Do you think these are genuine?

[luxetveritas]

I haven't been to too many exciting places recently, but I really want to see Chin Xi Huang's tomb in China and go to Xi'an to visit the terracotta warriors. Mind you, Chin's tomb hasn't been excavated, but I still really want to see it! I'm in the process of befriending a few prominent archaeologists in China, so when they do open the tomb- if ever- I will be invited to help Totally kidding, but I do have some plans...

Has anyone been to Xi'an? Or Beijing? Or anywhere in China for that matter? I went to some rural parts of China, which was amazingly fun, but never to anywhere like the Great Wall of China. I did see the thickest wall though- it is in Jiangsu province. My high school best friend's grandparents lived in Jiangsu, and I went with him and his mom. We didn't see much, since they were only visiting family, but it was still such a great opportunity. Too bad this was before the digital camera days I have some pretty cool photos.

--Lux

[talesofthesevenseas]

Neat store Ayashe, but man... the prices are pretty high compared to what's on Ebay if you clean them yourself! They've got one up on their Web site that looks a lot like your ring (see below) The place you posted looks cool. I'd love to see the catacombs in France someday!




Lux, I SO hope they open the tomb of Chin Xi Huang in my lifetime! It would be so amazing to know what is inside. I recall reading that there are legends of a tiny town with a river of mercury in there. Have they done any ground penetrating radar to see if any anomalies exist that are consistant with the legends? I would love to see the terracotta warriors too, that is one place I really want to go. I would love to see your photos, if they are hard copy photos all you have to do is take a digital photograph of them. I've done that with a lot of old photos. If they are slides, you can have them converted at a photo processing place. I need to do that too, I have some great photos from two trips to Egypt.

[luxetveritas]

They did test the the soil and air inside the tomb, and the story is "true". The levels of mercury detected are like 1000 what the normal ones should be. That would be so cool to see the tomb... ah well, Tales, we should befriend some famous archaeologists together! I want to contact Professor Guo Dashun someday. He is the foremost expert on the Hongshan culture in the world, and he excavates Hongshan burials often. Those burials are not publicized usually since they are pretty minor, and no one else really has the opportunity to accompany him accept for his "team", so I was thinking 1.) prove to him that your knowledge on the Hongshan culture is substantial (which, as of now, it's not at all ) 2.) Ask to accompany him for one of his expeditions.

I get crazy ideas like that all the time But I really think that it would work. I mean, why not? Besides inexperience in the field I could do the grueling work that no one else wants to do! I was once offered that position on an English dig However, I didn't go because I didn't really want to spend $3k to go there and dig shovel dirt in the rain while everyone else was excavating I can just picture me... haha, well, there is a lot left to be found!

I also want to go with... darn, what's her name... curse. She's a Russian archaeologist and uncovers ice tombs all the time in Siberia. Now that would be amazing, apparently it's not hard to find the tombs, and when they're found there are preserved items in them a lot of the time because it's freezing. So much to do! ...and not enough money to do it with

[talesofthesevenseas]

Wow Lux, 1000x normal?!!! With something like that sleeping just below their feet, you have to admire the patience of archaeologists!

You know what the best thing about inexperience is? It's 100% curable! If you're not into the manual labor of a dig, you might think about drafting and mapping which are skills you can learn at a local community college that are applicable to archaeological digs. There are also some good college programs in some areas that would be more specific too. On the dig I did, being the drafter was definitely more of a kush job, but I was still very much in the thick of it. I was down in the bottom of a shaft drawing soil elevations, in the lab drawing and dimensioning projectile artifacts, all over the site taking compass readings and recording them on the map, then later off-site to reproduce the hand-drawn map in AutoCAD. But I didn't have to shovel.

[luxetveritas]

I didn't think of taking classes on drafting and mapping! That's an excellent idea. And you are totally right, inexperience is curable thank god.

Btw, I was exaggerating with the 1000 times, I'm not sure what the actual reading was- can't remember. I do know that it was a lot more than normal though. They also think there are many other poisonous gas traps and traps that trigger various weapons. It would be so cool to explore a tomb of an emperor So jealous. Maybe I should go back to college and become an archaeologist

[talesofthesevenseas]

Oh, you mentioned Siberian ice tombs. The ones that really facinate me are the sailors from the Franklin Expedition. Have you seen the footage or photos from that? Amazing.