Chapter 256: Documentary
"Are you saying that a Tang Dynasty Ding kiln porcelain was found as a burial item in the tomb of an ancient female Viking warrior?" A voice, tinged with excitement, came through the phone from a staff member at the Chinese Embassy.
"If that's the case, you can inquire with the head of the archaeological site if they allow our media to enter for interviews. If possible, a documentary film crew will quickly arrive, and among them, there will be a porcelain expert."
For the people of the Middle Kingdom, a well-preserved Ding kiln white porcelain box is indeed precious, but it's merely a valuable ceramic piece, replaceable with other objects.
But finding such an item as a burial piece in a Viking's tomb is another matter altogether because it represents an ancient commercial route spanning Eurasia and the historical connections between two countries at the opposite ends of the continent.
In other words, if this item appeared in the Middle Kingdom, it would at most be one of the early productions of the Five Great Kilns, but excavating it from a Viking warrior's tomb makes it a rare treasure.
"A documentary film crew! Isn't that a bit of an overreaction?" Liang En widened his eyes upon hearing the embassy staff member's words.
He knew that the discovery of this item could prove that over a thousand years ago, there was at least indirect contact between the Middle Kingdom and Ireland, but it wasn't worthy of sending a documentary film crew specifically for it.
"In fact, the documentary film crew wasn't specifically dispatched for this matter," the staff member explained. "They are mainly here in Europe to shoot a documentary about the Silk Road."
"The other day, this crew just finished filming a story related to Gothenburg in Sweden, and now they're in London preparing to shoot some artifacts and materials related to Central Asia and the Silk Road."
"So, if you can confirm that your discovery is indeed authentic, then this team can conveniently send a part of their crew to film your discovery."
"Understood, I will ask Professor John and send you the on-site photos," Liang En nodded and said, "If everything goes smoothly, please notify us in advance of the plan arrangements in this regard."
Liang En didn't find it inappropriate for this matter to be included in their agenda because it's well-known that notifying the embassy's documentary film crew is a big deal; being able to join in temporarily is already impressive.
"It would be great if someone could promote this, especially if it's a national-level media," Liang En mentioned this matter to Dr. John after hanging up the phone, and Dr. John immediately agreed.
"And compared to the UK, the Middle Kingdom's understanding of Ireland is far less. So I think we can take this opportunity to introduce ourselves to the Middle Kingdom through them."
Dr. John is not just a scholar but also a museum official, so naturally, he considers this aspect more, which is beneficial to everyone.
After obtaining permission, Liang En immediately called the embassy and helped them communicate with the National Museum of Ireland.
Because both sides now hope to cooperate in this regard, they quickly reached a cooperation agreement and set a specific timetable for the upcoming actions.
Adding shooting content and actually shooting it is not a particularly simple matter, so even though communication between the two sides went very smoothly, it would be until the end of December or early January before the other side arrives.
But this is not a bad thing for Liang En and the others because there is a lot of organic matter in the tomb, so during these days, they sent some samples to the laboratory of the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.
Because there were enough samples, they quickly completed the testing of these items and dated the tomb to between 800 and 850 AD.
This is also thanks to the fact that the wood traditionally used by the Vikings to build graves was freshly cut, coupled with the presence of the deceased's bones, allowing them to pinpoint the specific period of these items so accurately.
As for the route this Ding kiln white porcelain box took to arrive here, everyone has a guess, with a fragment of a Byzantine-style blue glass cup found in the tomb and several silver coins from Byzantium pointing to the most likely route.
As the Byzantine capital Constantinople, a thoroughfare between Asia and Europe, gathered all sorts of things, from Viking mercenaries and merchants to various riches from the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa.
For the Vikings, who were frequent visitors to this city, it was perfectly reasonable to buy interesting little things and bring them back home.
At the same time, compared to other items, small and valuable items from the East, like porcelain, were obviously very advantageous for these Vikings in long-distance trade, naturally becoming their preferred choice for goods procurement.
In addition to this Ding kiln white porcelain box, the most valuable thing they found in this tomb was a small scale, mostly rotten, but still recognizable, and five or six lead-made weights.
This kind of scale, the size of a human forearm, was used to check the precious metal content in coins because counterfeit coins were rampant at that time, and fake coins mainly contained lead and tin, with weights different from genuine coins, which could be identified using scales and weights.
However, such finely crafted scales were not common items, usually only wealthy merchants could possess them. In other words, the woman buried in this tomb was not only a warrior but also a merchant.
