The Treasure Hunt of an Antique Dealer

The lighting fixtures installed with the equipment on the construction site are not only anti-leakage, but also bright enough. After multiple points of arrangement, the basement will be illuminated almost without shadows, and they will almost form the effect of shadowless lights. X

good!

　　 The heat source is still warm, as long as you don’t stick your hands on it as a pig's trotters.

　　 There are also shortcomings: slightly dazzling!

　　 But having said that, this dazzling also has the advantage of dazzling. The accumulations within the last two meters are basically objects rather than ordinary gold and silver goods. This slightly dazzling light shines brightly and looks attractive.

　　 There are not too many things. Judging from the comparison of the number of remnants of the wooden box remaining after the decay with the number and volume of the exposed artifacts, it is judged that there were more boxes than the ones that did not rot.

　　 Zhang Nan carefully took out a silver-inlaid gold goblet from the pile of rotten wooden boards. This thing is like a goblet with a diameter of twelve or three centimeters added to the bottom of the cup.

　　 The bowl is surrounded by a circle of gold, and a circle of more than a dozen gems of various colors are also inlaid on the gold.

　　 looked at the light, two of them might be red spines, the size of a thumb fingernail, basically maintaining the original shape of the stone, and then polishing it. This is a common technique in gem processing in the Middle Ages.

　　 As for other gems, the blue ones may be sapphires, or any kind of blue half-jewels that looked beautiful at the time and are hard to recognize.

　　 Is the green one emerald?

　　 Maybe it is, maybe it is not, the concept of gemstones of the people there is very different from that of modern people.

　　 There are also two yellow ones, ten of them ** are citrine; as for the transparent ones...

　　 Okay, this Zhang Nan knows, it's just a white crystal.

　　 Nowadays, a white crystal of this size is worthless, but it was still a gemstone more than 600 years ago, especially if it is cut into an egg shape and then carefully polished, it is expensive!

Zhang Nan held up the silver-gray-black, shining gold and dazzling gemstone cup in his hand, and Jerry Goodenkorn said on one side: "Boss, this cup looks like the craftsmanship from Hungary, with a heavy Eastern Roman Empire. Style."

　　Wearing a mask, his voice is a bit muffled.

　　 "It's uncomfortable when you're not free to drink something, this circle of gems will be more pleasing to the eye if you tap it down."

　　 Upon hearing this, Jerry said again: "I think this circle of gold and gems were added later. At first, it might be a silver cup with patterns carved on it."

　　 Looking carefully under the light, it seems that there is a pattern, but the surface oxide layer of the silver cup is very thick, which is not clear. It should be revealed after cleaning up later.

　　 Zhang Nan sullenly smiled, "Add this pattern to make it even more tacky.

　　 is vulgar, a nouveau riche temperament!

　　 No wonder some people say that Byzantine art and customs, the artistic temperament of ancient Greece basically has not been inherited after Hellenization, and just play with this magnificent set. "

　　"This is not entirely true. Byzantine art developed well in the Middle Ages. Western Europe was called vulgarity, not only vulgarity...

　　 humble and clumsy!"

　　 Jerry has a slightly different point of view, but the main line is the same.

　　 Precious metals plus a bunch of gem inlays, the typical state of the most important and valuable items in the Middle Ages, there is almost no aura.

　　 Compared with the art forms of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, according to modern people's concept, these medieval goods are vulgar, without aura. The most typical ones are those reliquary boxes and reliquary cabinets.

　　The whole body is inlaid with gemstones, the more the better, just like some oversized jewelry boxes!

　　 To be honest, those "unbelievable" large jewelry boxes are not as alive as the pepper shakers commonly used by Zhang Nan: the ancient Roman pepper shakers look gratifying.

　　 Being vulgar and vulgar also has its advantages. Anyway, Zhang Nan thinks he is a layman, and a layman with little salvation value.

　　 Send the goblet, these utensils can't be washed directly with tap water. After cleaning the basement today, Jerry has been busy for a few days.

　　 There are many boxes and few utensils. It didn't take long for Zhang Nan and the two to discover the reason for this: There are a small amount of decayed, black objects in the bottom silt.

　　 is pepper.

