Chapter 251: Christmas
After obtaining the original information and manuscripts of the Grimm Brothers, Liang En decided to recreate the famous fairy tale collection in this world.
So he extracted all the stories he remembered from his mind, paired them with illustrations he retrieved from memory, uploaded them to the internet, and began publishing the stories at a rate of one per day.
Upon logging into his account to check, he was surprised to find that each of these fairy tales averaged over eighty-seven thousand views.
Most notably, the most famous story among those released, "The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats," had surpassed two hundred thousand views, giving off the sensation of a blockbuster.
Although this viewership still lagged behind that of some true internet celebrities, considering he was just an ordinary person online, Liang En felt that achieving this level was quite impressive.
Most of the comments were praise, but there were also some discordant voices. Some criticized the stories for depicting women from an outdated perspective, filled with derogatory views.
However, most people believed that those causing trouble were just here to stir up conflict. After all, Liang En had stated from the beginning that he was merely continuing the unfinished work of the Grimm Brothers.
One comment explicitly pointed out that Liang En was a historian, and his current work was merely restoring ancient documents; naturally, he couldn't change the ideas contained within.
Or rather, changing the content at this point would be the wrong approach. As a historian, Liang En's duty was to faithfully recount these stories.
Just like a book called "The Witch's Hammer," which contained instructions on identifying and executing witches, undoubtedly filled with nonsense, but as a historian, one couldn't fail to provide a correct translation just because of the nonsense within.
Of course, at this point, there were some keen publishers emailing Liang En, hoping to reach some kind of cooperation agreement regarding "Grimm's Fairy Tales."
However, those seeking cooperation were either small publishers or offered low prices. So for Liang En, who wasn't in urgent need of money at the moment, he felt it was best to wait and let the book continue to ferment online.
After handling a series of tasks left over from the adventure in Egypt, Liang En and his group quickly entered the unique state of the holiday season.
Although traditionally they didn't celebrate this holiday, considering the strong religious atmosphere in Ireland and the fact that everyone around them was celebrating, Liang En's family also engaged in some Christmas-related activities.
For example, they wouldn't go to church or prepare a Christmas tree, but they would decorate the outside of their house with lights and ornaments, while also preparing a sumptuous dinner.
However, Joan of Arc's habits were quite different from theirs. For example, since arriving here, she would go to the small church in town to pray every day if she had the time, naturally not missing the religious activities before Christmas.
So on Christmas Eve, after finishing dinner, Joan of Arc went alone to the church in town to attend the Mass, not returning until the early hours of the morning.
"Sorry, I relaxed a bit too much yesterday." The next morning, when Joan of Arc woke up, it was already 8:30 a.m. As she finished getting ready and entered the dining room, she found Liang En already there, having prepared breakfast.
"There's nothing to apologize for. I just finished cooking too." Liang En waved lightly as he said, "After all, it's the holidays. Taking it easy isn't a bad thing."
"By the way, what do you think we could do during this Christmas holiday?" When they had almost finished breakfast, Liang En asked, "Just staying at home all day seems too boring."
"Well, we could go to the equestrian club we visited last time and ride horses." Joan of Arc thought for a moment before suggesting, "I remember the notice on their sign specifically stated that they don't take breaks for Christmas."
"In addition, we could also drive around. I remember Auntie mentioning last night at the dinner table that you seem to have visited England more often, but haven't explored much of Ireland—"
Knock, knock, knock—Just as Joan of Arc and Liang En were discussing where to go next, they heard a knock at the door.
"Why would someone come over at this time?" Liang En wondered as he got up to open the door, thinking that since Christmas Day was usually a time for family gatherings, it was unlikely for someone to visit another's home.
"Merry Christmas, Uncle Mike!" Recognizing the person at the door, Liang En greeted him, then asked, "Is there something you need?"
Uncle Mike was a farmer who lived in a neighboring village, but because the distance between their places and Sword Town was only five or six kilometers, people from both places were quite familiar with each other.
For example, Uncle Mike's son had attended the same primary school in Sword Town as Liang En, being just a year older. They often met in town, so they were considered ordinary acquaintances.
