On December 7, during the heavy snow festival of the year, the reporter accompanied by the cold of the winter on the outskirts of Beijing, walked into the archaeological site of the Liulihe Ruins in Fangshan, Beijing.
The Liuli River is widely known for its archaeological discoveries in 1974. That year, the discovery of two early Western Zhou tombs unveiled Beijing's history as the capital of the Yan state. Due to the high groundwater level, the two tombs were not excavated completely. However, the treasure of the Capital Museum and town hall excavated from the tomb and the largest bronze vessel excavated in the Beijing area have amazed the world.
In 2021, in order to build the Liulihe National Archaeological Site Park with high quality and strengthen the level of site display, archaeologists conducted another archaeological excavation of the Liulihe site, including the two large tombs excavated from the Weiding and Boji.
Zhang Guan, Li Dai, 3,000 years of crooked beatings, is making a false contribution
The tomb was excavated this time under the number M1901. The reporter saw at the scene that the M1901 was circular and deep, and there was a small amount of water at the bottom of the tomb. One side, near the tomb wall, is enclosed in a rectangle by several wooden planks. Wang Jing, the person in charge of the archaeological site, introduced that in the rectangle is a complete set of carriage and horse tools, including Danglu and horsebits. The original water level in the tomb was high, and now it has been drained and the tomb Chinese is being gradually extracted.
On the workbench next to the tomb are some excavated bronzes that have been protected. Among them, in the "C position" is a copper grate. This one is the same as the one unearthed more than 40 years ago, and should be a group, and both have inscriptions on the lid and insole. Wang Jing carefully picked up the lid of the vessel and introduced to reporters that the inscription on the lid of this vessel was "White Fish as Baozun Yi", and the inscription on the inner sole of the vessel was "Wang Yu Chengzhou, Wang Zhibei, used as Baozun Yi"; and the inscription on the lid and the inner sole of the vessel unearthed more than 40 years ago was just the opposite of the newly unearthed one. From this, Wang Jing speculated that the two guises should have been worn by Zhang Guanli when they were buried.
Bronze grates that may have been worn by Zhang Guanli. Guangming Daily reporter Li Yun photographed
A mistake of 3000 years! However, it is this mistake that corrects the miracle: since the two gui are a group, they should be made by one person, so the "fish" and "yuan" mentioned in the inscription are actually one person. This discovery provides conclusive evidence for the study of the name and character system of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
The cover of the "head in a different place". Guangming Daily reporter Li Yun photographed
The reporter noticed that in front of the bronze grate there was also a bronze vessel the size of a goose egg and looked like a lid. Wang Jing smiled, "This is indeed a cover for a piece, but this time no cover was found in the tomb." Seeing the reporter's "face full of question marks," she said, during excavations decades ago, a bronze skull had been unearthed without a lid. The reporter asked: "Have you made a comparison?" Is it a set? "Although the hope is, but it has not yet been compared, so it cannot be rushed to determine." Wang Jing's answer maintained the rigor of archaeologists.
Beautifully decorated Go. Guangming Daily reporter Li Yun photo /Guangming pictures
Exquisitely decorated gossamer. Guangming Daily reporter Li Yun photographed
In the corner of the workbench, there is a broken knife that "sucks" the reporter's lens. Burial after breaking the go was a common practice at that time, but the handle end of the go was extremely exquisite and hollow. If you put the blade upwards, you can see the ornamentation at the handle, as if it were several overlapping faces, even eyes and mouth, quite a bit of "cute" temperament. Also "cute" is a few pig face masks next to it. Although they are decorations on the shield, but such a cute look, is it really a weapon against the enemy?
The Pig Face Mask is an ornament on a shield. Guangming Daily reporter Li Yun photo /Guangming pictures
New ideas run through new technologies
The tomb number of the excavated BoJi is M1903, and a number of lacquerware has been newly excavated this time, and the currently recognizable ones are triangular grains, beans and so on. However, because once these organic matter is unearthed, it must be immediately protected by on-site science and technology and quickly transferred to the laboratory, otherwise the oxygen in the air will seriously damage them. Although the reporter could not see these cultural relics at the scene, Wang Jing said that the discovery of lacquerware made up for the regret of the limited protection technology of cultural relics on site in the 20th century, and was of great significance for the study of the system of use of burial utensils.
