As the saying goes, "the people take food as the sky", "eating" has always been the top priority of our people, for archaeological work, "eating" is also a very important thing, because archaeological work is not only mental work, but also physical labor, in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, many times digging earthwork and other heavy work is also done by archaeologists themselves, it is not an exaggeration to call it heavy physical labor. How to eat well and eat well is related to the progress and effectiveness of the work, and its role cannot be ignored. However, due to the backward economy and difficult conditions of our country in the past, archaeologists also tightened their belts, and it was sometimes difficult to ensure that they were full.
In the late 70s of the last century, archaeologists had excavated the ruins of Xiachuan in the southeast of Shanxi Jin, because the local area is located in the mountainous area, the product is poor, even millet is counted as fine grain, and the local workers can only eat millet dry rice during the New Year, naturally, the life of the archaeological team that carried out archaeological excavations there is also relatively difficult. At that time, the archaeological site was on the mountain at an altitude of about 2,000 meters, and the archaeologists had to go up and down the mountain every day, insisting on working in the wind and rain, and the amount of labor was quite large, but they could only eat sorghum and potatoes every day, and no oil, no vegetables, and no meat were the norm of their lives, but the archaeologists still persevered, and they worked for 3 years. In order to improve the diet, especially to solve the problem of "not knowing the taste of meat in March", and try to alleviate the craving for meat in their hearts, the archaeologists at that time also tried to "add food" to themselves.
Wang Kai, the archaeologist who discovered the famous tomb of King Chu in Xuzhou's Lion Mountain, is a hard-working person, who worked there for half a year with his classmates in Huaxian County, Shaanxi Province, where he participated in the archaeological internship of Class 56 students with his classmates during his study of archaeology at Peking University. Shortly thereafter, they went to Changping Snow Mountain in Beijing with their Class of 56 for an archaeological internship. It was winter, and life was very difficult due to heavy snowfall. In order to eat better, classmate Ma Shichang came up with an idea, he swept a place on the snow, put some grain, and then set up a sieve, use a stick to support it, tie it to a rope, and when the sparrow enters the sieve to find food and eat, pull the rope, and the sieve quickly covers the sparrow. After catching the sparrows, they peel off the skin and fry them in oil, which is the famous traditional snack "fried sparrows", which can be regarded as a way to improve their lives.
Wang Kai took a group photo at the gate of his alma mater
Of course, if you still eat "fried sparrows" now, I'm afraid you will have to fold into the bureau, because sparrows have been included in the "List of terrestrial wildlife protected by the state that are beneficial or have important economic or scientific research value(referred to as the "Three Lists"), which is protected by law, can no longer be caught at will, otherwise it will be a crime.
In 1966, at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, he was sent to the Guanlin Steel Mill, which was building a new workshop, to cooperate with the factory's infrastructure work and deal with the ancient ruins and tombs found in the construction. At that time, according to the instructions of the superiors, the other comrades of the museum were collectively sent to Xishapo in the suburbs of Luoyang for re-education, so the Guanlin Temple was temporarily taken over by the 124th unit of the People's Liberation Army. Wang Kai was left behind due to work needs, and lived in the warehouse restoration room of the original museum in the east courtyard of Guanlin Temple, digging tombs during the day every day, and coming back here to sleep at night.
One morning, at about 6 o'clock in the morning, he was sleeping when he suddenly heard several PLA soldiers in the courtyard next door shouting: "I told you to steal my chicken!."Then he heard a plop, something thrown from the courtyard of the People's Liberation Army, Wang Kai felt very curious, so he got up and looked, it turned out to be a dead wild cat raccoon. This wild cat and raccoon dog dog were caught by the soldiers because they had stolen chickens fed by the People's Liberation Army, and then "corrected the law on the spot" on the spot.
At that time, the average living standard of the people in the country was still very low, Wang Kai naturally felt that it was a pity that the dead wild cat and raccoon dog were thrown away, so he picked it up and skinned it, washed the meat, and then bought some condiments, boiled a pot full of it, and ate it beautifully. After he satisfied his hunger, he did not forget to share it with the children of his colleagues who lived nearby, and the children were also addicted to food, and their mouths were full of oil.
