In the modern sense, the organized and targeted "archaeological excavations" initiated by the state in China are less than one hundred years old. I remember reading several excavation reports decades ago more than a decade ago, not so much "excavation" ... as "tomb robbery records" Because its methods, means, etc ... are all things of grave robbers, and there is no "own" thing.
So far, some means may be advanced ... adding some high-tech components, such as ground penetrating radar, metal detector, gas analyzer and so on, but the principle is still the same. Real folk grave robbers are subject to various restrictions. He can't take the radar to rob a tomb, even a Luoyang shovel has to be dismantled and "hidden" ... so he has his own unique skill.
If he wants to finish the seemingly "impossible task" in unit time, he must think of various ways, some of which are subtle. For example, if you dig a hole more than ten meters down, there will be no soil on the ground! A layman like me can't even think about it.
It can't be like this! ..... don't believe it! But then I believed it, because I believed it when I saw it on the spot. Let me find a hole at the scene ... I can't find it walking around! Turn around and people will say, "Right where you are standing ... right under your feet, you are standing on your mouth!" " "This scared me.
Escape ... and then someone else found a shovel to dig where I was standing. A minute later, I saw a hole ... It turned out that I was standing on a "grate", and the grave robbers would seal the hole after work. Now open it ... it's just a hole the size of a manhole cover. Open it and look down. Go straight for more than ten meters. I can't see it in the middle of winter. People also say ... you can go down if you have the courage! The bottom is strong and won't collapse. You can go down and see the grave.
I said forget it, a hole as high as four or five stories ... makes me dizzy. What is even more strange is that ... it is surrounded by a plain, flat land, and crops are planted. There is such a manhole cover in the green tent, and there is no mound for hundreds of meters and miles outside. It is impossible to pile the soil outside, and the hole is so small that it has to be sealed when working. No one can tell! ..... although we don't know how to do it ... but we must admit this fact! It is said that this hole was opened by grave robbers more than a year ago. After more than a year, the hole is still strong and won't collapse.
I don't know how to do it. Eyes to look at ... I don't understand.
And "look at the terrain", which is even more mysterious. People who don't know can't see it when they walk by the grave. People who know the trick can see it a few kilometers away. Some grave robbers "like" to go out and "walk" in snowy days ... especially like the snow with fine snow particles, because it is related to "soil".
Soil is divided into "ripe soil", "living soil" (also called "flower soil") and "dead soil". Experienced grave robbers can tell at a glance whether there is an ancient tomb here, or even whether it is an ancient tomb.
The graduate student of the department of archaeology I know was arranged by the school to explore the Three Gorges when he graduated from college (the rescue excavation of prehistoric culture, which has now been submerged after the Three Gorges rose). He told me ... what kind of soil has what kind of characteristics is very clear. And interestingly, he himself admits that our level is not as good as that of real grave robbers, and our experience is far from perfect. We mainly focus on theory. What do you find ... analyze it, see its characteristics and when it was analyzed. It doesn't matter, but if you really want to "find a grave" ... it will be a joke.
First of all, the tombs of various dynasties have their own characteristics, such as the characteristics in shape, and so on. Mastering these characteristics can get twice the result with half the effort.
You can probe with a probe first, and "feel" whether there is an ancient tomb according to the feeling on your hand. After confirmation, shovel, such as: shovel down 10 meter, and then ... look at the depth and see what is shoveled out. Depth is also a sign. There are sawdust, cinnabar, pit ash, etc ... these are all characteristics; Then, square the shape of the grave with a trowel. Is to correct the coordinates.
Hit the one on the left ... miss ten meters, that's "finished", and then go back to the right to continue playing ... and so on, connect the dots one by one, that's the shape of a tomb more than ten meters underground. Then, according to the shape, depth, pit ash, wood (or stone, brick) and other characteristics of the tomb, we can infer the age of the tomb, the location of the tomb door and so on.
Generally speaking, the arrangement of tombs and artifacts in any dynasty has its own rules. Looking at the shape of Han tombs, whether in the Eastern Han Dynasty or the Western Han Dynasty, there will always be an "image" in your mind ... where the coffin should be, where the pottery is buried, where the metal utensils are, what will be in the wing rooms on both sides ... and so on.
