Starting My Treasure Hunting In England

Although the Iraqi side has minimized costs 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 Iraq, other participants in this archeology have the right to conduct research and can also borrow them for exhibition at the lowest price.

In addition, participants in the excavation of commercial derivatives of these cultural relics also have the right to share a portion of the profits as a result of their previous investment in the excavation, or in other words, benefits.

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, Iraq will basically agree.

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

The first round of inspection was a simple statistics of all the ruins in the core area. In order to facilitate the investigation, Liang En and the others immediately established a central station after landing at the core of the ruins, and then released drones and ravens to begin a comprehensive investigation of the ruins. .

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 of the ruins and conduct a simple analysis, and then make a judgment on the next step.

After it got dark, they had conducted a comprehensive exploration of the ruins. Judging from the detection results, this time they did find an important ruin that had not been discovered before.

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

Sampling analysis shows that these magnificent buildings were built of adobe covered with reed mats on the inside and burned bricks and asphalt on the outside. During this period, the temple was built using bricks fired in brick kilns, which were stronger and more waterproof than the bricks that were directly dried in the early days.

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

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

Considering the productivity level of that era, it must have been very important to be able to use mud bricks and build such a high building, either a palace or a temple.

"It seems that we alone are definitely not enough." In the camp at night, Liang En said looking at the photos of the scene taken during the day, "So we need more manpower."

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

"Thank you then." After hearing what Varda said, Prince Aziz thanked him, "Mr. Liang and I will contact the person now and try to give you the list tonight."

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

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, a battalion with heavy equipment also arrived to protect the safety of the archaeological team.

"Thank you very much, Mr. Liang." During dinner that day, Professor Wang, the leader of the Chinese archaeological team, came over to express his thanks, "You have been of great help to our historical research in West Asia."

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

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

This can be said to be a mutually beneficial cooperation. Liang En received 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 a simple survey, one of their important discoveries is that the main god worshiped 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 often appears with a lion (a symbol of strength), holding grain in her hands. These are manifestations of his priesthood.

Legend has it that Ishtar killed her son and husband Tams. However, because Tams was the god of plants, his death caused nothing to grow on the ground and caused natural disasters;

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

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

Fertilizer represents the broken body of Tams, and fertilization represents Tams nourishing the land with his own flesh and blood (sacrifice). When fertilizing, women have to wail loudly to express their condolences for Tams' death.

In the myth, Ishtar returns to the earth at the expense of the life of her husband Dumuzi. This type of myth is called "chronological myth" in anthropology and archeology, which is the reflection of the alternation of the four seasons in mythology.

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

The epic poem "Gilgamesh" mentions that she once courted the legendary Sumerian king Gilgamesh, but was rejected. Gilgamesh lists her acts of brutally killing or injuring former lovers.

She told her father Ann about this, and he gave her a mysterious bull from the sky to avenge her. Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu stopped and killed the mysterious monster, leaving its headless corpse before her.

Because of the insult, Ishtar made Gilgamesh's friend Enkidu sick and killed him. Later, these legends spread westward to ancient Greece and were transformed into the legend of Aphrodite.

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

According to the inspection in the past two weeks, Inanna was worshiped in four roles at that time, namely Inanna, Inanna of the Night, Inanna of the Morning, and Inanna of the Underworld.

The corresponding temple buildings correspond to the Temple of Inanna, the Temple of Inanna of the Night, the Temple of Heaven, and the Temple of Heaven and Hades.

In addition, a complex of magnificent and adjacent temple buildings appeared in the core area of ​​the city. Liang En and others named the Great Pagoda Temple, the Cone Palace, the Red Temple (also known as the Limestone Temple), the Palace, and the Pier Hall according to the characteristics of each ruin. , rammed earth building, etc.