"Merry Christmas, Lawrence." Uncle Mike smiled and then said, "I heard you've become a famous archaeologist. Is that true?"
"I suppose you could say I'm a professional archaeologist." Liang En scratched his head. "But I'm not so famous—anything you need?"
"Sorry to bother you on Christmas Day." Uncle Mike looked a bit embarrassed. "But we found something strange, so we were hoping you could take a look."
With that, he took out his phone and showed Liang En several photos from his album, explaining what he had discovered last night.
Because Christmas was a day for family reunions, Uncle Mike's family was no exception. With more young people and children at home, things tended to be more lively.
For example, when Uncle Mike's children, who now lived in the city, came back, they went out to play in the fields. During their frolicking, they unexpectedly stumbled upon something strange in a corner of their farm.
"This seems to belong to the Vikings." After looking at the rusty object in the photos, Liang En said. As someone who had discovered numerous ancient Viking relics and obtained several related cards, identifying such objects was quite easy for him.
In addition, there were several heavily corroded bones. After a simple examination, Liang En determined that one of the three bones was half of a human rib, while the other two were bones from some large herbivorous animal.
"This seems to be an ancient Viking burial site." After examining the bones and metal, Liang En said after a moment of thought, "So personally, I suggest you contact the archaeological department; that would be more appropriate."
"A burial site? That's not good." Uncle Mike shook his head. Although Europeans didn't have as severe taboos about graves as the Chinese, burying strangers in their own land still felt somewhat uncomfortable.
So after hearing Liang En's suggestion, he decided to contact the museum, hoping they could clean up this thing as soon as possible.
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Table of content - Next Chapter
Chapter 252: Field Search
"It seems that working on Christmas is meaningful, regardless of whether or not historical sites emerge during the holidays." Over an hour after the call ended, Dr. John from the National Museum arrived with several others in a car.
Liang En had seen Dr. John several times before; for instance, he accepted the donation of the Irish flag on behalf of the museum during their first encounter. They also crossed paths on the way to discuss matters with the museum director.
If Liang En remembered correctly, Dr. John was responsible for donations and the handling of discoveries in the field for the National Museum. Technically, a small relic like this wouldn't require his presence.
"Being alone at home on Christmas feels a bit empty, so it's better to be on duty and spend time with everyone." After exchanging greetings, Dr. John explained willingly.
Perhaps it was a British tradition, but many scholars or professors tended to be single, just like this doctor. Hence, it was natural for him to feel a bit lonely on Christmas, a day meant for family reunions.
After the pleasantries, they quickly got into the car and, led by Mike, headed to his farm, reaching the spot in the field where the items were found.
The land used to be for potato cultivation. However, now that all the potatoes had been harvested, only bare fields remained.
Due to recent snowfall, there was a considerable layer of snow on the ground. Mike's youngsters, who were playing snowball fights here, accidentally stumbled upon the items.
Of course, for Liang En and the team coming to excavate, this was a boon since clearing the ground without surface vegetation was much simpler.
"These items shouldn't have been here originally; they were likely brought here accidentally." A cursory glance led both Liang En and Dr. John to the same conclusion.
Because the location where these bones and spearhead fragments were discovered was spread within a radius of five to six meters, and there were no traces of deliberate digging in this area.
"These should have been brought out when you were using a machine to dig potatoes." After inspecting the surrounding terrain, Dr. John said, "So, the location of that burial ground should be somewhere in this potato field, but the exact position—"
At this point, Dr. John furrowed his brow. Since this potato field seemed to cover about 1.5 acres, surveying the entire area wasn't simple.
However, for Dr. John, finding such a burial site was crucial now because the discovered bones were horse bones.
Though it couldn't be ruled out that these belonged to a farmer's horse from earlier, it was more likely they originated from the hypothetical burial site.
Both ancient Vikings and ancient Chinese revered death, believing that grave goods could be used by the deceased in the afterlife.
For example, according to Viking legend, Odin had three palaces in Asgard. Among them, there was one situated in the grove of Glasir, called Valhalla, or the Hall of the Slain.