When you really go downhill ... go straight ahead and dig (Han tombs are generally collapsed, filled with earth, said to be tombs ... in fact, they are all soil, moving forward in the soil, and everything is in the soil). This is the characteristic of the "left shoulder and right foot" I mentioned in the above post ... generally, expensive funerary objects will be placed in the coffin of the tomb owner, with the left shoulder and right foot.
In other words, before you dig a tomb, you will have the concept of the whole tomb in your mind. When you really dig down, you will go directly to the place where you want to find something ... There are also some tombs, such as Ming tombs and Qing tombs, the top of which will be very thick (think about it ... seven vertical, seven horizontal and fourteen layers of blue bricks, which will be more than two meters thick and how strong they will be! ), avoid the top of the tomb when digging a hole. Otherwise, if you hit the top of the tomb ... you may not finish the work in one night, but dare you come the next day? Maybe the police are already waiting for you.
Therefore, once the shovel touches the brick (the shovel will bring brick dust when it is lifted), it is necessary to avoid the top of the tomb when opening a hole. Anyway, the shape of the tomb is already "square". You know the location of the entrance, the location of the wall and the location of the top of the tomb, so when you open a hole, you will naturally find another place to fight ... This "other place" may sometimes be near the entrance of the tomb, and sometimes it may be near the back wall of the tomb. This is all possible and depends entirely on the tomb.
Second, the history of grave robbers, the methods and skills of treasure hunting. China has been excavating ancient tombs for a long time. The earliest recorded tomb in history is Shang Tang, the first generation of Shang Dynasty. It has been 3600 years since now, and grave robbery first appeared in the late Western Zhou Dynasty more than 2770 years ago. Someone got a jade seal with a cross on it from the excavated ancient tomb, and no one knew it. There are two kinds of grave robbers, grave robbers. Sun Dianying, etc. Very popular in the Republic of China. They use a large number of soldiers to burn firewood, and there are also a large number of thieves distributed all over the country, concentrated in Henan, Shaanxi and Changsha, Hunan. Professional thieves are usually two people in partnership. Many gangs have fewer people, and even less do it alone, because one person can't take care of them. It was supposed to be dug by one person, but the party style was not correct. Friends can kiss each other in the future, and there is little cooperation between father and son. When looking for partners, we need to be very careful to prevent anyone from being greedy. These people have been engaged in grave robbery for a long time, and they are experienced and good at camouflage. The anti-theft mechanism is very powerful. After they set the goal, if the small tomb doesn't take much effort, it will be dug in a few nights, and they will take out the goods and leave. If it is a large or medium-sized tomb, they will use farming as the name. Covered up two months of poaching with a green gauze curtain. Second, build a house near the grave to hide people's eyes and ears, and then dig a tunnel from the house to the grave, and you can't see anything from the outside. Third, while building a fake tomb near the ancient tomb, secretly dig tunnels and steal property into the tomb. Changsha tomb raiding must be in the south, Luoyang shovel is not very good. After summing up the experience of many parties, the ancients looked forward and looked back, and moved by it, demanding that it be cut. In other words, grave robbers often know the art of geomantic omen, judge the size of a cemetery through geomantic omen, and play with the art of nose. They can determine which generation of tombs they belong to with a handful of dirt. They were surprised at the letter. There is a legend that there was a grave robber who robbed three generations and practiced his skills, but was caught in the 1980s. He should have died, but because of his skill, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and worked for the archaeological cause all his life. Most of the three questions are eloquence. Talk with the old man about the past and the present to get the information about the tombs. Four cuts is pulse diagnosis. There are three layers of arguments. One is to judge the age and size of the tomb according to the soil layer. The other is to touch the objects on the body of the deceased in the coffin of the grave. From head to toe, it is a beach of indifference. Must be delicate. The third is to judge the value of the unearthed objects by touching them with your hands. Tomb raiding and treasure hunting have a long history. Today, tools are more modern, collectivized and intelligent. They use military compasses for detection, detectors, detonators, explosives, chainsaws, cars for transportation and mobile phones for communication. Therefore, it is complicated and arduous to learn this skill, and there is a long way to go. Modern grave robbers have carried forward the tools of grave robbery ... eliminated the general Luoyang shovel, and the shovel used was modified on the basis of Luoyang shovel.
Because the wooden pole attached to the back of Luoyang shovel head is too long ... the goal is too big, so I gave up and used a threaded pipe ... up and down half a meter, which can be extended at will. Usually when you look at the terrain, you take it apart and put it in a shoulder bag.
