History and Culture Luoyang shovel is said to have been invented by Li Yazi, a grave robber in the countryside near Luoyang, Henan, China in the early 20th century, and was gradually improved by later generations. It was first widely used to rob tombs, and later became an archaeological tool. Juxian Wei, a famous archaeologist, witnessed grave robbers using Luoyang shovel in 1928, and then applied it to archaeological drilling, which played an important role in the excavation of famous ancient city sites such as Yin Ruins and Yanshi Shopping Mall in China. Nowadays, it is the basic skill of every archaeologist to learn to use Luoyang shovel to distinguish soil quality.
Luoyang shovel is a symbol of archaeological drilling tools in China. In the early 1970s, when an archaeological delegation from China visited Albania, it presented an exquisite Luoyang shovel.
The common Luoyang shovel is semi-cylindrical, 20-40 cm long and 5-20 cm in diameter. After installing elastic wooden poles, it can be driven into the ground for more than ten meters. By distinguishing the soil structure, color and contents brought by the shovel head, we can judge whether there are ancient tombs in the soil and underground. There are more than 20 manufacturing processes of Luoyang shovel. The most important thing is to make radians when molding, which requires careful beating. If you are not careful, the shovel you hit will have no soil. This kind of shovel is only produced by several manual workshops in Luoyang and can only be made by hand so far. At present, Luoyang shovel is no longer a special tool in archaeology, but has played an important role in the fields of architecture, highways, railways, mines and so on. Luoyang shovel has always been an indispensable tool, especially in foundation grouting and geological exploration.
Usage and Usage Luoyang shovel is simply a tool, and the general users can master the general usage, but specifically, the traditional Luoyang shovel mainly refers to the specific people who use Luoyang shovel in some way. These people are generally passed down from generation to generation. There used to be a saying that the old Luoyang shovel was used by professional grave robbers, referring to these experienced users. However, for some reasons, these old Luoyang shovels passed down from generation to generation almost disappeared in modern times.
The main function of Luoyang shovel is to present the samples of the unchanged underground soil layer, and to see the age and structure of the old soil, living soil and soil layer from the soil color, so as to judge the underground situation. In archaeological excavation, many factors depend on personal experience, and it is also said that the old Luoyang shovel can judge the distribution of underground tombs by tasting the soil with its mouth. Because the damage is small, there is no requirement for the environment, and even in some extreme cases, the survey effect is better than some live survey equipment.
Besides archaeology, Luoyang shovel can also be used in the construction industry. Explorers in Luoyang successfully drilled a hundred meters deep hole in Luo Yi Coal Mine with Luoyang shovel.
The first Luoyang shovel came from grave robbers. Luoyang shovel, also known as exploratory shovel, is a semi-cylindrical shovel with a handle at one end and a long ash pole.
1923 or so, Li, a villager from Ma Po Village, came to a place called Market near his home. After a while, he squatted on the side of the road to have a rest. Li usually makes a living by robbing tombs, so he often thinks about the problem of robbing tombs. At this time, Li saw a steamed stuffed bun shop not far from him. The steamed bread seller is preparing to dig a small hole in the ground. His tools for digging holes in the ground aroused Li's interest. Because every time Li sees this thing poking into the ground, he can pick up a lot of soil. Li, who is experienced in grave robbery, immediately realized that it was easier to find an ancient tomb than the spade he usually used, so he was inspired to make a pattern based on that tool and found a blacksmith to make a real object according to the pattern. The first Luoyang shovel was born.
Since the 20th century, almost all grave robberies have been related to this humble shovel. Luoyang shovel has almost become the code name of grave robbers. Because of this, some people in Luoyang often say angrily that "Luoyang ancient tomb has ten tombs and nine empty tombs, and a large number of precious cultural relics have been stolen and lost, and Luoyang shovel is hard to blame".
But at present Luoyang shovel is mainly used for field archaeology. For archaeologists, Luoyang shovel, like a hand shovel and a small brush, can never be thrown away.
Luoyang shovel has played an important role in the excavation of famous ancient city sites such as Yin Ruins and Yanshi Mall in China. 1972, when the archaeological delegation of China visited Albania, the gift presented was an exquisite Luoyang shovel.
1958 during the great leap forward, a small machinery factory tried to mass-produce Luoyang shovel, but the products made according to the drawings could not go at all. The failure of this experiment added a mystery to Luoyang shovel.
In recent years, Luoyang shovel has been developed into a tourist souvenir with Luoyang characteristics by savvy merchants and has become a good carrier for promoting Luoyang.