In fact, these two identities were not contradictory in ancient times. Considering that the security environment was much more chaotic in ancient times than it is now, it was not uncommon for a merchant to have strong military force.
Nevertheless, even so, the owner of this tomb should have been an outstanding figure in that era. Especially in an age with obvious gender discrimination, achieving this as a woman was even more difficult, so Liang En felt that the story here should indeed be shared.
Finally, when the entire tomb was almost cleared, the filming crew from the Middle Kingdom and several experts arrived at the scene and began filming. However, the first problem they encountered was a language barrier.
Unlike Chinese, English does not have a standardized language, so even countries or regions where English is the mother tongue or official language may not necessarily understand each other's words.
Therefore, the English mastered by this filming crew naturally had some problems when communicating with the Irish, but Liang En happened to be able to help at this time, assisting them in communicating with the staff.
"Thank you, Professor Liang, for your help." After Liang En helped them with the communication, the embassy staff member accompanying the filming crew thanked him, "We didn't expect the Irish accent here to be so heavy."
Embassy personnel often have limited contact with ordinary people, so they naturally encounter various problems when facing ordinary staff.
"No problem, after all, everyone wants to shoot this thing well, so mutual assistance is natural," Liang En smiled and said, "If there is anything else you need help with, please find me, I will do my best to help."
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Chapter 258: Returning to the United States
Regarding the excavation of the Viking warrior tomb, Liang En felt the most regretful about not obtaining any cards. After all, the items inside did not belong to him, and this discovery did not leave traces in history like previous ones.
So, according to the rules he had previously deduced, it was quite normal not to get any cards in this search operation. After all, the rules themselves couldn't guarantee that every treasure hunt would necessarily yield cards.
After finishing these tasks, it was the Chinese New Year. After attending the New Year's gathering held by the Chinese embassy, Liang En, along with Joan of Arc, Fan Meng, and Pierce, flew to the United States.
This trip to the United States was related to the information they had obtained previously. Liang En believed that with his abilities, he should be able to catch clues that others hadn't noticed or couldn't use and find those missing artifacts.
However, considering some future arrangements, Liang En did not intend to go to the United States to search for missing artifacts. So, after checking a series of information, he decided to use participating in warehouse auctions as an excuse to go there.
Although the outside world often regarded Liang En as a scholar of history, he was actually a treasure hunter. Therefore, participating in such auctions was a very normal thing for him.
And what Liang En felt fortunate about was that New York happened to be in the midst of the warehouse auction season, and as the largest port on the East Coast, there would be a large number of warehouse auctions here.
Because their destination was Pennsylvania this time, the excuse of going to New York to participate in the auction allowed them to get as close to the target as possible.
Originally, Liang En only intended to bring Joan of Arc and Fan Meng, but Pierce decided to join them when he learned they were going to attend warehouse auctions in New York to purchase inventory for his shop.
Considering that they really planned to participate in some warehouse auctions to cover their real actions, Liang En felt that it was convenient to have Pierce along at this time to handle auction-related matters.
For example, if they really found something at the auction, having Pierce around would allow them to smoothly dispose of those items through his connections, rather than selling the spoils cheaply.
"There are still too few hotels that allow pets to stay." After checking into a hotel in the suburbs of New York, Liang En muttered softly while carrying a cage containing a raven.
Because they were considering the possibility of a large-scale search this time, he brought his ravens with him. Unfortunately, unless they considered a few top hotels, they could only stay in some relatively remote hotels with their pets.
Fortunately, although this hotel was a bit far from downtown New York, the overall public security in the area was very good, and the interior decoration was also decent, so it was considered a nice place.
"What should we do next?" After Liang En put several cages containing shiny imitation jewelry bracelets he had bought in France last time to one side, Joan of Arc asked softly.
"I got some information about the warehouse auctions held locally in the past week from Mr. Bruce. Let's see which one would be the best choice tomorrow." Liang En took out a tablet from his suitcase and pulled up a bunch of data.
"Can we go to all these places? For example, all three auctions starting the day after tomorrow?" Fan Meng asked after carefully examining the schedule.
"For instance, some start in the morning, some in the afternoon, and some at noon. I see the distance between these three points is short enough for us to make it to every auction."
"It's not possible," Liang En laughed and said, "You know, what we have to do at these auctions is not just to buy things but also to clean up the warehouses. It would be good if we could finish one auction in a day."
In many Western countries, handling garbage requires additional payment, especially for some large items. So, many people simply rent a warehouse for a short time to throw away the garbage to save money.
Therefore, in this kind of warehouse auction, the probability of encountering trash was at least over ninety percent, and only a small possibility existed to find something valuable.
