Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 255 Boxes and Cosmetics
According to common sense, opening the box without any written information on it to see the possible contents inside will help to identify the overall information of the box.

So Liang En quickly reached an agreement with Dr. John on how to deal with the white porcelain box, and went directly to the professional trailer to clean it up while sending someone to guard the excavation site.

"Let me see what you are." Because he had a good harvest on the card recently, Liang En used a [Appraisal (N) 】.

[Modern people will think of the gorgeous and colorful Tang Sancai when they talk about Tang Dynasty ceramics.But in fact, in the Tang Dynasty, Tang Sancai was a high-end funerary object, used for burial.Even the government at that time clearly stipulated how many pieces of who can be buried.

But also because of this reason, the use of Tang Sancai in that era was also very fixed.At least for the living people in the Tang Dynasty, they would never use any Tang Sancai utensils in their daily life.

Therefore, the porcelain used by people in the Tang Dynasty was green in the south and white in the north, that is to say, the celadon in the south was mainly made of Longquan kiln, while the white porcelain in the north was mainly used in Xing kiln and Ding kiln.

The current Ding Kiln white glaze box was produced during the Tang Xianzong period, and then passed through the Maritime Silk Road along the coastline several times, and then arrived in Europe, and finally became the most precious treasure of a Viking female warrior. 】

"Is this a Ding Kiln box?" After reading the contents of the card appraisal certificate, Liang En carefully looked at the porcelain box. Although he didn't know much about Chinese cultural relics, he also knew that it was developed from the Xing Kiln. Ding kiln is one of the five famous kilns in Song Dynasty.

Although it is said that the Ding kiln in the Tang Dynasty was only a private kiln rather than an official kiln, judging from the exquisiteness of this box, it is not difficult to see why this thing was regarded as an official kiln for firing porcelain for the royal family in the Song Dynasty.

And the moment the porcelain box was discovered, Liang En also got a new card.

[Map of the Maritime Silk Road (R): With the development of technology and the loss of control of the Western Regions by the Central Plains Dynasty after the Anshi Rebellion and internal chaos, the land Silk Road gradually fell into disrepair.

But at the same time, a Maritime Silk Road was gradually established, undertaking the task of communication between the East and the West, allowing the flow of people, goods and information between Europe and Asia.

Skill card (permanent), the user can open this map in the soul at any time, and the map records the sea routes of the entire Maritime Silk Road. 】

"Let's get started." Dr. John quickly sorted out a countertop, then put the box on the countertop and began to clean it with special tools.

Under the light, the things that were cleaned out at first were just some black soil, but when most of the soil in the box was poured out, some fine gray agglomerates appeared in the box.

These gray agglomerates are located at the bottom of the box, and are firmly stuck to the glaze of the white porcelain box. Obviously, they are not infiltrated from the outside, but something that originally existed in the box.

"Do you know how to use the experimental equipment over there?" After putting a few gray lumps the size of mung beans in a glass dish, Dr. John asked Liang En behind without raising his head.

"I can use it. After all, I graduated with a major in archeology. During my internship, I often helped the professor analyze the composition of some objects, so I can use these instruments." Liang En said, took the glass dish, and put it on a nearby instrument. Tested among them.

Half an hour later, he confirmed one thing through various methods, that is, the gray agglomerated powders were some dangerous compounds, which contained a large amount of lead and arsenic, as well as a part of completely rotten and carbonized fat and starch left behind. Mark of.

In addition, there are some broken plant remains in this pile of things, but because those plants have undergone complicated processing, it is impossible to tell which plants these plants are.

Fortunately, those things confirmed now are enough to deduce what was originally contained in the box: these ingredients are completely in line with the ingredients of medieval cosmetics in history.

Yes, European medieval cosmetics do not look like cosmetics to modern people, but like poison.Because they add a lot of toxic ingredients in many cosmetics, such as lead, mercury and arsenic.

In fact, it is not that they do not have natural cosmetics. For example, in a 13th century manuscript, there is a record of using very fine wheat flour and rose water to smear the face for maintenance.

It's a pity that even with today's technology, it is impossible to extract various natural ingredients quickly, not to mention the rough extraction methods in the Middle Ages. Therefore, the medieval nobles quickly researched and developed heavy metal-based ingredients. Master of cosmetics.

The whitening effect of these cosmetics is unusually fast, even comparable to some top modern cosmetics in this respect, but the price is also amazing.

It is well known to modern people that these heavy metals and toxic substances mixed on the face can be absorbed into the human body, and then cause various poisoning reactions in the human body, such as irritability, loss of appetite, organ failure, osteoporosis and so on.

There are even victims who have not used cosmetics, for example, "Aka ToffaNa" is an arsenic-containing face powder named after its inventor Mrs. Signora Toffana, which is specially designed for women from wealthy families.

Its directions specifically tell women not to ingest the makeup, but encourage them to apply it to their cheeks in the presence of their husbands.

So after kissing his wife on the cheek, more than 600 husbands died in just one month, leaving behind many wealthy widows.The event eventually led to the execution of Lady Toffana - known as the original "deadly woman" of the Middle Ages.

Of course, there are more extreme beauty practices, for example, the legendary Countess Elizabeth Bathory, the famous "Bloody Countess", invented the method of drinking blood to whiten and anti-aging, but this is based on Based on the murder of 650 people.

Judging from the many examples above, everyone has a love for beauty, even a female soldier who has made great achievements on the battlefield is not exempt.

That's why the deceased used oriental porcelain, which can be said to be very precious at that time, to pack these cosmetics, and put the cosmetics next to himself when he was buried, ready to use when entering another world.

Just as Liang En harvested a lot of information, Dr. John also cleaned up the box, but found nothing of value except for the remains of the cosmetics.

After all, during the Tang Dynasty, people were not used to marking porcelain with year marks like in later dynasties, so it is not so easy to find enough information from the porcelain itself.

"I think we may need the coordinated help of the Huaxia Museum." After Liang En completed the test and submitted a test order number, Dr. John said suddenly.

"I hope they can send professionals to identify the specific age of this porcelain box, because if we can find out the specific age of this box, it will be very helpful for us to distinguish the specific age of this cemetery."

"It's true, for someone without special training, it is a very complicated thing to identify the specific situation of these things."

"And there are professionals in this field in Huaxia who can shorten the manufacturing date of this box to just a few decades after identification, which will be very helpful for our next research."

After making the decision to ask for help, Liang En and the others immediately started calling people related to the Huaxia Museum, and after only a few phone calls, Liang En got a surprise from the Huaxia Embassy in Ireland other support.

(End of this chapter)