This palace had 540 doors, each wide enough for eight hundred warriors to pass through side by side. Over the main entrance were the heads of a boar and an eagle, with the eagle's eyes able to see the entire world.
The walls of the palace were lined with gleaming spears, and the roof was made of golden shields. The seats inside were covered with exquisite armor, gifts from Odin to his guests.
Every warrior who died in battle would be brought by the Valkyries, the warrior maidens, to Valhalla to become an Einherjar, preparing to fight for Odin in the prophesied twilight of the gods.
They would be welcomed by Odin's two sons in the palace, then brought to Odin's throne for commendation. If warriors admired by the gods came, Odin himself would rise to greet them, showing special courtesy.
In Valhalla, a grand feast awaited the fallen warriors, with delicious boar meat and fragrant mead made from sheep's milk.
The boar meat came from a sacred boar, cut down every day by the palace cook Andhrímnir and served to the warriors in a large cauldron. The divine pig resurrected daily, and the meat eaten would regenerate.
The mead was produced continuously by a magical sheep named Heidrun to meet the needs of the warrior spirits.
Once the warriors had eaten and drunk to their fill, they would rise to engage in combat with each other, continuing to practice fighting skills, even if they were cut to pieces in practice, they would be restored the next day.
According to legend, the weapons these warriors held when they went to Valhalla were the ones they possessed when buried. Therefore, Vikings tried their best to arm the deceased.
The most common weapon was the spear, being relatively cheap, while the rarest was the sword, the most expensive weapon. Of course, horses were also rare.
This was why Liang En and Dr. John were so excited to see horse bones; it likely indicated the presence of a high-level Viking burial site locally.
Though based on the terrain here, it was only a matter of time before they found it with metal detectors. But spending Christmas holiday on this barren land didn't feel quite right for them.
For them, if they could find the tomb soon, they could return home early for Christmas, rather than wandering in a snowy field like they were now.
However, when Liang En took a metal detector from the National Museum's car and was about to start detecting, he saw Jeanne, who had come with them, kicking away some snow from a spot where the bones and metal were found earlier, squatting down to observe.
"What are you doing here?" Seeing Jeanne squatting in the snow, Liang En looked puzzled because he hadn't found anything valuable on that brown soil.
"I'm here
to figure out where those things came from." Jeanne pointed to the tracks left by the machine that dug up the potatoes. "Obviously, these bones were brought up from underground by the potato-digging machine."
"Exactly." Liang En nodded. Viking burials were underground, and now appearing on the surface, he thought the most likely explanation was that they were brought up from underground by the potato-digging machine.
"So, we can follow the direction where the potato-digging machine went and search along that path." Jeanne pointed to the tracks they had just discovered. "I think this item likely came from the area the potato-digging machine passed through."
"You're right." At this point, Dr. John, who had come over with a metal detector from the car, nodded and gestured to his assistants behind him. "So let's search along the middle of the tracks left by the potato-digging machine."
"Got it." With this clarified, the professionals understood the rationale behind their actions and immediately lined up in a row. Then, each of them turned on their metal detectors and began walking toward the other end of the field along the tracks.
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Table of content - Next Chapter
Chapter 253: Graveyard
When Dr. John and his team began their search, Liang En also intended to join in. However, he was stopped by Mike just a few steps out.
"Your friend seems to be calling you; there might be something important," Dr. John remarked. "It's likely related to our current excavation, so you better go and explain."
For Dr. John, who had devoted half his life to this field, he naturally understood how the landowner's attitude could significantly influence subsequent archaeological work when digging in such areas with a clear owner.
Based on the recent situation, it was evident that Liang En was quite familiar with the landowner and could earn his trust. So, when Mike called, Dr. John immediately suggested that Liang En go and calm Mike, the landowner.
"Lawrence, do you think there might be valuable artifacts in the tombs here?" As Liang En approached Mike, the latter glanced at the group of museum staff busy in the snowy field and whispered.
Mike was nervous because the treasure laws in Ireland were similar to those in Scotland. Once unearthed, the treasures would be handed over to the National Museum for evaluation by an independent assessment committee.
If the museum wished to collect the treasures, they would need to pay the discoverer and landowner according to market value. If they didn't want to collect them, the treasures would belong to the discoverer and landowner.