　　 Apparently more than 600 years ago, the owner of this castle also hid a few boxes of pepper in the cellar. It would be impermeable to water, and it might be very dry.

　　 It may also be a massive invasion by the enemy. Good things are hidden first. As a result, battles are defeated, people are killed, and the fort is burned. These precious goods are quietly lost in the underground and decayed over time.

　　 I don’t know if the former owner of the castle felt a pity that he had lost so much pepper. At that time, the spice was really expensive!

　　 More than 20 years later, no one joked: If a pauper travels to medieval Europe, and he can only bring one thing, then what do you bring?

black pepper!

　　 There is no need to bring white pepper, but black pepper with a slightly lower price and richer fragrance will do.

　　 In Zhang Nan's last life, the wholesale price of a kilogram of premium black pepper was more than 30 yuan, and the international market was a matter of a few dollars. It doesn’t need to be much, buy a belt of thirty or fifty catties, and you will be a local tyrant when you travel through the middle and early middle ages, as long as you don’t **** it for others!

　　 In the Middle Ages, when pepper was most scarce, this little spice could really be exchanged for gold by weight. It’s okay to go out without money. Just bring a small bag of pepper, it can be used as money, it’s a hard currency!

　　 This is the fact, because Europe does not produce pepper, the Arabs bought it from India to Egypt, and then wholesaled it to the Venetian merchants doing business there, and then was brought back to Europe by the Venetian merchants and then wholesaled again.

　　The Arabs are in business. The pepper has been wholesaled through such layers and Guanshan Wanli, so the price of this pepper in Europe, especially in Western Europe, is too expensive to be retail!

　　 Actually, Europeans didn't know about pepper at the beginning. The Roman legionary brought the hobby of eating pepper to Europe after rampaging on the European continent.

　　 Although the nobles were fortunate enough to eat pepper, the old Chinese saying "If you are good at the top, you will be better at the bottom." This old Chinese saying applies no matter when and where.

　　 When the nobles add pepper to the dishes, the people in the lower class will follow the trend and think that it is a very elegant way of eating by the nobles, so they all go together to find ways to add pepper to the dishes.

　　 It’s delicious anyway, especially when eating meat, relying on the cooking skills of Europeans, if there is no pepper...

　　 It doesn’t matter if it tastes.

　　The more people and the more pepper, the more expensive the pepper;

　　 The more expensive the more people eat, the more expensive it is!

　　 Then there was the rise of the IS-lan world. The Europeans' way to find spices in the East was cut off, making pepper almost extinct in Europe.

　　 In the days when there was no pepper, Europeans used onions and garlic as substitutes~www.readwn.com~ but they still couldn't find the charm of pepper.

　　Especially the upper-class people who are accustomed to eating a lot of meat can't bear it. At that time, the only way to preserve meat was to dry or salt it. If this kind of meat is not seasoned with pepper, it will be difficult to swallow for a long time!

　　 So the anxious Europeans, on the one hand, tried every means to develop commercial trade and increase the quantity of pepper shipped to Europe; on the other hand, they desperately searched for new sources of pepper in the process of conquering other countries by force.

　　 At that time, the fat rich man was directly called the "pepper bag". The Europeans at that time would kill each other for a small bag of pepper, and even abandon their life and soul!

　　 If you arrive in Venice at this time with dozens of kilograms of pepper, congratulations, you will either immediately become a wealthy businessman, or become a dead body on the corner or in the canal the next day!

　　 In 1095, Pope Urban II held a huge European crusade mobilization conference in Clements, France. One of the driving forces for launching the crusade was pepper!

　　Pepper, for a long time in Europe, it has been used to replace gold and silver bookkeeping. It can also be used to buy land, dowry, and even buy a city. Many European monarchs also use the weight of pepper to assess taxes.

These few black, almost charred peppers were held in Zhang Nan's hand and told Jerry a joke: "Fortunately, we are not digging the pure treasures of the rich in the Middle Ages, otherwise it will be fun. "

　　The story of King Solomon’s treasure,

　　 Recommend the new book of Urban Great God Lao Shi: