Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 749 Scientific Examination
Although it is said that the Iraqi side has minimized the cost through joint archaeological means, this does not mean that they really do not have to pay anything.

For example, although the unearthed cultural relics belong to the Iraqi side, other parties involved in the archaeology have the right to conduct research and can borrow them at the lowest price.

In addition, the participants in the excavation of commercial derivatives of these cultural relics also have the right to share part of the benefits as their previous investment in excavation, or interests.

At the same time, Liang En has the right to recruit more people to participate in this archaeological activity. As long as they belong to the regular archaeological team and are willing to abide by the law, the Iranian side will basically agree.

But all of this must be based on the successful excavation work, so after climbing to the top of the slope, they quickly spread out to start detection.

The first round of detection is a simple statistics of all the relics in the core area. To facilitate the investigation, Liang En and the others set up a central station as soon as they boarded the core of the relics, and then released the drones and ravens to start a comprehensive reconnaissance of the relics .

Of course, they also know that it is impossible for them alone to do anything, so today's task is just to conduct a comprehensive remote sensing observation and simple analysis of the ruins, and then make a judgment on the next move.

And when it got dark, they had already conducted a comprehensive survey of the ruins. Judging from the results of the survey, they did find an important ruin that hadn't been discovered before.

In addition to the temple they discovered at the beginning, they also saw a series of relics left by the ancient Sumerians, such as warehouses, houses, aqueducts, and city walls.

Analysis of samples showed that these magnificent buildings were built of adobe with reed mats on the inside and burnt bricks and asphalt on the outside.During this period, the temple was built with bricks fired in brick kilns, which are stronger and waterproof than the early sun-dried bricks.

The Sumerians used asphalt, fiber, sand, etc. to make cement as the adhesive between brick layers, and used asphalt as waterproof coating for housing construction, sewers and drainage ditches, which solved the problem of water seepage in buildings.

Although no important cultural relics were found in this inspection, it can be determined that this area is indeed an important building of the Sumerians, because they found many architectural structures made of unfired bricks here.

Considering the level of productivity at that time, it must be very important to be able to use such a tall building made of mud bricks, either a palace or a temple.

"It seems that we alone are definitely not enough." In the camp at night, Liang En said while looking at the on-site photos taken during the day, "So we need more people."

"We have no problem with this. We welcome everyone to help us with our archaeological work." Varda said, "Now tell us who you are inviting, and we will officially send an invitation letter to help them come."

"Thank you then." Hearing what Varda said, Prince Aziz thanked, "Mr. Liang and I will get in touch now, and try to give you the list tonight."

In the next two weeks, Liang En and the others mobilized almost all the manpower they could, including a Saudi archaeological team recruited by the prince, two archaeological teams and three Chinese archaeological teams transferred from the UK through the Golden Dawn relationship.

Although these teams arrived one after another a week later, with their help, everyone successfully conducted a comprehensive investigation of the entire ruins and obtained a lot of valuable information.

In addition, there is also a battalion with heavy equipment to protect the safety of the archaeological team.

"Thank you very much, Mr. Liang." During dinner that day, Professor Wang, the leader of the Huaxia archaeological team, came over to express his thanks, "You have really helped us a lot in our research on the history of West Asia."

For Chinese people, those who study foreign ancient history often do not have the opportunity to obtain first-hand information, so Liang En's invitation this time is really important to them.

"It's nothing, we're just taking what we need this time." Liang En smiled and shook his hands, "Thanks to your help, we were able to complete the survey of this ruins in such a short period of time."

This time, it can be said that it is a mutually beneficial cooperation. Liang En got free and elite labor, and these archaeological teams also found the relics they needed. Both parties got what they wanted.
As professionals, the level of the archaeological team members is not low. For example, according to the results of simple surveys, one of their important discoveries is that the main god enshrined in the temple here is Inanna, which is the Venus goddess Ishtar in Babylonian mythology.

Ishtar is the Babylonian god of agriculture and was widely spread in ancient Mesopotamia. She symbolizes Venus in religion and is also the goddess of love, fertility and war.

In Sumerian art Ishtar is often seen with a lion (symbol of strength) holding grain in his hand.These are the manifestations of his priesthood.

Legend has it that Ishtar killed his son and husband Tamus. However, since Tamus is the god of plants, he died, causing nothing to grow on the ground and causing natural disasters;

So Ishtar went to the underworld alone to experience the seven tests, defeated his sister Ereshkigal (the evil queen of the underworld) and brought back her husband, giving the world richness and vitality again.

The Babylonians believed that there was no harvest every winter because Ishtar and Tamus were in the underworld during these months; so after harvesting, they knew how to fertilize the land.

Fertilizer represents Tamus' mutilated body, fertilization represents Tamus nourishing the land with his own flesh and blood (sacrifice), and women cry loudly during fertilization to express their condolences for Tamus' death.

In mythology, Ishtar returned to the land at the expense of her husband Dumuzi's life.This kind of myth is called "chronological myth" in anthropology and archeology, that is, the reflection of the alternation of seasons in myth.

However, in other myths, Ishtar is described as an evil god. She is evil, ruthless, and deliberately kills her husband or lover.

The epic "Gilgamesh" mentions that she once wooed the legendary Sumerian king Gilgamesh, but was rejected.Gilgamesh cites her actions of brutally killing or injuring former lovers.

She told this to her father Ann, who avenged her by gifting her a mysterious bull in the sky.Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu stopped and slew the mysterious monster, throwing its headless body before her face.

Because of being insulted, Ishtar made Gilgamesh's friend Enkidu sick and died.Then these legends spread westward to ancient Greece and were converted into the legend of Aphrodite.

But in any case, Ishtar, or Inanna, has an unusual status in this city, so it naturally has a huge temple complex.

According to the two-week inspection, Inanna received worship in four roles at that time, namely Inanna, Inanna of the Night, Inanna of the Morning, and Inanna of the Underworld.

Correspondingly, in the temple buildings, they correspond to the Temple of Inanna, the Temple of Inanna of the Night, the Temple of Heaven, and the Temple of Heaven and the Underworld.

In addition, magnificent and contiguous temple complexes appeared in the core area of ​​the city. Liang En and the others named them according to the characteristics of each relic: the Great Pagoda Temple, the Cone-Inlaid Palace, the Red Temple (also known as the Limestone Temple), the Palace, and the Pillar Hall. , Rammed Earth Building, etc.

(End of this chapter)