Similarly, different graves were dug ... different tools were used to rob tombs. The heavy shovel evolved from Luoyang shovel was used to dig the Han tombs, the flat shovel was used to dig the Tang tombs (similar to crescent shovel of Lu), and the rolling fork and skimmer were used to ram the soil into the Han tombs (most of the Han tombs were potholes and collapses).
Generally speaking, there is no wing in the tombs of the Western Han Dynasty, and there are two more wings in the tombs of the Eastern Han Dynasty, which is a sign. The tombs of the Tang Dynasty were made of tomb bricks, and there was no bond between bricks, so the dome was built.
However, the brick tombs of Han Dynasty are not common (except the big tombs), and most of them are tomb pits or pits with wooden squares. Tombs in Ming and Qing dynasties are mostly brick structures with lime and iron pieces embedded in them. Some tombs in the Ming Dynasty were more than two meters thick (seven spokes and seven coupons) ... very strong.
The depth of the Ming tombs from the ground is generally no more than six meters, and they can be excavated overnight without special methods. The Han tombs are about 1 1 and 12 meters away from the surface, and the Western Zhou tombs are deeper. If the excavation work is to be completed overnight, special methods must be used.
Especially the tombs of the Han Dynasty and the Western Zhou Dynasty are very old and miracles are hard to find. There is a process of "finding a place" first. Determine the location, explore the poles, shovel, look at the ash of the pit, determine the shape and orientation of the tomb (that is, determine the age) ... then we can get ready and complete the excavation overnight in a special way.
Grave robbers have a very strong purpose of robbing graves, for example ... when they enter the grave, they will dig directly to the position of the coffin ... and then look for something in the "left shoulder and right foot" and then search in the ear room (Dongcang Xiku) ... As for other positions, it depends on the length of time, and it will be abolished if the time is short. There are many experiences when looking at the terrain. For example, "Qin Buried Ridge, Han Buried Slope" and other ancient grave pits are square pits, but in modern times they are round pits. This is the so-called "ancient square near the garden" to fight against grave robbery. The origin of the legend of "suspected tomb" The most common way to fight against grave robbery is to hide the tomb site so that the grave robbers don't know where it is.
It is said that one of the main starting points of ancient tombs is not to seal trees or set eye-catching signs on the ground, which is to prevent illegal excavation. Tomb raiding in the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty led to the emergence of so-called "suspected tombs" and "virtual tombs" in various forms of anti-tomb raiding, that is, the situation of confusing tomb robbers with true and false tombs.
Among them, the "suspected tomb" set by Cao Cao is the most famous. According to folklore, there are as many as 72 suspected tombs of Cao Cao, some of which even stand in the water.
Quanzhou folks once said that General Shi Lang had seven "virtual tombs", which were located at the gates of several ancient cities in Quanzhou. The traditional anti-tomb-raiding methods are solid stone walls and iron walls, anti-theft chisel with accumulated sand and water, and the way of killing tomb robbers with poison smoke from crossbows.
The ancient tomb was stolen seriously, and the losses caused were incalculable. Take thousands of Han tombs that have been excavated in China as an example. It is reported that only three tombs have survived.
"When we excavated the ancient tomb, what we were most worried about was that the ancient tomb was looted by grave robbers." A scholar who has been engaged in archaeological work for a long time said this.
"From an archaeological point of view, the ancients regarded death as life, and ancient tombs became important cultural relics for studying ancient society. The cultural relics in the ancient tomb represent the historical imprint left by a long civilization. Because.
Third, a brief introduction to the history of ancient grave robbery in China "The History of Grave Robbery in China"
It is a relatively complete monograph reflecting the history of grave robbery in China. The author is Wang Zijin, a famous historian. This paper introduces in detail the grave-robbing phenomenon and the struggle against grave-robbing in various times, interspersed with various grave-robbing psychology and phenomena such as resurrection, relatives, relatives, relatives, relatives, relatives, relatives, relatives' bodies, and the historical development of grave-robbing technology and its objective significance to cultural discovery. So far, it is an authoritative work on the history of grave robbery.
History of grave robbery in China
Author Ni (author)
Referring to the style of historical records, this book is divided into emperors-six tomb-robbing emperors, kings-four tomb-robbing kings, ministers: whipping corpses and stealing treasures, Confucianism: a tomb-robbing scholar, soldiers: three tomb-robbing enemies, bandits: rebellious tomb-robbing lunatics, and monks: the first.
