Starting My Treasure Hunting In England

Liang En's estimate of the time was quite accurate. They completed all the scanning work at 11:20 pm and saved the scanned 3D data environment into the computer.

Can we go directly to rest? Seeing Liang En preparing the room after some manipulation on the computer, Joan of Arc looked obviously a little worried. No one is needed here.

Of course not. The program I compiled is to reduce our labor, so it can run automatically. Liang En said and opened the carriage door.

Now go back and get some sleep. When you get up early tomorrow morning, the computer will have processed everything. To be honest, this is much faster than the traditional manual work. The only disadvantage is that programming was a bit troublesome before -

Obviously, the advantages of embracing the progress of the times outweigh the disadvantages, so when I got up early the next morning, the computer program had already been run, and the display showed how the fragments should be spliced ​​together.

With the help of 3D images, everyone quickly pieced the pieces together bit by bit. As everyone was busy, a 90cm long cylindrical container appeared in front of everyone.

The reason why it is said to be a container is because apart from being able to confirm that it is made of alabaster, it is difficult to classify it into a specific shape. If it is said to be a cup, it would be too long, but the vase is too long. Not like that.

However, for the convenience of naming, Liang En and the others finally decided to use the Chinese word Gu to describe the container. However, when translated into English, they could only use Vase, which means vase.

What Liang En didn't know was that this thing was named the Warka Sacrificial Bottle in another world, and it was a national treasure of Iraq.

After a simple measurement, they found that the artwork was 91.4 centimeters tall and weighed about 540 kilograms. It was carved from a complete piece of alabaster, but its appearance had lost its luster because it had been buried underground for a long time.

But even so, judging from this restored container, the entire container is elegant in shape and the relief is solemn and exquisite. And judging from the style, it should be a product from 3500 to 3000 BC.

Although when they found it before, all they found was a pile of fragments. However, after restoration, the shape of the bottle is complete, and most of the carvings on the bottle can be seen clearly.

In addition to this bottle, there was another bottle that looked similar to the pile of fragments they found yesterday, but that bottle fragment only occupied a little more than half of the total, making it difficult to simply restore it.

Therefore, everyone is now mainly focusing on repairing the relatively intact bottle. According to their observations, this bottle has traces of being repaired in ancient times, which shows that it was highly valued by its owners in ancient times.

The entire bottle is surrounded by relief sculptures and is divided into four parallel bands, which are also known as registers in art historical terms. The meaning of the relief themes of these four rings increases in complexity from bottom to top.

The bottom of the lowermost frieze is decorated with wavy lines, which may represent the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, the two mother rivers of Mesopotamia civilization.

Two types of crops grew flat and intertwined from it, possibly barley and flax, or reed-like plants. These were the Sumerians and the earliest crops domesticated by humans.

This alternating pattern on the bottle forms a comfortable rhythm, and is probably a symbol of domesticated plants, because this arrangement gives people a sense of neatness and reflects the order brought about by artificiality.

At the same time, this sense of rhythm is echoed in the animal relief decorative belt above the decorative belt carved with plants: rams and ewes appear alternately, seeming to move forward slowly in one direction, giving people a beautiful feeling like grazing. Feel.

These two relief decorative belts fully reflect the basic state of human beings entering agricultural society, that is, agriculture and animal husbandry. After all, the Sumerians were the first to cultivate wheat and barley in the world. And the farming people who domesticated sheep and donkeys.

So on this important ritual vessel, they proudly carved these things on it, showed these patterns to their gods, and prayed for all the well-being.

Above the two decorative belts of animals and plants is an empty decorative belt. This decorative belt has aroused controversy. Some people think that there should be paintings on it, but it has been lost due to age.

But some people think that the top was originally empty or originally covered with metal, but now only the empty bottle remains.

Both theories are tenable. At least now it seems that the two blank strips on the top of the bottle look very harmonious. If the carvings are full, it will not look so beautiful.

However, this place would look beautiful with a pattern or a band of shiny copper, so further detailed examination is needed to determine what was here in the past.

The first layer of this blank decorative belt is engraved with nine men without clothes. Their appearance and movements are almost identical, and they line up and move towards the left.

Each of them held a vessel in front of him, which contained important agricultural products of Mesopotamia: fruits, grains, and wine.

In ancient West Asia, the number and style of clothes worn by people in works of art indicated their status. The less they wore, the lower their status.

Those wearing nothing like this usually signified low social status, so they might have been servants or slaves.

The decorative band at the top is the widest and most complex, and should also be the core. Based on the restored pattern, Liang En and the others tried some interpretations:

The center of the scene appears to depict a man and woman facing each other. A smaller, unclothed man stood among them, holding what appeared to be a container full of produce.

The woman's robe and long hair indicate that she is a deity, and she should also be wearing an exquisite crown on her head. This part was repaired in ancient times and was probably accidentally damaged during use in the past.

This is very reasonable, because this part is close to the mouth of the entire container, and in our daily life we ​​will find that it is indeed easy to accidentally damage the mouth of this type of container.

Behind this woman are two bunches of reeds, symbolizing the goddess Ishtar, so this woman may represent the goddess. The image of the man opposite her was almost completely destroyed, with only the hem of his robe remaining.

However, men wearing similar robes can often be seen in carvings from other ruins of the same period, so based on these examples, Liang En reconstructed him as a king wearing robes, a beard, and a headband.

The fringe on his robe is held behind by another smaller man, possibly the king's steward or page, wearing a short skirt.

Behind the reeds behind the goddess Ishtar there is also part of a complex scene: two horned and bearded rams carrying two pedestals, on each of which stands a statue.

The statue on the left is engraved with the cuneiform symbol EN, the Sumerian word for chief priest. The statue on the right stands in front of another bunch of reeds.

Behind the ram is a series of gifts, including two large bottles that look a lot like the bottles themselves.

There is no doubt that this is the top sacrificial item in this city. After a general inspection, Liang En said, In that era, it should be regarded as an important weapon of the country.