Top news reporter Zhang Yi
When you think of archaeologists, do you think of an old gentleman with white hair and a blue light and yellow roll?
In fact, these are people's stereotypes. With the inheritance and promotion of traditional culture, more and more young people choose to devote themselves to archaeology, and in 2020, Hunan girl Zhong Fangrong chose to study in the School of Archaeology and Archaeology of Peking University.
△ Li Xiaoyan, the person in charge of the on-site excavation of the Beiyangping site
As a major archaeological province, Henan has also emerged a group of outstanding young archaeologists in recent years. Top News May Fourth Youth Day specially planned the first issue of "Top New Youth to the Future", the reporter will take you into the Sanmenxia Lingbao Beiyangping Site to listen to the archaeological story of Li Xiaoyan, the "archaeological rose" after the 90s.
Confused 丨 Devoting himself to archaeology is a mistake, during which he also did half a month of sales
Li Xiaoyan is a young post-90s archaeologist at the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. Although her "examination age" is only 5 years, she is already the person in charge of the excavation of the Beiyangping site.
In fact, at the end of the college entrance examination to fill in the volunteer, Li Xiaoyan and most people feel confused, do not know which major is suitable for themselves, under the advice of the teacher, she filled in the Department of Archaeology of the School of History of Zhengzhou University. But at that time, she did not know what archaeology did.
"Before I studied archaeology, I always thought that archaeologists were like geological surveys, taking a magnifying glass and walking around and looking at it." Li Xiaoyan laughed and said, "Later, I found out that this was not the case, and I often had to stay in one place for months or even years. ”
△ Scraping formations is an essential skill for every archaeologist
Although Li Xiaoyan went to the archaeological excavation site every year during her undergraduate studies, she still feels confused about the future. "After graduating from undergraduate, I went to work as a salesman for two weeks."
Perhaps realizing that sales work was not the life she wanted, after quitting her job, Li Xiaoyan, like everyone else, resolutely joined the army of examination and research, and successfully entered the master's degree in the Department of Archaeology of the School of History of Zhengzhou University.
In 2017, after graduating with a master's degree, she came to work at the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. "At that time, before I was admitted to the establishment, I followed the teacher to work on the construction site, and like the interns, I dug pits every day, and I was also responsible for the work of writing records and drawings."
Opportunity丨 Not afraid of hard love to study, she became the person in charge of the excavation site
In April 2020, Hua Ming LiuMei, Li Bai Peach, li Xiaoyan was assigned to the city smoke site of Sanmenxia Lingbao in the courtyard.
The work at the city smoke site is not much different from her previous work, and it is also a daily digging party. On September 25, 2020, the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, the Sanmenxia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Cultural Relics Department of Lingbao City formed a joint archaeological team to carry out archaeological excavations at the Beiyangping site. Here, it has also become the real first stop of Li Xiaoyan's archaeological career.
Although only a year and a half have passed since she came to work at the Beiyangping site, she is no longer the "intern" who only needs to squat in the visit to scrape the ground, but the person in charge of the entire excavation site, responsible for everything in the construction site.
"Actually, I was surprised. I originally thought that I could follow others for a while and slowly accumulate experience, but before long, the leader let me directly take charge of a construction site, which was a huge challenge for me. Li Xiaoyan said, "At first, I didn't know what to do, and I was confused." ”
△ The daily life of "crawling and rolling" in the ruins
The average person's impression is that archaeology is to go to the field to excavate historical relics and study them. In fact, archaeology is not so simple, there are many different research directions in this field, some people do Qin and Han archaeology, some people do Xia Shang archaeology, some do Neolithic and Paleolithic periods, and do scientific and technological archaeology. Although collectively referred to as archaeology, there are great differences in different research directions.
Li Xiaoyan's study direction is Shang zhou archaeology, but the Beiyangping site is a Neolithic site dominated by Yangshao culture and Miaodigou culture, so he does not know much about the type of excavated cultural relics and the structure of the Yangshao period site.
"We dug up a site last year, and it took a month to figure out the structure of the site, and we scraped the surface with a shovel every day for a month. Because if you don't understand the structure of the site, the follow-up work can't be carried out. For the artifacts of Yangshao culture, I can only look at a rough idea now, but I can't see that they belong to Yangshao for several periods. ”
She said that in the middle of the site, there were several well-preserved carbonized wood components, and she led the team members to lie on the ground, blow away the surface soil with their mouths, and blow them for several days in a row to restore the original appearance of these rarely well-preserved wooden components.
Growing up丨 Dealing with local village committees is both a difficulty and a challenge
The difference in research directions is not difficult for Li Xiaoyan. As mentioned earlier, as the person in charge of the excavation site, she is responsible for all the things in the construction site, and the real difficulty is this "all".
Since it's "all," it's not just business work. At the Beiyangping site, Li Xiaoyan is not only responsible for the management of migrant workers and interns, but also responsible for the operation of the entire archaeological site, including even the construction of the site.
She told reporters that field archaeology is carried out in the field, and it is necessary to build a fence to circle the construction site, and she personally runs to the steel factory and hardware store to buy materials. Later, a greenhouse was built, which she personally went to run. "We need to report the budget to the hospital, how many materials we need, how many workers we need, and who we have to find to do it, we have to check it, just like the decoration of our own home."
Dealing with the village is also no small challenge. "Field archaeology requires a lot of land, so it is necessary to sign an agreement with the village to lease land, originally I wanted to talk directly with the villagers, but the village committee wanted to meet and discuss, and go up layer by layer, which required patience." Li Xiaoyan said.
Li Xiaoyan feels that although she is an introvert, she has made great progress in management level, which is also a process of growth. It is both an opportunity and a challenge.
In the future, "National Top Ten" is the dream of every archaeologist, hoping to have an archaeological site of his own
Although she works for the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Li Xiaoyan is not from Henan, she is from Baoji and is an authentic Shaanxi native. "Both undergraduate and graduate students are in Zhengda, so they regard Zhengzhou as their second hometown, so they choose to stay in Henan after graduation."
Li Xiaoyan said that although field archaeology is bitter, she has a way to overcome it. Summer is too sunny, she will do the sun protection work to the end, the whole body only shows one eye; In the winter, it is too cold, so I hide in the house, and then come out when the wind is small; In her free time, she also plays with the resident dog. "When she first came, the dog was very young, and in the past two years she has given birth to three litters of puppies, and some time ago there were 8 litters, which is very cute."
△ Where there is work, she is indispensable
As a major archaeological province, Henan has been selected as one of the top ten archaeological discoveries in china since 1990 to the present, leading the country.
"Who doesn't want to get the 'big ten', this is the dream of every archaeologist." Li Xiaoyan laughed.
She believes that to become an excellent archaeologist, professional ability, professional skills, coordination and communication ability, scientific research ability, and research ability are indispensable. What is excavated by archaeology is basic information, not only to be written into a briefing or report to be published, but also to do research, because the ultimate purpose of archaeology is research, not just excavation.
"I'm just a fledgling archaeologist, and there's so much more to learn from my predecessors, but I have a small goal. At present, I am also the executive director of this project, and I hope to qualify as soon as possible to become a real archaeological project leader and have my own archaeological site. ”