As the discoverer of these treasures and the owner of this land, Mike naturally cared deeply about this matter because it affected his income.
"Well, this place can probably be confirmed to have a Viking burial ground, but the grade of the tombs is uncertain," Liang En explained seriously after thinking for a moment.
"However, it's unlikely to be a high-grade warrior burial ground. The most valuable items among the burial goods of ancient Viking warriors are various weapons. But over time, these weapons deteriorate into scrap metal."
"I see." After Liang En's explanation, Mike furrowed his brow at first but quickly relaxed.
"Anyway, these were just accidental discoveries in the ground. We can't plant anything in the winter, so there won't be much loss in digging here. It's important to remove the human remains from my land."
Mike quickly weighed the pros and cons of the situation. Since nothing could be planted in the winter, excavating here wouldn't affect much. Seizing this opportunity to remove the human remains was the priority.
"We have a response on the detector." Just as Mike finished speaking, a young man suddenly raised his hand to signal Dr. John and then unearthed an arrowhead from the ground.
"Yes, this is a Viking bodkin arrowhead." As Liang En and Mike approached, they saw Dr. John holding a rusted iron rod about the length of a finger, saying.
"These arrowheads are heavier than ordinary ones and are conical rather than flat, allowing them to easily penetrate the popular chainmail of the time. However, the cost of such an arrowhead is much higher than that of a regular arrowhead, so only professional warriors would possess them."
In many movies, Viking long-range weapons seem to consist only of small throwing axes, but in reality, considering the cost, those small axes were just backup weapons for Vikings.
For ancient Vikings, even using a small axe as disposable goods was an unbearable burden, so their common ranged weapon was the bow and arrow, popular in Europe.
Even so, not everyone's arrows were the same. For example, regarding arrowheads, many were bone, stone, or baked wood, and even if there were metal arrowheads, they were usually light and small hunting arrowheads.
However, the arrowheads used by professional warriors, such as bodkin arrowheads, were complex to manufacture and costly. They were used on the battlefield to hunt high-value targets like knights or commanders.
The discovery of this arrowhead between the wheel ruts indicated one thing: their previous direction wasn't wrong, and indeed, this place had a Viking warrior burial ground of a not-too-low grade.
After reaching this conclusion, everyone's morale suddenly soared.
To be honest, even though Dr. John had doubts about finding anything valuable here before he arrived, it was Liang En's previous records that made him decide to come and see for himself with two others.
But judging from the things found in this land now, Liang En had indeed maintained his sharp instincts and luck when faced with various relics.
"I think we found it." After continuing to search forward along the previous wheel ruts for more than ten meters, they found a large area of metal response underground.
Considering the things found earlier, this metal response was very likely their target.
So everyone immediately divided into two groups, one to clear the land and the other to search around the area, to confirm whether this was a single grave or an entire ancient relic site.
Over an hour later, Liang En and his group of young people returned to the confirmed location with metal detectors. They had searched the entire field, but apart from some agricultural machinery parts, they found nothing.
Obviously, there should only be one relic in this area, so clearing it would be much simpler than clearing a relic site. When Liang En and his team returned to the metal-rich area they had discovered earlier, Dr. John, who had stayed behind, had already begun excavating with another group.
They started digging directly because, from the human remains found earlier, it was evident that this place had been disturbed and needed urgent cleaning to protect the relics.
"We'll dig down in layers of 10cm each," Dr. John said. "As soon as we find something, we'll stop and clean it up."
"Understood," everyone responded and began digging.
Perhaps because the burial here was relatively shallow, or perhaps because the local soil had been eroded over the years, they saw something white peeking out of the soil just after digging 10cm.
"This should be a human molar." After carefully picking up the object and examining it with a magnifying glass, Dr. John quickly gathered some important information from it.
"The owner of this tooth appears to have been in their 40s to 50s, and their status wasn't too low," Dr. John showed the tooth to Liang En and continued.
"You see, the wear on the top isn't severe, indicating that the owner ate relatively fine food. On the other hand, the decay on the tooth suggests they had access to a considerable amount of sugar."
Unlike modern perceptions where high-fat and high-sugar diets are considered junk food, over a thousand years ago, such diets were symbols of status. This also proves that the person buried here wasn't an ordinary individual.
After the tooth was discovered, the excavation work became much more meticulous to avoid missing any important items. Consequently, the efficiency of the excavation naturally decreased significantly.
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Table of content - Next Chapter
Chapter 254: Porcelain Box
It's well known that archaeological excavation work isn't a simple task, especially when it comes to thorough excavation rather than the simple sampling for verification that Liang En had done before.
To illustrate, it took three months just to clear Tutankhamun's tomb, and then another ten months to transport all the unearthed artifacts to Cairo!
However, it's worth noting that spending such a long time on just a few dozen square meters of tomb space wasn't solely due to the quantity of items in the room or the complexity of the archaeological process.
According to historical records, the main problem at the time was that they ran out of funds halfway through the standard excavation process, forcing them to temporarily abandon the dig and seek sponsorship.
Knowing that formal archaeological procedures would consume a significant amount of time, Liang En generously offered the guest rooms in his mansion for the museum staff to rest, free of charge.
Fortunately, compared to Tutankhamun's tomb, this Viking burial ground was much smaller in size, making the clearing process less challenging.
So, on the third day after the discovery of the burial ground, they, under the leadership of Professor John, had cleared the entire tomb and exposed the main part of the burial chamber.
The tomb was divided into two parts: one contained a horse's skeleton, serving as a funerary object for the tomb's owner, while the other side was the main burial chamber.
However, unlike Chinese or Egyptian tombs, this medieval Viking burial ground was very small, with only enough space for the bodies, not even a coffin.
Of course, the walls, floor, and ceiling of the Viking tomb were lined with wooden boards, which could theoretically be considered a coffin buried in the soil.
"This should be a woman." Liang En quickly judged upon seeing part of the pelvis that had been excavated. "That means the owner of this tomb should be the second known female Viking warrior's tomb in the world."
As it was during the Christmas holidays and there was little else to do, Liang En decided to join in the excavation work. With his current standing in the field of archaeology, he could naturally enter the core of the tomb for excavation alongside Professor John.
"Yes, this warrior might not have been at the top, but overall, she was wealthy." Professor John said, looking at the objects in the box that had been set aside.
They had excavated several weapons from this burial site, including not only the previously discovered spear and arrows but also an axe with a blade inlaid with steel and two small axes with reliefs on them.
The reason they considered her wealthy was that the tomb contained several well-made silver-inlaid gemstone jewelry pieces, yet her status wasn't high because no ceremonial sword was found in the tomb.
Compared to the common spears and axes everyone had, a sword had a special significance in Viking society. It could be seen as a symbol of command or status.
"We've reached the bottom. Next, we should expand to the surroundings." After moving the pelvis aside and digging a few more times with a small shovel, Liang En said. At this point, he and Professor John had dug up some rotting wood, presumably the floor of the tomb.
"All right, let's each take a side. I'll start digging from over there." John nodded at Liang En and then went to the other side of the tomb with his tools.
About fifteen minutes into their respective solo excavations, Liang En felt the wooden shovel tip hit something hard and smooth.
"Found something?" Considering there were no stones in this area, the hard object he touched was likely a burial item. Thinking this, he quickly squatted down, took out a plastic trowel, and started cleaning it, gesturing for assistance.
Seeing Liang En's gesture, Joan, who had been helping out on the side, immediately set aside the raven she had been holding for warmth, grabbed the nearby camera and ran over.
In fact, this was the procedure for any valuable item unearthed before, that is, to film the entire process of excavation and subsequent sorting, providing sufficient data for future research.
Soon, the mud attached to the object was carefully removed by Liang En using a soft plastic shovel and brush, revealing a white surface underneath.
"How is this possible?" Liang En's eyes widened. "Let me see... This shouldn't be, no, I mean this shouldn't appear here."
"What are you saying?" Because Liang En was so excited and his voice had grown louder, Professor John, who had been digging nearby, immediately walked over and looked at where he was digging. "What have you found?"
