Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 231 Mine and Ore

Because of Fan Meng's exclamation, Liang En and Joan of Arc were immediately attracted to him.It turned out that he was pinching a stone that was not much bigger than a soybean grain with his fingers, showing an excited expression.

"Let me see." Liang En took the small stone and took out the magnifying glass, and what appeared in front of his eyes was a turquoise stone with stripes like annual rings on it.

"This is a piece of malachite, a mineral that was widely used in ancient Egypt." Liang En said to Fan Meng and Joan of Arc. It's so recognizable.

"Malachite? I seem to remember that this thing should be one of the raw materials used by the ancients to cast bronze wares." Fan Meng said after thinking for a while. "Did the ancient Egyptians also use this thing when refining metal copper?"

"Yes, and besides being used to smelt metal copper, the ancient Egyptians also used this thing as amulets and dyes for children who died young." Liang En nodded and explained.

"In ancient Egypt, colors were believed to have special powers, with red usually representing life and victory, green representing health and prosperity, white representing omnipotence and purity, black representing death and night, blue representing life and rebirth, and yellow representing Eternal and unchanging."

"So the reason why the parents of those children who died young would bury their children with green malachite is to hope that their children can live a healthy life in the afterlife."

"Besides, the ancient Egyptians used malachite in murals and eye shadows. Because they believed it could drive away evil and infuse people with life-"

"Of course, there were a lot of mosquitoes in ancient Egypt. So the eye shadow made of malachite powder can prevent some annoying parasites from parasites near the eyes. I remember that there are some parasites that parasite on animals in North Africa. around the eyes and blinded the victim."

Speaking of this, Liang En suddenly stopped and looked at the cave used as a temple, with a thoughtful look on his face.But after he suddenly became quiet, Fan Meng and Joan immediately turned their heads and showed puzzled expressions.

"I don't think this place should be a copper mine." Liang En immediately explained after seeing Fan Meng and the others cast their eyes on him. "Because this place is deep in the Sinai peninsula."

"You mean—" After hearing what Liang En said, Joan felt even more confused, because she didn't understand the contradiction between the copper mine and the depths of the Sinai Peninsula, so that the two sides could not coexist.

"The core of ancient Egyptian civilization was along the Nile River." After seeing Joan of Arc and the others showing puzzled expressions, Liang En made a calm gesture, and then slowly began to talk.

"This place is the Sinai Peninsula. Not only is it far away from the core area of ​​ancient Egypt, but the local ecology cannot support too many people's lives."

"Especially through the stone carvings of the pharaohs outside, we can confirm that the mining time of this mine probably began in more than 4000 BC. Judging from the productivity at that time, maintaining a team of thousands of people in a place far away from the core of civilization Local mining is a costly thing.”

"You know, there are copper mines in the eastern desert of Egypt. Therefore, if the ancient Egyptians wanted to smelt metal copper, there was no need to travel to this place to mine."

"Could it be that the copper mines are not enough?" Fan Meng interjected at this time. "At least today's specialty minerals in Egypt are mainly non-metallic ores, such as natural gas, oil, marble, gypsum, etc., and the rest are some rare earth ores."

"No, although the reserves of 8.5 tons of the largest copper mine in Egypt are not considered large today, the human demand for metal mines was far from what it is today in the era before the Industrial Revolution—" Liang En shook his head Said.

After discussing this matter for a while, the three of them dispersed and searched on the ground again.If this is really a mine, then the products of the mine are likely to be brought to the temple.

"Look at this, Liang En. I think this piece of malachite looks a bit different from the previous one." Three or four minutes later, Joan suddenly raised her hand to Liang En and shouted.

Unlike other Europeans, she usually called Liang En by his Chinese name.Because she felt that when addressing the lord, the name must be accurate.

"Let me see." Liang En, who was also searching the ground just now, straightened up and turned off the flashlight, then walked to Joan of Arc and took the newly found stone in her hand.

This is a rock that looks angular, and its size is only the size of a mung bean.It's easy to miss this stone if you don't search carefully.

Obviously, this stone should be some waste or leftovers produced during the mining process, and then it was brought into the cave by the miners or other people who came to worship the gods at that time.

"This is not malachite, this is turquoise—" Soon, Liang En recognized the identity of this stone.As a gemstone with huge reserves and widely distributed deposits, it is not so difficult to recognize the origin of this stone.

This thing is called turquoise in China, because it looks like a pine cone and its color is close to pine green, so it is named.In the West, it is called Turquoise, which is Türkiye stone.

Of course, Turkey does not produce this kind of stone, but in the past all turquoise in Europe flowed in through Turkey as a middleman, so it was called this name.

"You mean turquoise?" Fan Meng, who was beside him, also straightened up and asked. "I remember that we saw a lot of ancient Egyptian jewelry inlaid with turquoise in the National Museum in Cairo. I think the ancient Egyptians should like this kind of stone."

"You're right. The ancient Egyptians were the first people in the world to use turquoise as jewelry." After Fan Meng said this, Liang En suddenly lifted his spirits, and then said excitedly.

"In 5500 BC, that is, during the first dynasty of ancient Egypt, the ancient Egyptians had already come to the Sinai Peninsula to mine turquoise. At that time, the pharaohs would carry jewelry decorated with turquoise beads."

"Even in order to obtain this gem, those pharaohs would send a large expedition of two to 3000 people to the Sinai Peninsula from the end of the first dynasty."

"This team will practice arriving here in November and dig until leaving in May of the following year to avoid the summer heat. If you count the travel time, it will take them three years to dig one time."

"That is to say, what we have found now should be the turquoise mine in ancient Egypt, right?" Jeanne of Arc asked looking at the red and yellow intertwined mountain below through the hole.

Just as Liang En was about to answer, he heard a commotion from the valley below.And when Liang En and the others walked to the door following the sound, they saw a few people running out of a cave over there, and they seemed to be cheering for something while running.

And when Liang En concentrated, he vaguely heard a few scattered words coming from the wind.These include words like mine, turquoise, and copper.

"It seems that you are right." Liang En turned his head to Joan of Arc and nodded. "Listening to the shouts of the group of people below, they should have discovered a mine that produces turquoise."

(End of this chapter)