A long time ago, bored, actually fell into the cliché, watched a few episodes of the American television series. The plot involves a special background, about the story of what happened in the funeral home, the show’s name is also very strange, called “Six Feet Under”, it is said that the show is also very popular with the audience.
Checked the original reason, the original Western custom on the burial of the grave has a regulation, the grave pit to have six feet (about one meter eighty-two or so) deep. As for the reasons vary, some say it is the British Victorian era, in order to bury the upper and lower coffins in the same grave pit. Others believe that it is similar to the Chinese custom of “fall into the earth for peace”, always buried deep enough to allow the soul of the deceased to be at peace, not disturbed by earthly rumblings. Although there are now rules for burial depths everywhere, six feet is no longer a strict fixed number, and “six feet under” has become an idiom referring to burial.
The plot of “Six Feet Under” was pretty much forgotten after I saw it, but it brought back memories of a past event from my early years.
I remember in early 1980, I was studying in the Institute of Archaeology and went to Xinzheng with the Henan team to excavate the site of the Neolithic “Pei-Ligang Culture”. Pei Ligang culture is earlier than Yangshao culture, of course, the cultural remains should be more primitive.
At that time, Pei Ligang site was just discovered not long ago, it was a gap in the study of Neolithic culture, and everyone was relatively unfamiliar with its cultural remains. This day we found a burial group, but man-made damage and natural erosion are very serious, non-extremely careful is very difficult to find the edge of the pit.
There was a female university student in the team who had just graduated and was assigned to the institute. Although she was also an archaeology graduate from Peking University, she was the only remaining worker-peasant-soldier student at the end of the Cultural Revolution. At that time, the popularity of peasant and worker college students was already gone, and the public opinion was also an overkill, which seemed to be in line with the mean words of Beijing people: “What to eat is fragrant, what to do is not”. It so happens that this first-timer is also uninteresting, probably no matter how can not find the edge of the tomb pit, annoyed and angry, so it is ironically asserted: Pei Li Gang culture burial at all no tomb pit!
This is not good, after the conclusion of the meeting was very criticized her, remember she can not stand this aggression, but also cried a.
From the point of view of reason, the burial without a grave pit is not justified. Because burial are to dig the grave, put in the dead and then backfill. Then the filler soil and the outside of the grave pit solid soil must be different in density. If you distinguish carefully, you can certainly find the boundary between the two. The criticism of the female IAP cadet is mainly directed at the attitude of the work.
A woman for an archaeological burial 8,000 to 9,000 years ago actually cried a nose, which made me think a little over and over again: what if the Pei Li Gang culture buried the dead without digging a pit at all, or just digging a very shallow pit, which was quickly followed by wind erosion? But soon I overturned my assumption: because in my experience, no archaeological culture has ever treated the dead lightly, on the contrary, all human cultures under the sun since ancient times are full of respect for the dead, and the burial is the last tribute of the living to the dead, and I have never found an archaeological burial without a grave.
“Six Feet Under” may not encompass all burial practices, but the plot of “Six Feet Under” makes me feel more justified in my criticism of the female worker and peasant cadet more than 20 years ago.
I don’t want to, but what happened in this “Study of Ninety-Four Modern Burials” now makes me suspicious again, and I feel that she may have been wrongly accused back then. The story goes like this.
Since contacting the relatives of Mr. Wang Fusheng, the owner of Tomb No. 24, Wang’s family was willing to communicate with us about the life of the owner, in addition to their natural desire to know whether there is still a possibility of finding Mr. Wang’s bones, because according to the Questionnaire on the Status of Dead Rightists, the location of the tomb is roughly recorded, although the time has long passed, but as long as there is a ray of hope, it is always human nature.
So I hurried to the twenty-fourth tomb owner’s family wishes to inform the survivors of the disaster at the Chadian farm, hoping to get their guidance in order to reply to Mr. Wang’s family.
I soon received the following reply from Mr. Zhao, who had worked in the third branch of the Cha Dian farm as a labor reformer.
Mr. Weiyi.
Letter noted.
…….
The idea about your willingness to go deeper into reality is good. However: –
One, at that time, digging pits are also starving people, to dig thirty centimeters deep, put people in, digging out the soil is also enough to cover a thin layer of soil. After two light rains, it was basically almost flat.
Second, that is a wasteland, the people in reeducation through labor to continue to reclaim the land, a few years later, the tractor, pull out the dead bones a throw, nothing. The living people still do not take it seriously, but also take the graceless bones seriously?
…….
Old Zhao, March 2.
The shock of seeing the letter was undeniable, and the revelation of the truth once again enriched my understanding of the tragic anti-right struggle fifty years ago. Thirty centimeters is not even a foot, as you can imagine. About the bodies were difficult to bury completely. As Mr. Zhao said, “When you put people in, you dig out just enough soil to cover up a thin layer of earth. After two light rains, it’s basically almost flat.” In that case, the tomb can not find the edge of the pit can actually happen!
I have seen the tomb of the king several feet deep, but also seen the shallow pit of the small people’s tomb. But only thirty centimeters deep tomb, perhaps only the battlefield of the horse and leather can be a strike. This can be used to archaeological deduction: the type of burial system reflects the state of life of the deceased.
I think this should be set aside: future archaeologists in the excavation to be careful: if really found without a grave burial should think: in that area, in that era, there may have been similar to the “anti-right” struggle, such as human mutilation, and may have occurred on the historical record called The “man-made disaster” which is called “three-year natural disaster” in the historical records.
The excavation of Pei Li Gang more than twenty years ago, the grave pit mystery finally has a little answer today, it seems that perhaps really wrong the workers and peasants cadets. From “six feet under” and then know that there are actually burial pits thirty centimeters deep burial group, this is also considered a harvest in this year’s bitter summer strike.
Ten days after the summer heat, on the second day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, I wrote this in the Hall of the Two Leisure.
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