"Please wait a moment. It'll take some time to excavate this thing." Liang En quickly cleaned the ground underneath, fortunately, the object wasn't very large, so it was quickly dug out of the soft soil.
It was a white porcelain box. After a simple cleaning of the surface mud and measurement, it was found to be a round lidded porcelain box with a height of 6.9 cm, a diameter of 9.8 cm, and a base diameter of 5.4 cm.
The entire box was round, with matching upper and lower lips, straight sides, a raised lid, a concave bottom, and a circular base. The body was thick-walled and hard. Both inside and out were covered in white glaze, with a glossy surface.
"China!" Professor John, seeing this, also showed a shocked expression and accurately described the current situation with a single word.
From the previous excavations, it was apparent that this burial chamber hadn't been well-preserved due to early collapse and weathering, but it hadn't been looted either.
That meant this palm-sized round porcelain box at the bottom of the tomb should have originally been in the tomb and wasn't something that fell in later.
But the problem was, this was in Ireland, a relatively remote area in Europe, not China. So, it was quite intriguing for such an obviously Chinese item to appear here.
Of course, considering the jade road, which had been opened since the Shang Dynasty, connected
the heartland of Asia with the continent, constantly supplying jade from the Western Regions into the Central Plains, it wasn't too difficult to understand finding something from the other side of the continent here.
After a quick inspection of the box with a flashlight, Liang En found that it wasn't sealed, and there were no identifiable inscriptions on it.
"Go to the car and open this box." Dr. John suggested. "If the contents were going to weather, they would have done so long ago. But if they've survived to today, they should be openable in the car."
"Okay, let's go take a look now." Liang En nodded, because this box was very valuable from an archaeological perspective, so it wouldn't hurt to check its contents sooner rather than later.
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Table of content - Next Chapter
Chapter 255: The Box and Cosmetics
In theory, opening the box to examine its contents, especially without any accompanying textual information, would facilitate the identification of the overall information regarding the box.
So Liang En and Dr. John quickly reached a consensus on how to handle the white porcelain box and, with someone stationed to guard the excavation site, proceeded directly to the professional trailer for cleaning.
"Let me see what you are." Because of the recent harvest in card games, Liang En used an Appraisal (N) on the box while Dr. John fetched some tools from the car.
【When modern people mention Tang Dynasty ceramics, they often think of the colorful Tang Sancai pottery. However, during the Tang Dynasty, Tang Sancai was considered a high-end funerary item, used for burial. Even the government at the time explicitly stipulated who could be buried with how many pieces.
However, for this reason, the use of Tang Sancai in that era was also very fixed. At least for the living people of the Tang Dynasty, they would never use any Tang Sancai vessels in their daily lives.
Therefore, the porcelain used by the people of the Tang Dynasty in their daily lives tended to be divided into southern celadon and northern white. Southern regions primarily used celadon from Longquan Kiln, while the northern regions used white porcelain from Xing Kiln and Ding Kiln.
The white glazed box here was produced during the reign of Emperor Xianzong of Tang, then traveled along the Maritime Silk Road, passing through various hands along the coast before reaching Europe, where it ultimately became the most precious treasure of a Viking female warrior.】
"Is this a Ding Kiln box?" After reading the appraisal results on the card, Liang En carefully examined the porcelain box. Although he wasn't very familiar with Chinese cultural relics, he knew that Ding Kiln, which originated from Xing Kiln, was one of the five famous kilns in the Song Dynasty.
Although the Ding Kiln during the Tang Dynasty was only a folk kiln, not an official one, judging from the exquisite craftsmanship of this box, it wasn't difficult to see why such an item would be considered official kiln ware for the royal family in the Song Dynasty.
And just at the moment when this porcelain box was discovered, Liang En obtained a new card.
【Maritime Silk Road Map (R): With the development of technology and the loss of control over the Western Regions by the Central Plains dynasties after the Anshi Rebellion and internal chaos, the land-based Silk Road gradually fell into disuse.
However, at the same time, a maritime Silk Road gradually emerged, assuming the task of East-West exchange, allowing the circulation of people, goods, and information between Europe and Asia.