Fourth, the history of grave robbery in China is appalling, and it is a typical grave robbery case.
1. Bulldozers were used to rob tombs.
1 in the spring of 982, hundreds of farmers gathered at the kiln site in Jianyang, Fujian Province in the Song Dynasty. In just1month, the kiln site of 2000 square meters was destroyed. By March 1983, more than 400 people were still unable to gather and bulldozers were used wildly. Within eight days, 23,000 square meters of kiln site was frantically excavated by bulldozers, and the loss of cultural relics could not be counted.
2. Stop farming and teaching, and rob the tomb together.
1from June to August, 1983, a grave robbery broke out in Huaiyang county, Henan province. Farmers don't farm, workers don't go to work, teachers don't attend classes, and hundreds of people rob graves crazily every day. 750 tombs were robbed, 80 tombs in the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period, and 666 tombs in the Han Dynasty. There are countless stolen cultural relics.
3. Grave robbing, also doing all-in-one work.
From April 1985 to April 1986, the villages and towns in Longquan County 18, Zhejiang Province set off a grave robbery frenzy. In less than a year, more than 3,600 ancient tombs from the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties were excavated, including village cadres 10.
The most shocking thing is that in Doucun Village, zhouzhi county City, Shaanxi Province, village cadres organized villagers into groups of 10 to look after ancient tombs. After the stolen goods are sold, they are distributed according to their "contribution", and "labor" earns more.
4. Go out of the professional village of grave robbery
Weibin District, Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province, 1994. At that time, there were nine professional grave-robbing villages, where young men dug pits, young women cooked meals, old ladies looked after the house, and old people and children stood guard. Well-organized, clear division of labor.
5.4000 grave robbers.
Hundreds of people rob tombs, which is not the biggest crime wave. In June, 1985, 1- 10, Qinghai Minhe, Ledu, Hualong and other counties, nearly 4000 people participated in the robbery frenzy. In Minhe County alone, 13 villages, 52 agricultural cooperatives, 900 farmers, 1000 ancient tombs were destroyed, 23 ancient cultural sites were destroyed, and 5,000 cultural relics were damaged.
6. Destroy graves, fields and livelihoods
From the winter of197 to the spring of198, a total of 1200 ancient tombs were stolen in Inner Mongolia, and 1000 mu of farmland and 2000 mu of grassland were destroyed. This is a grave robbery, destroying livelihood. Today has really passed, and I don't want tomorrow.
7. Violent resistance to the law and public sabotage
1993, Yaodian, Xianyang, Shaanxi, a grave robbery gang assembled in Chen Mou to rob an ancient tomb. On April 2 1 day, the police and law enforcement officers arrested him. One policeman was disabled and four law enforcement officers were injured when people gathered in Chen Mou to openly and violently resist the law. They also incited local people to stop law enforcement officers from robbing cultural relics.
In the second half of 1980s, Jiangxi Province was buried by tombs 10000. 23,952 ancient tombs stolen in Sichuan; There are 20,000 stolen ancient tombs in Zhejiang. Such a violent robbery frenzy is also rare in the world.
5. The history of tomb raiding is a social and cultural phenomenon with a long history.
Archaeological data of the Neolithic Age can already see the remains of conscious destruction of tombs. After the social change of "bad manners, happy collapse" in the Spring and Autumn Period, the wind of reburial rose, so grave robbery prevailed.
Shaanxi Fengxiang 1 Qin Cemetery is the largest tomb in the pre-Qin period discovered so far, and it is also the largest tomb excavated by scientific archaeological methods in China at present. A total of 247 stolen caves were found in this ancient tomb, of which 10 was a stolen cave, which directly entered the tomb.
Sima Qian wrote about the customs of Zhongshan and noticed the universality of "digging graves". Although it was a kind of rape to dig a grave and rob a tomb, at that time, some people made a fortune because of it.
In the Western Han Dynasty, lawless aristocrats committed many evils, and robbing tombs was actually a hobby game of arrogant and fierce people, so there was a situation of "all domestic burials were dug up" and "countless tombs were built". Some serious social unrest in the Han Dynasty, such as the rebellion of Wu Chu in the Seven Kingdoms, the riot that overthrew the Xin Mang Dynasty, and so on, all recorded large-scale grave robbery.
