered the belly of the fish and shrimp, so there is no possibility of corpse transformation.
Moreover, the cover of the boat coffin was gone, and most of the funerary objects inside were either washed downstream by the river, or were touched by experts like Chen Erwa.
There is very little left.
The most important thing is that these underwater ship coffins are generally not buried with epitaph-related things.
Paper or leather ones are difficult to preserve, and stone carvings are too heavy.
Therefore, most of the content will be presented on the hull and hull in the form of carvings and paint paintings.
Bai Lu and Chen Erwa moved upstream. Lin Yi picked up the engineering shovel and stirred the inside of the sunken ship.
The surroundings were filled with muddy sand, and his shadow could not be seen at all.
After a while of fussing, Lin Yi also stepped aside. After waiting for the floating objects to slowly settle and flow, the three of them returned to the sunken ship again.
Lin Yi had already dug out more than half of the silt in the cabin. After the sediment slowly settled to the bottom of the river, nothing of value was found.
"How many times have you been to this place?"
Lin Yi gestured to Chen Erwa.
"Three or four times, maybe."
Lin Yi felt helpless for a while.
"Then why didn't you tell me earlier? There's nothing here!"
"You didn't ask me." Chen Erwa gestured truthfully.
"Is that what you found around your neck here?"
Chen Erwa nodded firmly.
Lin Yi didn't know how to answer him for a while. It was indeed because he didn't ask clearly and was a bit ill-considered.
He found this priceless silver coin here, how many times could he bear to come and explore it more?
This is all money!
The two of them were still communicating with each other hand and foot. Bai Lu approached the wooden boat with an underwater camera and began to record the situation here carefully.
The hull of the ship was covered with all kinds of slippery things like water plants. There was not much space inside the cabin. Bai Lu stretched the camera inside and let it replace her eyes to see if she could find anything valuable.
Unexpectedly, I actually found something in the monitor.
Just inside the side of the boat, the words "Three Years of Dashun" can be faintly seen.
At the beginning, Li Zicheng, the "King of Chuang", established the political power in Xijing. The country was named "Dashun" and the reign was named "Yongchang".
In the same year, the "Eight Great Kings" Zhang Xianzhong established the Daxi regime in Shuzhong, with the reign name "Dashun".
It can be seen that this ship must have been under Zhang Xianzhong's command, and the writing in this ship gang should be related to the identity of the deceased.
(End of chapter)