Skill Card (Permanent): The user can open this map in their soul at any time. The map records the maritime routes of the entire maritime Silk Road.】
"Let's begin." Dr. John quickly prepared a workbench and began cleaning the box with specialized tools.
Under the light, the things that began to be cleaned out were just some black soil, but after most of the soil from the box was emptied, some small gray lumps appeared inside.
These gray lumps were located at the bottom of the box and were firmly attached to the glaze of this white porcelain box. Obviously, they were not seeped in from the outside, but something originally in the box.
"Are you familiar with the testing equipment over there?" After placing the lumps, each the size of a mung bean, into a glass dish, Dr. John, without looking up, asked Liang En behind him.
"I am. After all, I graduated with a major in archaeology. During my internship, I often helped the professor analyze the composition of some items, so I am familiar with these instruments." Liang En took the glass dish and placed it into an instrument nearby for analysis.
Half an hour later, through various means, he confirmed one thing: the powder of these gray lumps contained dangerous compounds, with a large amount of lead and arsenic, as well as traces of completely decomposed and carbonized fats and starch.
In addition, there were some fragments of plant debris in the pile, but because these plants underwent complex processing, it was impossible to determine exactly which ones they were.
Fortunately, with the confirmed ingredients, it was enough to infer what was originally contained in the box: these ingredients completely matched the historical ingredients related to medieval cosmetics.
Yes, medieval European cosmetics were not seen as cosmetics by modern people but rather as poisons because they added a large number of toxic ingredients such as lead, mercury, and arsenic to many cosmetics.
In fact, they did not lack natural cosmetics; for example, there are records in a 13th-century manuscript of using fine wheat flour mixed with rose water to apply to the face for maintenance.
Unfortunately, even with today's technology, it is impossible to quickly achieve results with various natural ingredients, let alone the rough refining methods of the Middle Ages, so medieval nobles quickly developed cosmetics based on heavy metals.
The whitening effect of these cosmetics was surprisingly fast, and even in this regard, they could rival some top modern cosmetics, but the cost was equally astonishing.
As is well known, when these heavy metals and toxic substances are mixed on the face, they can be absorbed into the body and cause various poisoning reactions, such as irritability, loss of appetite, organ failure, osteoporosis, and so on.
Even victims who had never used cosmetics, such as "Aka ToffaNa," a face powder named after its inventor Signora Toffana, specifically designed for wealthy women.
Its instructions clearly instructed women not to ingest this cosmetic, but encouraged them to apply it to their cheeks when their husbands were present.
So, after kissing their wives' cheeks, more than six hundred husbands died in just one month, leaving behind many wealthy widows. This eventually led to the execution of Signora Toffana - she was called the "deadly woman" of the Middle Ages.
Of course, there were even more extreme beauty practices, such as the legendary Elizabeth Bathory, the famous "Bloody Countess," who invented the method of drinking blood for whitening and anti-aging, based on the murder of 650 people.
From the many examples above, it can be seen that the desire for beauty is universal, even for a female warrior with glorious achievements on the battlefield.
Therefore, the deceased chose to use these precious oriental porcelain to store these cosmetics, and placed the cosmetics next to herself when she was buried, ready to use in another world.
While Liang En was gathering a lot of information, Dr. John also cleaned the box, but apart from the remnants of cosmetics, no other valuable items were found.
After all, people in the Tang Dynasty did not habitually mark the years on porcelain as they did in later dynasties, so it wasn't easy to find enough information from the porcelain itself.
"I think we may need assistance from the museum in China." After completing the analysis work and submitting a lab number, Dr. John suddenly said.
"I hope they can send professionals to identify the specific age of this porcelain box because being able to determine the exact age of this box would greatly help us determine the specific age of this burial site."
"Indeed, for those who have not received special training, it is very complicated to identify the specific circumstances of these things."
"And professionals in China
can identify the manufacturing date of this box within just a few decades after appraisal, which would be very helpful for our subsequent research."
After making the decision to seek external assistance, Liang En and the others immediately began making phone calls to communicate with some people related to the museum in China. After just a few calls, Liang En unexpectedly received support from the Chinese Embassy in Ireland.
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