Chapter 424: World Shocked! The Unacknowledged Xia Dynasty! Confirmed! (3)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Chuckling to himself, Luo Feng saw little artistic merit in the excavated text.
“Professor Li, could you examine this, please?” He proffered the unearthed turtle shell, seeking the man’s expertise.
“Indeed, it appears to be oracle bone script from the Kangding period. As you can observe, the calligraphy is crude, the characters are brief and irregular, some even containing errors!”
Luo Feng listened in admiration to the professor’s extensive knowledge, akin to the power of a Lamborghini in his field of expertise.
Scanning the area, Professor Li remarked, “It seems this section likely belongs to the Shang Dynasty, probably used for ceremonial rituals. According to some maps, this location is in close proximity to the original Luoyang Chaoge, a possible royal ceremonial site. The rituals here were likely concerned with warfare or spiritual offerings. Typically, a Shang monarch would pray at Mount Tai before embarking on warfare. This site might have been used for offerings to the gods prior to military expeditions.”
“After the Zhou Dynasty overthrew the Yin Shang, these rituals continued. Alternatively, this might have been the location of the Shang Dynasty’s final grand ceremony before their downfall. The exact chronology will need to be verified through carbon-14 dating.”
Luo Feng responded with a nod, “We should press on with our digging.”
“Certainly, let’s proceed with our excavation. Once we decipher the oracle bone inscriptions, we’ll gain a clearer understanding of the historical context.”
The inscriptions were invaluable, offering a window to recreate the era’s context.
Over the course of a day, the site was diligently excavated, expanding the visible area from approximately 100 meters to 500 meters.
Recognizing the need for additional manpower, Professor Li enlisted dozens of workers. By the following day, the archaeological team swelled to a hundred strong.
The site expanded another 500 meters. By the third day, Luo Feng had discovered and unearthed a 1,200 -meter section.
On the fourth day, the archaeological team swelled to three hundred. By the fifth day, an astonishing eight hundred bodies, three hundred animals, forty-five ceremonial bronze vessels, and 1,200 pieces of oracle bone script had been unearthed.
The scope and volume of the findings were unparalleled, rivaling only the Yin ruins.
A notification arrived: [ You have obtained the Master of Inscription skill! Click to learn and immediately grasp a Level 10 understanding of Ancient Chinese characters! ]
Ordinarily, Luo Feng would have deemed such a skill trivial, but given the profusion of unearthed inscriptions, he recognized its invaluable potential.
Inside a tent, a group of esteemed scholars huddled around a computer, deciphering the unearthed oracle bone script.
“I’ve deciphered a sentence over here!”
“I’ve made a breakthrough as well!”
“I stumbled upon a new character, but I’m unsure of its meaning!” “I require a respite, my translation efforts are momentarily suspended!”
Deciphering these cryptic symbols could easily lead to frustration and exhaustion, particularly when encountering an enigmatic character that resisted interpretation.
However, Luo Feng merely smiled, picked up the turtle shells, and started to read. Astonishingly, the oracle bone script transformed itself in his mind into contemporary text.
“The inscription indicates a diviner named Ke Zhen was probing the will of heaven, querying if victory in a particular war was feasible. The king interpreted patterns on the charred turtle shell, concluding that a man named Jie was inflicting immense suffering upon his subjects through his cruelty. The text makes mention of a ruined bathhouse soup, representing the impending downfall of the Shang. The oppressed populace yearned for deliverance from the malevolent Shang. Thus, the fall of the Shang Dynasty corroborated the divination.”
The seemingly simple sentence was laden with historical implications.
Thus, it signified that the Xia Dynasty, yet unacknowledged by global historians, was on the brink of being unearthed..
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