Chapter 240: Superimposed Relics

The slope was somewhat steep; the small car couldn't make it up, and even the pickup truck could only go halfway.

After getting out of the car, Ren Xinbo helped Shui Jisheng up the slope.

It was quite long; they walked fifty or sixty meters before reaching the spot where the QianTanjie was set up.

Looking down again: there were three drill pipes, totaling six meters in length, filled with soil layers.

The first half-meter was topsoil, the middle half-meter was an intermittent layer, and the third layer was a virgin soil layer over a meter thick.

Around three meters down, things resembling black stone slag began to appear; Shui Jisheng picked up a small piece and slowly rubbed it between his fingers.

It was very brittle, crumbling at a pinch, just like stone powder.

He held it under his nose and sniffed: "Red bricks from the kiln roof?"

"Correct. After years and years of firing, they've long since become as brittle as Coal!"

Lin Sicheng nodded, squatted down, and poked around a few times; at about three and a half meters deep, things resembling Gemstones appeared in the soil layer.

There were fragments and flakes, becoming more frequent the deeper they went.

After poking a bit more, Lin Sicheng picked out a water-drop-shaped object.

It had a long tail, shimmering with seven-colored light, with blurred edges, as if a rainbow were reflected within the water drop.

Looking closer, it was embedded with scattered air bubbles.

The group was stunned: What is this, glass?

"Close enough. If it comes from a ceramic Kiln Furnace, then it's 'kiln sweat'!"

Lin Sicheng picked out a few more fragments. "In the high-temperature environment of a Chai Kiln, the minerals in the ash undergo a chemical reaction with the silicon, iron, copper, and other elements in the kiln walls and pottery blanks, melting into a liquid state."

"It generally adheres to the kiln walls, ceiling, or flue surfaces. After years of accumulation and repeated melting and cooling, it forms a glassy layer. Most are crystalline or layered flakes; water-drop shapes are rare. Of course, kiln sweat itself is already rare..."

It was more than just rare; it was extremely scarce.

The formation of this stuff is incredibly complex. First, the fuel must be pure, natural, unpolluted wood, such as pine or cypress; even charcoal won't work.

Secondly, the kiln temperature must reach over 1,200 degrees to produce kiln sweat. Furthermore, it requires multiple firings, gradually thickening, to form crystals or flakes.

With the maximum temperature of a Chai Kiln at around 1,200 degrees, to form water-drop-shaped kiln sweat, the porcelain must have been fired continuously for at least fifteen years.

And because it requires years of melting and layering to form, it is only in extremely accidental circumstances that metal elements like iron and copper blend together to create this rainbow-like diffused effect.

To put it simply: it cannot be controlled by humans. Even with modern technology, one cannot replicate this naturally transitioning diffused effect.

But the point is not this; the point is that since kiln sweat was discovered in the deep soil layer, it means there must be a Kiln Furnace beneath their feet.

Let's calculate: from the time they got out of the car until now, has it even been an hour?

This is even including assigning tasks to each group, assembling the machines, drilling, and other procedures. Excluding those, from the moment General Engineer Shui pointed out where the sample was found to Lin Sicheng identifying the location of the core kiln of the ruins, it had been less than half an hour.

Recall again: he just walked around the pine forest once and went up to the mountaintop to take a look...

It felt as easy and simple as eating or drinking water?

Of course, it couldn't be that simple. Just as General Engineer Shui said: if it were simple, he would have found it forty or fifty years ago.

Just as they were feeling uncertain, Gao Zhangyi's voice came over the walkie-talkie: "Teacher Lin, Teacher Lin, Team One discovered a Porcelain Clay Pile, about two meters below the surface. Team Two discovered a lime Washing Pool, about four meters underground."

Everyone looked up.

Not far away, less than a hundred meters from here, a triangular Red Flag was planted. Another thirty or forty meters further ahead, another one was planted.

The one in the distance must be the raw material area, and the one closer is the Washing Pool. Recall again: the locations perfectly overlapped with the marks on the first sketch Lin Sicheng drew.

