In fact, archaeology, as a broad concept, has a very long history in China. Since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, people have established the consciousness of collecting, collecting and studying antiquities.

In Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the Emperor of Zhou set up a department called collection room, which was specialized in collecting national ancient books and precious ritual vessels, similar to the current national museums and archives. Laozi, a thinker in the Spring and Autumn Period, once held the post of "Tibetan history", that is, the official who managed the Tibetan room. So I can be said to be the earliest recorded "museum librarian" in China.

Laozi

In ancient times, the identification and collection of antiquities required a lot of manpower and financial resources, so it was generally operated and managed by the royal family. In the Han Dynasty, buildings such as Tianlu Pavilion, Shiqu Pavilion and Lantai Pavilion were set up in the palace to collect precious files and classics. In the Northern Song Dynasty, a large-scale Royal Museum was established in Song Huizong, and all the precious cultural relics in it were recorded in different categories, forming literature works such as Xuan He Shu Pu, Xuan He Hua Pu and Xuan He Bo Gu Tu. Today, many of our archaeologists still need to refer to these records of Song Huizong when identifying some ancient cultural relics.

Although Song Huizong was a bad king, he made great contributions to archaeology.

It can be seen that ancient people also like to explore, collect and study antiquities. Although they don't call this behavior "archaeology", the purpose is the same. So, since ancient people like to study and collect antiquities, what kind of cultural relics did they find?

bronze vessels

In ancient China, the most ancient antiquities discovered, collected and studied were bronzes. Bronzes were mostly used as ritual vessels in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, representing kingship and destiny. Therefore, when the ancients excavated bronzes, they were generally dedicated to the emperors at that time and displayed to the world as an auspicious symbol. Because of this, such a great discovery will also go down in history.

For example, it is recorded in Historical Records that a bronze tripod was unearthed in Fenyin (now Yuncheng, Shanxi) during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. The excavation of this tripod was regarded as auspicious at that time, so it was a sensation. In order to welcome this tripod into Chang 'an, Emperor Wu of Han personally greeted it. Later, he went to Mount Tai to hold a amenorrhea ceremony and changed the year number to "Ding Yuan".

In addition to excavation, the ancients also had a certain ability to distinguish. This is recorded in Historical Records. "Enchanting Zen Sutra" Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had an ancient bronze ware, but it was impossible to date it. So he went to consult an alchemist named Li. Through the identification of the inscription above, Li judged that this bronze ware was made in the period. It is also recorded in the History of Song Dynasty that a bronze tripod with the word 2 1 was unearthed in Ganzhou (Xianyang, Shaanxi) during the Northern Song Zhenzong period. Emperor Zhenzong ordered learned Confucian officials to make textual research and determined that the name of this cultural relic was Shixinfuzhen.

All these historical materials show that in ancient China, our ancestors had already started the archaeological and identification work of bronze wares. In the Northern Song Dynasty, these collection and appraisal results were compiled into books, and many famous bronze appraisal lists were formed, such as the Archaeological Map by Lu Dalin and the Map of Xuanhe and Bo Gu by Song Huizong.