The reason why the warehouses held this kind of expiration auction was to hope to find a group of people to help them clear out these garbages for free.
Therefore, according to the regulations, those who participated in the auction and bought the warehouse must clean up the warehouse. Otherwise, they would be blacklisted, and they would be rejected by any warehouse auction in the future.
Although Liang En and the others participated in the warehouse auction this time just as a cover for their real plan, as professionals, they obviously did not want to leave a bad impression in this regard, so naturally, they had to go and clean up the rooms.
As a result, it would be very good to finish one auction in a day. Therefore, when faced with multiple options, they naturally had to make choices in advance.
"Let's rule out this one in the Queen's district first." Liang En crossed out this place on the map showing the
location of the giant warehouse auctions.
"The location of this warehouse happens to be in the most chaotic and highest unemployment area of the Queens district, so there is a high probability that the warehouse contains garbage or dirty items. We don't need to trouble ourselves."
"Right, so we can also rule out the warehouse in Harlem." Pierce nodded. "As is well known, Harlem is a diverse area, and the neighborhood where the warehouse is located is also quite chaotic."
"In other words, our only option next is the warehouse in Newark, southwest of New York, right?" Fan Meng said after glancing at the map.
Newark is actually a city in New Jersey, but it is also part of Greater New York, only 14km away from Manhattan, and also an important outer port of New York.
Naturally, there would be a large number of warehouses in the port area for storing various items, and the auction this time was one of a series of warehouses built during World War II.
The reason why this large-scale auction was held was that the port side decided to demolish all these old warehouses located in the core area of the port and build new warehouses, so they needed to clear the warehouses in advance.
After confirming the target, the three of them drove to the warehouse area early the next day to check the value.
"Warehouses from World War II until now, sounds like they've been around for a long time." Fan Meng seemed a bit excited on the way. "Do you think there might be something good inside?"
"The chances are slim because this warehouse has been in use before, so the things inside have been in circulation, and there may not be much difference from the warehouses outside." Pierce said with experience.
"But because this time it's a big cleanup, considering that auctioning off more than 60 warehouses one by one over two consecutive days is not feasible, so there will be silent auctions."
Silent auctions at warehouse auctions are similar to silent auctions in other industries, where everyone is given pre-printed bilaterally bound paper as a voucher.
Then, after everyone looked at the warehouse and was willing to bid, they wrote their bid on the paper and split the paper into two parts along the pre-marked trace, and handed one of them to the auctioneer. The auctioneer would then use a rolling seal to stamp the warehouse number.
After everyone had finished inspecting all the warehouses that day, the auctioneer would summarize all the bids for each warehouse, and whoever bid the highest would win the warehouse.
"What if multiple people bid the same amount?" After listening to Pierce's explanation, Joan of Arc suddenly asked like a curious baby.
"This situation is rare, so if it really happens, the auctioneer will call several bidders together to hold a small auction, and whoever bids the highest will get the warehouse."
Arriving at the warehouse area, they learned from the notice posted on the warehouse wall that there were a total of 62 warehouses for this warehouse auction, all of which would be auctioned off in one day.
In addition, participants needed to pay a $500 deposit to participate in the auction. This deposit would be refunded to everyone after the auction ended, regardless of whether they bought anything, but if they bid on something and didn't pay, these deposits would be confiscated by the organizer.
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Chapter 259: Getting Started
"This is a high-end auction," Pierce nodded slightly after reading the notice. "Only those major storage companies hold such important storage auctions requiring this kind of deposit."
Pierce made this remark because, on one hand, the party collecting the deposit must have sufficient credibility to allow everyone to pay the money without worrying about the organizer running off with it. Therefore, there are not many organizers that meet this requirement.
On the other hand, for most warehouse treasure hunters, their disposable funds simply cannot afford to fork out hundreds of dollars in deposit. Hence, collecting deposits easily keeps many treasure hunters out of the auction.
Although it may sound exaggerated that they can't come up with a few hundred dollars of disposable funds, it's a fact. Americans may be wasteful, but they aren't foolish, so it's rare for valuable items to be left unattended in warehouses.
According to Pierce, although there are hundreds of thousands of people in the United States doing this job, the vast majority are just part-timers or hobbyists. Few actually rely on this for a living.
After all, this line of work has zero entry barriers, so when many people hear about someone getting rich from it, they easily get drawn in by these exceptional cases.
But the harsh reality often eliminates the majority of newcomers in the first year, and even among the small fraction that manages to stay, many only eke out a living, with only a few actually earning satisfactory rewards.