The group looked at each other in dismay:

If it had taken a long time to find, it wouldn't be too surprising: after all, the city leaders personally stepped in to invite Lin Sicheng from Xijing, so he must have exceptional abilities.

It was only right that he was better than them.

But from start to finish, it was only an hour? The key is, wherever Lin Sicheng pointed, that was exactly where it was. How were they supposed to understand this?

To tell the truth, most of the people standing here today were not laymen; half of them were either from an archaeology background or worked in archaeology-related professions. But they had never even heard of someone doing archaeology like Lin Sicheng—so casual, like strolling through the streets, yet accurate to an impossible degree.

It felt as if Lin Sicheng had watched this Kiln Factory being built himself?

The group was stunned, while Lin Sicheng remained calm.

"This is the firing area, the Porcelain Clay Pile is the raw material area, and the Washing Pool belongs to the workshop area... That means three of the four core auxiliary facilities of the porcelain kiln have already been discovered. If we find the finished product Treasury or the Waste Pit, the significance and value will be no less than the Lao Yaotou..."

Shui Jisheng deeply agreed: "Of course!"

Although it is smaller, one is from the Qing Dynasty and one is from the Tang Dynasty; from a historical perspective, they are worlds apart!

What's more, it's a first-time discovery...

Lin Sicheng put the water-drop kiln sweat into a specimen bag: "Professor Huang, make this an exhibition specimen; don't damage it!"

Huang Zhifeng carefully took it.

It was no wonder he was so careful: just this one drop, if given to a knowledgeable collector, could at the very least be traded for a piece of Field Yellow Stone the size of an egg.

Lin Sicheng continued to poke at the soil layer in the drill pipe, but this time he switched to the bottom, which was the deepest layer.

After poking for a while, he picked out a few more pieces: "Teacher Shui, look, there is kiln sweat in this layer too!"

There was indeed, and it was in pieces. It wasn't as pretty as the previous one, mostly dark gray and black-brown, with a few pieces even bearing crackle patterns.

Roughly calculating: the part that formed the water-drop-shaped kiln sweat must be the ceiling of the Kiln Furnace. If that was three meters from the kiln roof, what area of the kiln would the part that formed the flake-shaped kiln sweat be?

There is only one: the kiln floor.

The problem arises again: kiln sweat only forms in three places—the kiln roof, the kiln walls, and the flue. The kiln walls couldn't be the kiln floor, so that only leaves the flue.

But the flue is at the bottom. Most people haven't even heard of a Kiln Furnace with this kind of structure.

Just as they were suspicious, Lin Sicheng straightened his back, took the paper and pen from Fang Jin, and scribbled a few times.

Although it was a simple sketch, it was clear and easy to understand.

"The Kiln Furnace probably looks like this: the firebox and the kiln chamber are on the same horizontal plane, with a tunnel dug under the kiln chamber, leaving air intake holes, and below that is the flue...

We should be standing right above the kiln chamber. The length should be about five to eight meters; try to avoid it. Don't drill too deep, try to use short drill pipes, and observe every half meter..."

Tian Jie arranged the drawings and reorganized the team members.

Lin Sicheng turned his head and looked at Shui Jisheng: "Teacher Shui, this one should belong to the early to middle period; there must be middle to late period Kiln Furnaces in the surrounding area. You take a rest, and I will go upstream to take a look!"

"Alright!" Shui Jisheng smiled, "You go about your business, don't worry about me!"

Tian Jie wanted to expand the scope of the exploration, and staying here was in the way, so the group of people went down the slope.

Supporting Shui Jisheng, Ren Xinbo tried hard to recall: "Teacher, the kind of Kiln Furnace that Engineer Lin drew, it seems I have never seen it before?"

Shui Jisheng thought for a moment: "Have you seen a Dragon Kiln?"

Ren Xinbo nodded: "I have!"

