However, Zhou Zhi had some doubts: "Master Ma, have we seen anything similar to this pair of figurines in Da Liushu?"

"Isn't that different?" Mr. Ma looked at the two pottery figurines in front of him, one civil and one military. "Isn't it that what we are seeing is a dancer and a camel merchant?"

"Wait a minute!" Researcher Chen said: "We found this pair of figurines in Daliu Shu last week. Why are there two more of them?"

"It's not necessarily the same thing. We didn't take a closer look at it at the time." Master Ma gently held the warrior figurine and admired it: "This thing is so beautiful..."

"Oh, it's like this. I went to Daliu Tree with Mr. Ma early this morning and saw a figurine of a dancer and a camel figurine of a barbarian at a stall." Zhou Zhi added.

"The camel used by the Hu people is similar to the open face of this warrior figurine, and the wide sleeves of the dancer figurine are not similar to the wide sleeves of this civil servant figurine." At this point, Zhou Zhi also praised: "Such an elegant wide sleeve, the workmanship is incredible.

That said, they are indeed much more beautiful than the Han Dynasty Terracotta Warriors..."

"What... are there any similarities?" Zhou Zhi didn't notice that when the two researchers asked this question, their faces turned a little pale.

"Also, the coloring method and the degree of oxidation of the lead color are all very similar... Hey, what's on the beast's head in the middle of the shield?"

"That is gilded." Wang Shixiang said: "So this is a four-quarried figurine, which is very rare."

"This is a previous process. First, lead and mercury mixed with vermilion are brushed on the parts that need to be decorated. Then the gold foil is blown on, brushed flat with a brush, and then smoked and baked. When the mercury turns into steam and evaporates, the gold is firmly attached.

It’s on the utensils…”

"That's it." Zhou Zhi smiled at Wang Shixiang and said, "Thank you, old man, for clearing up the confusion. The bell of the Hu camel figurine also has this on it. It's so mottled that you can't even recognize it. It turns out it's painted with gold..."

"Ouch!" Zhou Zhi only slapped his forehead when he got here: "Then did we miss a precious cultural relic?!"

"Elbow, that camel figurine you saw was also painted with gold?" Researcher Wang asked eagerly.

"Yes, could the camel figurines of the Hu people and the dancing girl figurines come from the same kiln as the civil and military figurines?" Zhou Zhi asked.

"This is unlikely." Researcher Chen said: "We were talking about 40,000 figurines each before we acquired this pair. At that time, we specifically asked them if they had any in stock, but they insisted that they didn't have any."

"Then this is a bit strange." Mr. Ma was trying to recall: "I really didn't look carefully to see if there was gold on the bell... When such a large figurine appeared on the market, we just dismissed it as a fake.

Come on."

The word "fake" made two researchers, Wang Shixiang and Wang Chen, tremble with fear. Wang Shixiang now felt that something was fishy. He picked up the magnifying glass again and walked in front of the two figurines: "Withdrawing the cinnabar before returning the money... It is indeed a bit unreasonable.

…”

"Is it possible that the northern gold depositing technology was insufficient at that time?"

"Before the Ming Dynasty, the gold processing technology in the north had always been superior to that in the south. This situation did not change until the Ming Dynasty established Nanjing as its capital." Wang Shixiang said, "But what you said makes sense. This is a minority government.

It is inevitable that there will be some shortcomings in the technique of depositing gold..."

Several people gathered around the pottery figurines to look at them, but they couldn't feel anything wrong with the pair of pottery figurines.

Zhou Zhi has nothing to say about the shape, color, and craftsmanship. His research on northern pottery figurines is limited to Tang Sancai albums and papers, as well as the limited experience he gained in the Shu Museum. It is already good to say that this pair of figurines is in the style of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

The matter of authenticity is beyond cognition.

In fact, even great masters like Wang Shixiang are just a little wary of the continuous appearance of this kind of figurines on the market. If we only look at the figurines, except for the gold coating technology, there is no fault in the rest.

"Our museum doesn't have any other means? For example, carbon 14 or something..."

"The elbow is too simple." Researcher Wang frowned: "If it is silk fabrics and human body residues, such scientific analysis is feasible."

"But for ceramics, metal cultural relics, and organic remains, they are very rare. Just to analyze the samples, we cannot collect enough."

"These two pottery figurines are mainly made of cinnabar and lead powder. The carbon black is only on the eyebrows and eyes, as well as the leather crowns of civil servants and the black boots of military officers. I'm afraid even scraping them all off would not be enough for analysis."

"If we analyze the carcass, the soil used to make the carcass may be ancient soil. If it is fired in an electric furnace, the carbon pollution will be negligible."

"That's true..." Zhou Zhi thought for a while: "Actually, I think... there seems to be another way."

"any solution?"

"All fakes cannot escape one process, which is to make them old." Zhou Zhi said: "The aging traces of these two figurines are very natural. From top to bottom, the bases in direct contact with the soil are rich in earthen flowers, and the higher they go up

The slighter the traces of weathering, it is in line with the characteristics of pottery figurines unearthed from tombs with very good preservation conditions."

"Yes, it is indeed the case, so we thought they should be genuine before."

"If, I mean if." Zhou Zhi continued: "If these two figurines are fakes, there is only one way to achieve this level..."

"Pickling and adding soil aging." Mr. Ma was the first to react.

"I know a technique." Wang Shixiang said: "Dig a deep pit, put the figurines in, first adjust the acid soil to cushion the bottom layer, then gradually reduce the concentration of acid in the soil, bury the figurines layer by layer, and use the upper part

With normal loess, if you bury it like this for several years and then take it out, the flowers and earth will be very natural."

"But pottery has a very strong adsorption capacity." Zhou Zhi said: "If it is fake, the soil flowers at the bottom of the pottery figurines will definitely absorb a large amount of acidic substances!"

"Yes!" Researcher Wang said, "We can analyze this..."

"No, no, no..." Researcher Chen waved his hand: "The exquisiteness of this pair of tomb figurines is far more than the pair of Northern Qi figurines unearthed in Wanzhang Village, Ci County. If they are genuine, they must not be destroyed..."

"That's right!" Lao Wang felt a little numb: "It's best to find the person involved."

"I don't know if the person who sold you this pair of figurines can be found, but yesterday I met the person who sold the Hu man camel dancing girl figurines. Maybe I should be able to find them..." Zhou Zhi said.

"Really?!" Lao Chen was surprised and delighted: "Dude, do you have any clues?"

"Master Ma, do you still remember that I told you that someone was following us on the way back?"

"That Hebei Daihatsu?"

"Yes, didn't we stop the car and let them go first? When the car passed us, I noticed that the person in the passenger seat looked like the guy selling camel figurines."

"Have you remembered all this?" Master Ma asked: "It is an old rule to look after the goods but not the people..."

"They use oil lamps!" Zhou Zhi and Lao Chen said it together.

"Yes, the light from the oil lamp they used was diffused, so I saw their faces."

"Yes! The oil lamps they use are more like farmers driving carriages into the city! One of them is not tall, with a wrinkled face when he smiles, and the other is fat and sturdy. Is that an elbow?"

Although no one wanted to hear a definite answer from Zhou Zhi, Zhou Zhi still nodded awkwardly: "Yes..."

"What a liar! It's over, it's over..." There was a cry in Lao Wang's voice: "Eighty thousand yuan, eighty thousand yuan..."

"Maybe the camel figurines and the dancing girl figurines are also real, right?" Zhou Zhi was still hoping for another possibility.

"It's unlikely," Lao Chen also said with a sad face: "If this were the case, these two figurines should have been sold to us at that time..."
Chapter completed!