During the Han and Wei Dynasties, there was a grave robbery. It is said that Cao Cao's military clique even set up official posts called "Faqiu corps commander" and "Captain Mo Jin" to direct grave robbery. The so-called poems in the Tang Dynasty, such as "thieves swarmed with mosquitoes and flies", "the sound of hoeing in a deserted grave", "the skull was half out of the ground" and "the bones crisscrossed", also reflected the popularity of grave robbery.
In Tang Daizong, Guo Ziyi's father's tomb was stolen. Some people suspect that it was directed by Yu Chaoen. And Guo Ziyi when it comes to this matter in the headquarters, admitted that he was at the head of the army also has many acts of destruction of the mausoleum.
According to historical records, from the end of the Tang Dynasty to the beginning of the Five Dynasties, except Tang Gaozong and Wu Zetian, the tombs of the Tang Emperor in Guanzhong were stolen one by one, and no one was spared. The history of robbing and destroying tombs in Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties is unique.
As a kind of government behavior, the most typical event is the massive destruction of two Beijing tombs by the pseudo-Qi regime supported by the Central Plains Jin Dynasty. Liu Yu once set up officials in charge of tomb excavation, namely "Taosha official in Henan" and "Taosha official in Bianjing".
Monks trusted by Mongolian aristocrats in Yuan Dynasty robbed tombs in Southern Song Dynasty. During the Wanli period of Ming Dynasty, Chen Feng, the eunuch, handled the case that Li's wife Yang's tomb was robbed by the people, and was lured by the information of "seizing a lot of gold", and even "learned about the tombs in China".
Wuchang citizens opposed his evil deeds and once set off a fierce wave of protests, almost forming riots. The prevalence of grave robbery has left a deep historical memory in every dynasty, so there is a saying that "from ancient times to now, there are no immortal people, and there are no people who leave graves."
The pursuit of property for funerary objects is the most common motive of ancient grave robbery. Huangfu Mi, a native of Jin Dynasty, advocated thin burial, saying that "rich and thick burial can stimulate treachery".
Grave robbers' ruthless destruction of tombs and extreme humiliation of the dead are generally due to their "desire" for treasures. Although the so-called "treacherous heart" of grave robbery began with reburial, it can be roughly explained that the main reason for "not seeing the tomb since ancient times" is the desire for wealth.
Some special needs for funerary objects are also something that we can't help but pay attention to when analyzing the motives of robbing tombs in past dynasties. In the Song Dynasty, there were historical cases of robbing a tomb to take rhinoceros belt and jade belt.
Some people even dig up their fathers' graves. Zhang Bangji's "Mo Zhuang Man Lu" said that Song Huizong loved ancient bronzes, so local officials began to dig graves for their goods.
Tao Hongjing's tomb was stolen, it is said, in order to rob the Rare Book of Dansha. Grave robbers divide "zombie human flesh" into medicine and steal bones to "combine bait", which is a story in the history of grave robbery.
It is also a historical phenomenon worthy of attention to excavate the tombs of predecessors and take their building materials for their own use. In the archaeological excavation data of Nanyang, Henan Province, it can be seen that the Jin people excavated the Han tombs and used the Han stone reliefs as the building materials of the tombs.
In Xuzhou, Jiangsu, it was also found that someone used the Han tomb to rebury the late Tang Dynasty. This phenomenon is also reflected in the literature.
In the power struggle in ancient China, digging the graves of political opponents and their families was once regarded as an extreme means of mutual hatred. Digging graves is another form of political punishment and persecution.
Grave robbing, coffin cutting and corpse whipping are all used to vent political hatred. In Zuo Zhuan, there have also been historical cases of digging graves for revenge.
Sima Qian's story of Wu Zixu's "Digging King Chu Ping's Tomb, Revealing His Body and flogging 300" has a wide influence among the people. During the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, a famous Lv Liuliang massacre happened.
The invention and inheritance of tomb-robbing technology are reflected in Historical Records. And the corresponding anti-tomb-robbing technology has gradually matured.
For example, confusing grave robbers with suspected tombs or virtual tombs, strengthening protection with stone walls and iron walls and storing sand, and killing grave robbers with machine crossbows, dark fires and poisonous smoke all have their own anti-theft effects. The protection of tombs by traditional ritual system shows that China culture attaches importance to patriarchal clan system.