Built along a hillside, shaped like a long dragon, also known as a slope-style Dragon Kiln:

Yet the one Lin Sicheng drew looked like this:

At first glance, the two were extremely similar on the outside: the firebox was at the very bottom of the Kiln Furnace, the middle was the kiln chamber, and the chimney was at the very end.

But looking at the inside, there were essential differences: the kiln tunnel of a Dragon Kiln itself served as the flue, and the distance was relatively long, which could achieve staged temperature increases. The advantage of this design was: high-temperature porcelain, low-temperature porcelain, and even large Pottery could all be fired in the same batch in the same kiln.

But the one Lin Sicheng drew not only had a shorter kiln chamber, but it also specifically had fire-suction holes left at the bottom, with the flue located beneath that, and it even made several turns?

It felt too strange?

Shui Jisheng looked at his prized student: "Have you seen a semi-down-draft Horseshoe Kiln?"

Ren Xinbo nodded: "Of course, the Sui Dynasty ancient kiln in Jinyang (Taiyuan) that you excavated, Teacher, was a semi-down-draft Horseshoe Kiln!"

Shui Jisheng said nothing more and sighed.

Ren Xinbo was stunned for a moment, and a flash of light crossed his mind: the Sui Dynasty Horseshoe Kiln in Jinyang had its flue set at the very bottom, the kiln chamber was shorter, and it also had fire-suction holes left at the bottom.

If one were to combine this part with the slope-style Dragon Kiln, wouldn't it be the kind Lin Sicheng drew?

Pondering it further, Ren Xinbo gradually realized: why were the flue and the fire-suction holes set at the bottom?

Because the flames, moving upward, would first rush to the kiln ceiling, and then, driven by the suction force of the fire-suction holes, would strike downward. This meant the flames would directly cover the Sagger Body, and the porcelain would receive higher heat.

Why did the flue make several turns?

The same principle: to avoid rapid heat loss and extend the time the high temperature remained in the kiln chamber.

Thinking back to the Bowl that the teacher bought, it required a high temperature of at least 1,400 degrees to be fired. Yet ordinary Dragon Kilns or Horseshoe Kilns only reached a maximum kiln temperature of about 1,200 degrees; no matter which type of kiln it was, it could not be fired.

Only by combining the two could it reach the glaze-setting temperature that made that Bowl resemble jade.

In an instant, Ren Xinbo suddenly realized:

From the very beginning, Lin Sicheng had concluded that the Kiln Furnace here must be what he called a "pit-chamber down-draft kiln," otherwise, that Bowl could not have been fired.

Then, based on this, he inferred that the Kiln Furnace must be built on the gentle slope at the foot of the mountain.

After arriving and seeing the place where the Bowl was dug up, and then comparing the distance to the hillside, he could infer the specific location of the Kiln Furnace and its auxiliary facilities.

Even if there was an error, it wouldn't be much of an error.

What did this mean?

It meant that before even coming here, just based on that Bowl, Lin Sicheng had already sketched out the layout structure of the site; after arriving, he only needed to confirm one or two coordinates and then overlay the already sketched layout map. That was why it was so fast.

But just from a single Bowl?

What was this, remote archaeology, mental exploration?

To be honest, this was even harder to accept than Lin Sicheng just walking around Lao Yaotou and finding the kiln site with one strike of the Exploration Probe.

The more Ren Xinbo thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong: how many years of accumulation would it take to reach this level of "seeing the whole from a glimpse"?

The problem was, Lin Sicheng was only in his early twenties?

Secretly turning his thoughts, they had already gone down the slope and walked to the car, and only then did Ren Xinbo react: "Teacher, is this type of Kiln Furnace the first discovery in the province?"

"That's complete nonsense, how did you become a Division Chief of the Cultural Relics Bureau?" Shui Jisheng glared at him, "Don't you know yourself whether it has been unearthed in the province?"

Ren Xinbo was stunned.

Of course he knew.

But Lin Sicheng kept saying pit kiln, pit kiln, so he mistakenly thought it was a small workshop-style kiln cave and had never associated it with the teacher's Bowl.