For example, people like Pierce who run their own antique shops can make a living from this because they possess relatively professional skills to identify valuable goods and sell them through their own channels.
After paying the $500 deposit, Liang En and his group of four drove the rented medium-sized truck through the gate into the warehouse area, following the arrows temporarily drawn on the roadside towards the auction area.
Soon, they passed several rows of internal steel-framed, externally red brick cement warehouses and arrived at their destination, a row of five warehouses with similar structures.
From the vehicles parked on both sides of the road, it was apparent that besides them, there were others intending to scout early. However, these people were not many, as the $500 entry fee had likely deterred quite a few.
When Liang En and his group got out of the car and walked towards the warehouse that would soon be auctioned, they saw several groups of people studying these warehouses. Some were observing the ground and the doors, while others were peering through the door cracks.
Interestingly, although there were warehouse managers nearby, they did not come out to stop these people from what seemed like unauthorized behavior.
Thinking about it, it was already 9 o'clock in the morning, and everyone had to leave before noon. As long as the doors weren't opened, three hours weren't enough to see much through the door cracks.
After all, everyone had already paid a $500 deposit, and those participating in the auction might not feel comfortable. Therefore, doing this now could help ease some of the dissatisfaction among the participants.
For Liang En and his group's appearance, these people at most just glanced a few more times before leaving. Their extra glances mainly focused on the three ravens that Liang En and his group were carrying with them.
But for these warehouse treasure hunters who had traveled far and wide, they had seen all sorts of miraculous things, so seeing Liang En and his group keeping ravens as pets didn't seem odd to them.
In fact, initially, Liang En brought these ravens mainly to see if they could find places like windows to peek into rooms. However, he found that these ravens were a bit too large, and they couldn't squeeze through ventilation openings the size of a fist.
Therefore, Liang En could only observe these warehouses themselves, as well as various traces around the warehouses, to roughly infer what these warehouses were primarily used for.
Fortunately, these warehouses at the old dock had their own habits when storing various items, so by observing these traces, one could roughly tell what each warehouse used to primarily store.
For example, one warehouse had obvious traces of being rolled over on the road outside, with a large number of impact marks on the door, and even a few traces of paint on the wall.
These traces, combined, indicated that this warehouse used to store various machinery or large steel components. Sure enough, after looking inside through the door crack, they indeed saw some machine parts that weren't covered by tarpaulins.
Through this inference, Liang En and his group quickly identified seven targets. Some of these target warehouses seemed to have some valuable items inside, while others appeared to have been unopened for a long time.
After all, Liang En and his group had their own channels, so even if ordinary auction participants couldn't profit from some old items, they could exchange them for some items they needed.
For instance, Liang En was interested in a room filled with thick dust, which evidently concealed some furniture full of historical charm, old-fashioned chandeliers, and some tableware or tea sets.
For warehouse treasure hunters, it's often difficult to sell such assorted goods for a decent price. However, for Liang En and his group, both Pierce and Liang En himself had enough channels in the United States to consume these items, so they could profit from auction items that others couldn't.
But not every warehouse was within Liang En's grasp. For example, there was one warehouse filled with many small motors, all wrapped in transparent plastic and placed on shelves, a clear open-item situation.
Considering that the items inside were of little value to Liang En, whether they could buy them depended on whether they could reach a deal after setting a minimum price.
By the time they were ready to leave at noon, they had hurriedly seen these warehouses while working separately, and then left here looking exhausted.
The next morning, they drove the rented medium-sized truck to the auction again. After releasing the three ravens, they found a place to sit together, eating breakfast while waiting for the auction to begin.
Soon, it was 8:40, and just as Liang En and his group finished breakfast and began to grow impatient, several people from the warehouse side came over to verify everyone's identity.
Soon, two groups of people attempting to deceive were discovered. After they refused to pay the deposit, these people, under the surveillance of several burly security guards, took the initiative to drive away from the warehouse area.
"All right, everyone is here," the auctioneer raised his wrist to check his watch and said. "There are five minutes before the official start, so I can introduce the rules of this auction to everyone."
"We will open the doors of the warehouses one by one, and then everyone will queue up to visit the warehouses. Because there are a lot of things to be auctioned today, each group cannot exceed 30 seconds."
"After everyone has finished looking, I will give you one minute to fill in the amount, and all those who want to buy will hand me the paper with the filled amount. I will stamp it and put it in the box."
"All right, that's all for the specifics for now. It's time, let's start the auction." After a brief five-minute speech, the auctioneer ended his speech with a reminder from his companion and announced the start of the auction.
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