There are many laws prohibiting grave robbery in past dynasties. Public opinion also severely condemned grave robbery.
In ancient times, such folklore was very popular. When you rob a tomb, you will encounter thunder and rain, wind and fog, the sound of drums and horns or the warning of a god beast. If you ignore this warning, you will often be severely retaliated. On the other hand, from ancient times to the present, there are many legends about the relationship between tomb raiding and the miracle of rebirth, and even there are many such records in the official history.
We also see that the disgraceful act of robbing a tomb sometimes leads to the unique treasures of the original royal aristocrats scattered among the people, and makes many peerless treasures buried next to the bones regain the light of ancient civilization. This kind of grave robbery has the significance of craft history and art history completely unrelated to the original motive.
Most of the bones come from tomb raiding, which promotes the progress of epigraphy research and has a positive academic and cultural impact. Bamboo slips have enriched the treasure house of our national culture many times, and sometimes it is found that the way is due to grave robbery.
For example, the excavation of Ji Zhong's suicide note is a blessing in the cultural history of China. Of course, many valuable cultural relics are often destroyed directly at the scene of grave robbery or on the way to resale because of poor cultural taste, poor identification ability and rude behavior.
This behavior has seriously damaged the ancient material and cultural heritage of China, which is undoubtedly unforgivable.
6. Tomb raiding in history was crowned with anger and revenge: Wu Zixu dug the tomb of King Chuping.
The biggest grave robber in history: Xiang Yu stole the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang.
Pathological grave-robbing hobby: Guang Chuan Wangliuqu grave-robbing.
Buried Paradise: Characteristics of Tombs in Qin and Han Dynasties
Army sideline: Cao Cao robbed the tomb of Han Liang and Wang Xiao.
It is difficult to fill vacancies and rob tombs.
Who is the thief in Maoling: all the disasters in Maoling
The young editors all came to Jizhong: the tomb robbery led to the discovery of Jizhong's suicide note.
Dreaming of the emperor after death: the characteristics of tombs in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties
Wen Tao, the messenger who robbed the most tombs in China.
The "Prince's Wharf" in the Blessed Land —— The Discovery of the Second Mausoleum in Southern Tang Dynasty
The Distribution and Characteristics of the First Mausoleum in Guanzhong —— Tang Mausoleum
An example of internal and external collusion: Liu Yu stole the Eighth Mausoleum of Gongyi in the Northern Song Dynasty
Government-supported grave robbery.
Stealing people to win more: folk tomb raiding in Song and Yuan Dynasties
The ultimate destination of emperors: an analysis of Song Ling
Tomb-raiding activities with the acquiescence of the Emperor —— Tomb-raiding events in Chen Feng
The ingenious name "Borrow" Nanmu: Qianlong Thieves Yongling.
The disaster of Wan Niang's grave: the disaster after the death of cigarettes.
Reappearance of Prosperity: The Ming Tombs of Heaven and Man in One
Explosions in the Deep of History: Sun Dianying Dongling's Treasure Stealing Case
The war between warlords: the case of stealing treasures from the cockfighting platform
Sentimental life: Chong Ling, a soldier and bandit.
Breaking the palace and robbing again: bandits steal Dongling again
Life Suits the East and the West —— Analysis on the Characteristics of Qing Palace Mausoleum
A robbery that alarmed the State Council: A group of thieves stole Gong Ling.
The first body found in China was murdered.
Born in Suzhou and Hangzhou, buried in Beijiang.
The paradise of grave robbers: the experience of Loulan tomb
Tomb of Lucky King Yingjing: Seven Attempted Thefts.
Interest-driven, repeated prohibitions.
Seven, the origin of grave robbery China organized and targeted "archaeological excavation" initiated by the state in the modern sense is less than one hundred years. I remember reading several excavation reports decades ago more than a decade ago, not so much "excavation" ... as "tomb robbery records" Because its methods, means, etc ... are grave robbers, and there is no "own" thing. So far, some means may be advanced ... adding some high-tech components, such as ground penetrating radar, metal detector, gas analyzer and so on, but the principle is still the same.
Real folk grave robbers are subject to various restrictions. He can't take the radar to rob a tomb, even a Luoyang shovel has to be dismantled and "hidden" ... so he has his own unique skill. If he wants to finish the seemingly "impossible task" in unit time, he must think of various ways, some of which are subtle.