Today (14th) morning, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage held an online meeting in Beijing, at which it was announced that the bailuyuan Jiangcun tomb in Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, is the tomb of Emperor Wen of Han.
How was the Tomb of Xi'an Jiangcun discovered? The Gangchon Tomb does not have a tall sealed soil, and at the archaeological site, whether it is a flat view on the ground or a drone overlooking from the sky, it is impossible to see that there is a large tomb here. It entered the eyes of archaeologists, starting from a tomb robbery case many years ago.
In 2002, an auction in the United States pushed the Jiangcun Tomb to Chinese archaeologists for the first time. Six pieces of Black Pottery figurines of the Western Han Dynasty that were stolen from here appeared on the auction catalogue of Thesby Auction House in the United States and will be auctioned soon. Through diplomatic channels, my Government has made timely representations.
Archaeologist Jiao Nanfeng: Before the auction, these 6 pottery figurines were taken out of the auction list. I was commissioned by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, and I answered 11 questions from Sosby Auction House, why is it Chinese? Why is it Shaanxi? Why is it said to be from the Western Han Dynasty? And so on.
After many efforts, the six figurines returned to Xi'an in 2003. Subsequently, the relevant departments investigated the origin of these 6 pottery figurines, and it was finally determined that the tomb robbers excavated them from the ancient tomb in Jiangcun.
Zhang Xiangyu, vice president of the Xi'an Archaeological Research Institute: At that time, the two robbery holes, the wheat was harvested, very clear, and later they could see it on satellite pictures.
In 2006, after determining that the figurines were from the ancient tombs of Gangchon, archaeologists conducted an archaeological survey here. The results of the exploration surprised the archaeologists, and there was a sub-type tomb with four burial passages hidden here. So, who is the owner of this tomb?
Ma Yongying, a researcher at the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute: At that time, some scholars believed that it might not be the tomb of Dou Tai lord who accompanied the burial of Baling. Lord Dou was actually the daughter of Empress Dou and Emperor Wen of Han, and her status was relatively high, and the history books clearly recorded that she was buried with Baling, and it was doubted that it was her tomb at that time.
Further archaeological exploration found that the total length of the east-west tomb passage of the Gangchon Tomb reached 250 meters, which belonged to the top configuration from the perspective of the tomb shape system, surpassing the princess and even the princes.
Ma Yongying, a researcher at the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute: The "Ya" glyph was actually mainly used by emperors in ancient society. The tomb side is more than 70 meters long, and the east tomb road is more than 100 meters, in addition to the emperor's tomb, the others include the princes, who is 30 meters to 50 meters, 60 meters such a situation.
Although some people also speculate that the Jiangcun Tomb may be the Han Wen Emperor's Tomb, the relevant records and references since the Yuan Dynasty generally believe that the Han Wen Emperor's Tomb is two kilometers north of the Jiangcun Tomb in the Phoenix Mouth. Without conclusive evidence, no one dares to say that the Jiangcun Tomb is the tomb of emperor Wen of Han.
Archaeologist Jiao Nanfeng: We have a rule in archaeology, you have to have doubts, when you want to publish your article, you must have a series of evidence. In fact, the conclusion was clear to everyone at that time, but it was necessary to confirm this through a series of work.
Source: CCTV news client