Starting My Treasure Hunting In England

As we all know, human society has undergone tremendous changes from ancient times to the present, but in fact human needs have not changed much. Therefore, when facing many things in archeology, we can often guess their uses.

For example, various daily necessities, especially common daily necessities such as tableware or tables, chairs and benches, even though their appearance is very different from ancient times to modern times, in fact, upon closer inspection, you will find that the same items in different time periods have something in common.

But not all things are like this. For example, as time, climate, civilized races, etc. change, some special things become so large that modern people cannot guess what those things are for.

The most common of these types of things are various religious items, because those items are highly directional special items, so once religion changes, no one will naturally recognize such items.

Therefore, there is an unwritten rule in archaeology, that is, if you encounter something you don't recognize, guess that it is related to religion. In this case, you have the highest chance of guessing correctly.

More importantly, whether it's from the information in another world or the clues found here, this bathhouse does seem to be the core of the entire city.

Yes, the core of this city is not a common palace-style building or military building, but the heated pool in front of Liang En and the others.

"In other words, is this a baptismal pool?" After listening to Liang En's simple explanation, Joan of Arc suddenly thought of Christian baptism. "I didn't realize there was something similar happening on the other side of the world."

"Cleaning the body and soul with water is actually included in many religious rituals, such as the three Semitic religions, as well as Eastern Buddhism and Taoism." Liang En said with a smile.

"As for India, not to mention, I think everyone should know about bathing in the Ganges River, and this is probably some kind of religious custom that has been passed down from prehistoric times to today."

Hindus generally believe that the Ganges is a holy river and the incarnation of the goddess in the sky. She comes down to wash away the sins of the king's ancestors at the request of the human king.

Shiva used his head to withstand the raging river water in the Himalayas, causing it to flow to the earth in seven ways. The water purified the souls of the king's ancestors, irrigated the farmland, and nurtured the entire civilization.

Therefore, Hindu believers naturally have the religious habit of pilgrimage to the Ganges. For example, Varanasi, the legendary place where the water of the Ganges descends to earth, is the light of India that Hindus worship.

Tens of thousands of Hindus come to the Ganges every day to bathe and perform religious ceremonies. The famous holy cities on both sides of the Ganges, such as Varanasi, Allahabad, and Haridwar, have a large number of religious occasions and holy places.

These religious occasions and shrines are always crowded with people. People believe that the water of the Ganges can prolong life, and bathing in the Ganges can wash away a lifetime of sins. Those who die on the banks of the Ganges, or are cremated or buried in water, will enjoy endless blessings in the next life.

For this reason, many people in India come from all over the country to bathe in the Ganges every year. Bathers also use vessels to transport Ganges water back to their hometowns for collection, and drip a little of it into the water when they drink or eat.

It may be because of the special environment of the Ganges, or it may be that this river is really blessed by gods, so the entire river shows a very strong self-cleaning ability.

To give a simple example, when the British ruled India, senior officials of the East India Company were very fond of using Ganges water in their daily lives.

In addition, ocean-going ships also like to use Ganges water because they find that the shelf life of Ganges water is indeed longer than that of ordinary river water.

However, with the advent of the industrial age and the development of Indian industry, especially in modern times when India's population is rapidly increasing, the purification capacity of the Ganges can no longer keep up with the rate of pollution.

As a result, the originally clear Ganges River water has become increasingly turbid, and it has never returned to its former glory as the mother river of the South Asian subcontinent. So for many people, drinking Ganges River water directly has become a life-threatening behavior.

Even so, bathing in the Ganges today is still one of the most important religious activities for Hindus in India. During large-scale events that occur every 12 years, millions of people will go here to bathe.

It is well known that many things cannot appear suddenly, so it is possible that the practice of combining bathing with religious rituals is older than Hinduism.

Even considering the hot climate of this part of India, their baptism may not be a simple ceremonial baptism, but a real bath.

Liang En's view was quickly supported by the scholars present, because the rooms here are indeed the most exquisite in the entire city, and if matched with the location, they are indeed the most important buildings.

In ancient times, the most important buildings were often palaces in the political center or religious places in the spiritual center. Considering that no king would work in hot water, this can basically be regarded as a religious place.

While Liang En and the others were excavating, another group of people found a large number of barns, which proved that the entire city was a city of farming civilization, so there were such grain storage facilities.

In addition to these buildings, Liang En and the others found a large number of human remains in the ruins, proving that the city was not abandoned naturally, but was destroyed by an accident.

However, scholars present had different views on how the city was destroyed. For example, some people at the scene believed that the city was destroyed by floods.

According to this scholar, due to the diversion of the ancient Indian river bed, the flooding of the river, earthquakes and the resulting floods, the ancient city located near the river was destroyed, and the residents in the city were drowned by the flood at the same time.

This does seem to be reasonable, but the problem is that the entire India and all civilizations in the basin suffered devastating damage at that time, and it is obviously impossible to explain the past by floods.

After all, Mohenjo-daro is located in the lower reaches of the Indus River, and there is indeed a possibility of flooding, but the chance that the diversion of the lower reaches will affect the middle and upper reaches is not high.

Another discovered Harappa ruins, which were destroyed at almost the same period, are located in the upper reaches of the Indus River. At the same time, judging from the conditions of the river near the ruins, it is unlikely to cause such a fatal flood.

Therefore, Liang En felt that this was probably related to the large-scale Aryan invasion at that time. After all, the Chinese year corresponding to this ruins was equivalent to the Shang Dynasty, and the records of the Shang Dynasty during the same period did record the Aryan invasion. matter.

But unlike the Chinese Shang Dynasty, which blocked the attack, the Indians completely failed. Although there is no official documentary record, the current situation in India can tell what the situation was like back then:

Today, those darker-skinned Dravidians are mainly concentrated in the south of India, and a greater proportion belong to the lower castes in the Hindu caste system.

On the contrary, the invader Aryans, who have whiter skin and look more like Central Asians, now mostly live in the north, and the proportion of the population belonging to higher castes is much higher than that of the previous Dravidians.

In other words, those ancient Indians who created a glorious civilization and today's Indians are no longer the same concept. Therefore, it can be said that Indian civilization is an interrupted civilization.