But thinking about it now: a kiln temperature of 1,400 degrees, let alone the Xing Kiln, which had the highest kiln temperature in the Tang Dynasty, even the Ding Kiln of the Song Dynasty could not reach it.

To put it another way: it was more than just the province; this should be the first discovery in the whole country...

Suddenly, Ren Xinbo's heartbeat could not stop racing.

He looked at Tian Jie and the team members who were probing on the slope, and just as he was about to say something, Shui Jisheng shook his head:

"It shouldn't be this one! This kiln can produce kiln sweat, so it must be a Chai Kiln, but the Chai Kiln has the highest temperature and can only reach 1,200 degrees!"

"But that Bowl required a firing temperature of 1,400. So, it's not just this one Kiln Furnace; there should be several. Besides that, Little Lin also inferred that in addition to the Chai Kiln, there should also be Coal kilns in the Beiwuqin area!"

Ren Xinbo opened his eyes wide: what was that, Coal kiln?

All historical documents record that using Coal to fire porcelain began in the Song Dynasty. Archaeological discoveries also confirmed this point: the earliest coal-fired porcelain kiln discovered to date is the Beijing Mentougou Kiln of the Liao Dynasty, roughly the mid-Northern Song Dynasty.

Did that mean Lin Sicheng just moved his mouth and pushed the history of China using Coal to fire porcelain back by two hundred years?

But it was still not right.

Even if Coal was used, the Kiln Furnace temperature was basically around 1,300 degrees; for example, the Ding Kiln, which had the highest kiln temperature in the Song Dynasty, used Coal. Archaeological discoveries show the highest kiln temperature was only 1,320 degrees.

In this way, how did the 1,400-degree glaze-setting temperature required by this Bowl come about?

Shui Jisheng smiled: "We have discussed it; Little Lin speculates that it is very likely a Coke-type porcelain kiln..."

Ren Xinbo's eyelids twitched twice, and he opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.

Was it getting more and more unreliable?

Smoldering to refine charcoal also began in the Song Dynasty, and it was even later than using Coal to fire porcelain: the remains of coking furnaces discovered to date are in Handan, Hebei, which are roughly the late Northern Song Dynasty and early Jin Dynasty.

There is a Jin Dynasty tomb in Jishan County, Yuncheng, where Coke was also unearthed, also dating to the late Northern Song and early Jin.

But at that time, it was only used for smelting iron or making glass; the Ming Dynasty "Physical Small Knowledge" says: (Coal) that which is smelly is refined into coke (Coke) to boil glass.

The earliest record of using Coke to fire porcelain is already from the Chenghua period, and it was only used to fire flower porcelain, that is, Overglaze like Doucai.

In this way, even counting from around 900 AD in the late Tang Dynasty to 1465 when Chenghua ascended the throne, did it mean Lin Sicheng pushed the history of China using Coke to fire porcelain back by a full five hundred years?

The key point is that it's not just about firing porcelain; it very likely involves the history of metallurgy: given the warlike nature of our ancestors, if this stuff called Coke was so useful, how could they not have used it to forge weapons?

Ren Xinbo instinctively felt it was impossible and shook his head: "Teacher, you also think it's impossible, right?"

Shui Jisheng laughed again: "How can one say for sure?"

That's what he said, but subconsciously, Shui Jisheng also felt the possibility was slim.

He was more inclined toward Lin Sicheng's initial judgment: that Bowl was, nine times out of ten, Kiln-transmutation Porcelain.

To put it another way: it was a matter of luck, not controlled by human intervention.

That is why, apart from this one, there were no other similar discoveries, and that is why it was solemnly enshrined in the Kiln God Temple...

Just as he was secretly pondering, Tian Jie's voice came over the walkie-talkie: "Teacher Lin, come over and take a look, site number three should be a stacked-type ruin..."

"What exactly did you find?"

"About ten meters from the previous exploration point, we discovered some Coke-like substances, but they are buried quite shallowly, about two meters deep..."

Everyone was stunned.

What was just said?

Coke-type porcelain kiln...

(End of this chapter)