According to Wang Kaiwen's statement, "the so-called cat civet, shaped like a cat, not a cat, is a feline carnivore", the author speculates that this "dead cat civet" that looks like a cat but not a cat may be the leopard cat that was widely distributed in the north and south of China at that time. The leopard cat is similar in appearance and size to the domestic cat, because the spots on its body resemble Chinese copper coins, so the leopard cat is also called "money cat" in China, and mainly feeds on small animals such as rats, frogs, and rabbits. Now the leopard cat is already a national second-class protected animal, and it cannot be killed indiscriminately.
Ocelots are about the same size as domestic cats, but are more slender and have longer legs. Head body length 360-660 mm;Weight 1between 5-5 kg
Other wild animals used by archaeologists to improve their diets include hedgehogs. During the excavation of the Dabaotai Han Tomb in Beijing in 1974-1975, the archaeological team lived in a temporary wooden house near the excavation site. The living environment is not very good, in terms of food, the archaeological team ate in the Guogongzhuang Zhiqing canteen near the construction site, and the daily food is basically rice, steamed buns, noodles, vegetables cabbage, radish, potatoes, a little meat is added to improve the food. In fact, because this archaeological project was paid more attention to by the national level and the Beijing municipal level, and the investment was relatively large, this kind of food was already very good in the archaeological community at that time. The archaeological team members also worked very hard, carrying out arduous excavations day and night, and sometimes asked the archaeological team members to participate in blood donation, and they also enthusiastically participated, and after donating blood, they ran directly back to the construction site to continue their work.
Although I am full, but I am still far from eating well, especially if there is no meat to eat for a long time, it will affect the physical strength, energy and psychology of the team members.
Exterior view of the Dabaotai Han Tomb, the sealed soil on the right is the No. 1 tomb, and the left is the No. 2 tomb. Located in the southwestern suburbs of Beijing, about 15 kilometers from the city, the tomb was still a wilderness at the time.
One night, team members Huang Xiuchun and Lu Qi heard the sound of an old man coughing, and the two immediately became nervous: Who broke into the archaeological site guarded by the army and surrounded by barbed wire?When the two of them took the flashlight and followed the sound, they realized that it was not the sound of a person, but the sound of two hedgehogs nearby. It turns out that when a hedgehog is stimulated abnormally, it is able to make a "coughing" sound similar to that of a human due to conditioned reflexes. And it is this sound that sounds like a human "coughing" that exposes their location.
As soon as they saw the hedgehog, their eyes straightened: there is meat to eat!At that time, the archaeological team had to organize study at night, read the works of ***, and after the routine study that night, several of their young people happily made a triangular bracket, wrapped the hedgehog caught in a ball of mud, and hung it up to roast like roasting a chicken. The archaeological team members chatted while roasting, and when it was almost 12 o'clock in the night, everyone said: "Cooked, cooked", so the fire was extinguished, but I didn't expect to peel off the mud and see, although the surface of the hedgehog like a ball was burned, but in fact, except for the back where it was cooked, the rest was still raw, and everyone laughed. It was a pity to throw it away, so the next day the team members took the hedgehog to the canteen and stewed it again, and after the stew was cooked, they ate a game braised hedgehog meat.
Group photo of the excavation team of the Dabaotai Han Tomb. The third person from the left in the front row (dressed in black) is Lu Qi
After the reform and opening up, although the economy gradually improved, in the early stage, people's living standards were still limited, and the life of archaeologists was naturally relatively hard, and they would not refuse to "add meals" to those accidents. Archaeologist Li Ling recalls that when he was doing an archaeological internship in Xigaoquan, Baoji City, in 1981, the last tomb in the cemetery was a Han tomb. It was late autumn at that time, and one day, a factory worker was riding a motorcycle to hunt rabbits, and in the wilderness of late autumn, the rabbits had nowhere to hide, and they could not outrun the oil-burning motorcycles with all four legs. Just as the motorcycle was approaching, the rabbit rushed to the archaeological site in a panic, and presumably mistook the entrance of the tomb for a hole in the ground, and carried it directly from the entrance of the tomb. Coincidentally, there happened to be a migrant worker standing there who participated in the excavation, and the rabbit happened to fall into the arms of the migrant worker and was directly captured. The worker who chased the rabbit did not eat rabbit meat, only rabbit skin. After the rabbit skin was given to the worker, in the evening, Li Ling and the others roasted the rabbit meat on the iron lid of the stove, which was very fragrant. Later, in order to commemorate this interesting event, Li Ling also named his study "Waiting for Rabbit Xuan".
Archaeologist Li Ling. I don't know if this study room full of books is his "Rabbit Xuan".
ENDS).