Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 467: Chapter 463: The Specifications of the Princess’s Tomb

Huo Sining also stared intently at the professors; she could only determine from the patterns and styles on the broken ceramic pieces that the ancient tomb belonged to the middle Tang Dynasty, but when it came to further subdividing whether it was for a duke, marquis, chancellor, or a consort or princess, she did not know how to judge.

”That’s a good question!”

Professor Xie turned and patiently explained to the students:

”To determine whom a tomb belongs to, besides observing the style of the tomb, one can also consider the ceremonial system of the dynasty, the scale of the burial mound, the layout of the tomb complex, relief carvings on the tomb path, the quantity of burial objects, and so on.”

”The hierarchy of the ancient royal family was strict; ranks were divided into levels, from empress to consort to princess to lady-in-waiting, and each level had different burial objects they could use.”

At this point, Xie Daoyuan paused slightly and asked Ding Liang with a smile, ”You should remember the tomb specifications of Princess Yongtai that we saw last year when we went to the Qianling Mausoleum, right?”

Ding Liang nodded, ”I remember, the tomb mound was in an inverted bowl shape, with a guard of honor formed by Azure Dragon, White Tiger, and samurai on both sides of the tomb path. In front of the tomb, there were two pairs of stone figures, pairs of stone lions, and ornamental columns. On both sides of the approach, the nich niches, each containing a variety of tri-colored figurines and ceramic vessels among other burial objects...”

At this point, Ding Liang suddenly stopped, looking at the ancient tomb pit in front of him with a bit of surprise.

”You’re right, Princess Yongtai was the seventh daughter of Emperor Zhongzong Li Xian and was buried in the Qianling Mausoleum; her tomb specifications are extremely similar to this ancient tomb.”

Seeing that Ding Liang had understood, Xie Daoyuan nodded approvingly, ”Although we are not clear on how many niches are within this ancient tomb’s path, based on the lion bodies, stone figures, and pillars we’ve excavated so far, these specifications could only match those of a royal princess. The tomb’s owner must undoubtedly be a princess of distinguished status at that time.”

The tomb of Princess Yongtai was excavated in the 1960s and, being the first among the 17 tombs at the Qianling Mausoleum, was inevitably visited by tomb raiders.

Even though it was robbed, the archaeological team still excavated thousands of cultural relics from the great tomb of the Tang Dynasty.

If this ancient tomb is of the same specification as Princess Yongtai’s, the artifacts inside would definitely be numerous.

Just thinking about the sensation that the excavation of this tomb would cause, not only the professors and students but also the other staff members were visibly excited and overjoyed.

”The previous ancient tomb sketch wasn’t accurate enough. Xiao Ji, we need to speed up and try to finish the new drawing before mealtime! The rest of you, please start coordinating with the staff to take stock of these excavated items and get the data compiled as quickly as possible,” directed Professor Xie.

Ji Kun nodded without a word, grabbed a hoe and a measuring tape, and followed closely behind Xie Daoyuan towards the rear mountain, with Ding Liang and Huo Sining naturally following the two. The other professors also started to move out to their respective tasks.

Seeing Ding Liang walking alongside Huo Sining, Li Xuanbing felt displeased, but since the work assignments were issued by Xie Daoyuan, she could only hide her emotions and not dare to express them.

Moving away from the others, Xie Daoyuan, who was leading the way, suddenly turned around to look at Ji Kun who was following behind.

Xie Daoyuan certainly hadn’t forgotten how much he had pleaded for Huo Sining to switch her major to cultural relic studies and learn archaeology and artifact appraisal from him, yet that girl was unmoved and stubbornly refused.

Now that Huo Sining had suddenly become Ji Kun’s apprentice, it left Xie Daoyuan feeling a bit sour, and he couldn’t help but look at Ji Kun and ask acidly, ”Is this your new disciple?”

On hearing this, Ji Kun was taken aback, then turned his head to glance at Huo Sining: ”Who? You mean that girl?”

Xie Daoyuan nodded his head, and Ji Kun immediately smiled, ”How could I have the ability to take her as an apprentice? She’s my little junior sister, just accepted as the closed-door disciple by my master.”

Xie Daoyuan was stunned, ”Mr. Zhou’s closed-door disciple? How come I haven’t heard about it?”

Ji Kun nodded, ”Yes, she was just accepted before the New Year. My master is low-key and didn’t want to publicize it too much, so the news was kept under wraps.”

Xie Daoyuan nodded his head, ”No wonder.”

Ji Kun thought Xie Daoyuan meant no wonder he hadn’t heard the news, but actually, Xie Daoyuan was thinking no wonder Huo Sining was unwilling to become his apprentice; it turned out she had a better option.

However, Xie Daoyuan wasn’t angry because Huo Sining chose Zhou Shitao over him; instead, he was somewhat curious. Master Zhou was very picky when choosing disciples, so what exactly did Huo Sining possess that caught Master Zhou’s eye?

”How did Mr. Zhou pick this girl?” Xie Daoyuan couldn’t help but ask.

Ji Kun smiled and said, ”Don’t underestimate this girl; she may seem quiet, but she’s actually quite formidable.”

”My master has a Baiyang Box, with only ten genuine articles inside. When I finished my apprenticeship, the old man brought it out for me to test, and I only identified seven of them. But this girl managed to pick out all ten genuine articles; now, isn’t that impressive?”

”Initially, this girl was even unwilling to become a disciple of my master. It was only after my master pleaded and half-forced her that she was finally accepted.”

Xie Daoyuan’s eyes were full of shock; he knew that Huo Sining was good at raising fish, but he hadn’t realized she also had a talent for treasure appraisal.

As the two talked, they surveyed the terrain non-stop, tirelessly drawing sketches of the ancient tomb.

Accurate surveying of the terrain is necessary to determine the location of underground burial chambers, passageways, courtyards, corridors, latrines, and the anterior and posterior tomb chambers. While it sounds simple, doing it in practice is far from easy.

Xie Daoyuan was an expert at surveying tombs, and Ji Kun had also gained much experience from participating in many archaeological works with Zhou Shitao over the years; Huo Sining and Ding Liang could only help with odd jobs.

Ding Liang was okay at least; it wasn’t his first time, so when Xie Daoyuan instructed him, he went about it smoothly.

But for Huo Sining, who was a complete novice just watching the excitement, seeing Xie Daoyuan and Ji Kun digging and measuring, occasionally studying some plants, she felt as confused as a monk scratching his head.

Since this area was originally planned for the construction of a resort village, construction didn’t stop even after the discovery of the ancient tomb. Aside from the tomb area, intensive construction was still ongoing not far away.

”They’re still building over there, aren’t they afraid of hollowing out the ancient tomb or excavating and damaging artifacts?” Huo Sining was puzzled and so she asked.

Ding Liang gave a wry smile, ”Developers don’t care about artifacts, as they finance their projects with bank loans. To them, wasting even a day means having to pay one more day of interest to the bank.”

”Just the rescue work of this one tomb will take at least ten days to half a month, and it’ll be a few years before the entire excavation is completed. By that time, it’ll all be over; do you think those developers would wait for us to finish excavating this tomb before they start construction?”