Wang Jing, the person in charge of the archaeological site, introduced the inscription on the bronze cover to reporters. Guangming Daily reporter Li Yun photographed
The technical staff at the scene told reporters that the excavation was fully involved by cultural relics protection professionals. Not only lacquerware, but also tailor-made cultural relics for relics of different materials. For example, for organic cultural relics such as wooden poles, mat marks, cinnabar, fabrics, etc., menthol, etc. are temporarily reinforced; lacquer wood and other cultural relics are used menthol, gypsum, polyurethane foaming agent, etc., combined with the overall box after rapid extraction, quickly moved into the laboratory for laboratory archaeology and protection restoration.
Wang Jing specially introduced the new ideas and new technologies used in this excavation. On the basis of previous excavations, they used the latest surveying and mapping methods, information recording means and cultural relics protection technology to carry out refined excavation of cultural relics. The newly excavated Tomb M1902 found the earliest known tomb head box cover in Beijing, which is also rare in the northern region. Inside the box, there are copper beams, bronze zuns, bronze lords, copper dings, copper swords, lacquerware, pottery, etc., and the combination is rich. The coffin and human skeleton are well preserved, and the rafters contain an entire burial dog and a copper bell on which it hangs. Wang Jing believes that this large tomb is a rare complete material.
A large tomb with a head box. Guangming Daily reporter Li Yun photographed
In order to fill the gap in previous field excavations and study the regulation of coffins in Western Zhou tombs, they for the first time adopted the "broken wall excavation method" of cleaning inward from outside the rafters, and after using this method, they achieved several "first" results. For example, a number of lacquerware and fabric overlap phenomena that have not been found in the past have been discovered, and for the first time, the wooden arrow rods and mat patterns of the bronze arrows of the Western Zhou Dynasty in Beijing have been identified, and the silk fabrics with patterned ornaments in the early Western Zhou of Beijing have been successfully extracted for the first time. "The spatial position of each excavated artifact is accurately restored, providing rich materials for restoring the burial process and funeral system." Wang Jing was quite proud.
Academic support Planning guarantee
The reporter learned from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics that the latest excavation of the Liulihe site is an active excavation of the nature of research. At the beginning of this year, Beijing released the "Liulihe Ruins Protection Plan (2020-2035)", which was carried out to solve major academic problems and improve the level of protection and archaeological work of large sites in Beijing.
From 2019 to 2021, the Beijing Municipal Institute of Cultural Heritage, together with the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the School of Archaeology and Literature of Peking University, and the School of History of Capital Normal University, carried out archaeological work on the city site and burial area of the Liulihe site.
In addition to the new discoveries mentioned above, this archaeological work adopts a combination of general exploration, key exploration and sampling exploration, and determines that the protected area of the Liulihe site is 17.3 square kilometers, far exceeding the previous understanding of the site. This achievement has been reflected in the "Liulihe Ruins Protection Plan (2020-2035)".
Archaeology has also found 4 new large-scale rammed earth building sites and 7 large wells in the city. The preservation of large rammed soils is good and the scope is large, which belongs to the forefront of western Zhou archaeology. The rammed earth of the largest wells is more than 30 meters wide and more than 10 meters deep. The likelihood of high-grade construction in the vicinity of large wells is high. These findings help to further judge the distribution of functional areas in the city, and understand the planning concept, organizational model and governance capacity of the yanguo fiefdom.
The scope of the Western Zhou cemetery clarified by this archaeological work also exceeds the boundaries of the originally recognized burial area, indicating that there are small settlements outside Liulihe City, and there are cases of nearby burials. This discovery is valuable for further understanding the radiation range and ethnic distribution of the Liulihe site, and has laid a good foundation for the construction of the site park.
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage has just released a list of major sites during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, and the Liulihe site is among them. Chen Mingjie, director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics, said that the Liulihe site has an important position in the layout of the Beijing Archaeological Site Park. This archaeological work is "a Beijing answer sheet for the construction of archaeology with Chinese characteristics and Chinese style".
Shan Jixiang, president of the Chinese Cultural Relics Society and former president of the Palace Museum, summed up the significance of Liulihe archaeology with four "favorable" points. He believes that the archaeological results are conducive to displaying the comprehensive and true ancient Yan kingdom, conducive to revealing the cultural origin of the integration of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, conducive to reflecting the historical and cultural value of Chinese civilization, conducive to presenting the historical process of the chinese nation's pluralistic integration, archaeological work "will accelerate the integration of cultural tourism in Fangshan District, create a golden business card for the construction of a national cultural center, and play a strong academic support role in the construction of Liulihe National Archaeological Site Park." (Reporter Li Yun)
Source: Guangming Network