On December 14, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage held a work meeting on the important progress of the major project of "Archaeology in China", and reported the latest progress of three important archaeological achievements, including the Jiangcun Tomb in Xi'an, Shaanxi, the Zhengpingfang Site in Luoyang, Henan, and the Tuguhun Tomb Group in Wuwei, Gansu.
At the meeting, it was announced that the great tomb of Bailuyuan Jiangcun in Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, was the tomb of Emperor Wen of Han. Jiangcun Tomb is located at the western end of Bailuyuan in the eastern suburbs of Xi'an, about 800 meters northeast is the Mausoleum of Empress Dou, about 2000 meters southwest of the Southern Tomb of Empress Bo, and about 2100 meters north is the "Phoenix Mouth" location where the former state security unit Baling is located. The surface of the Jiangcun Tomb is "Ya" shaped, the edge of the tomb is about 72 meters long and more than 30 meters deep, and more than 110 outer pits have been found around the burial chamber, and there are pebble-paved cemetery facilities on the periphery of the outer pits.
Clothing, semi-plastic clothes, and clay figurines of prisoners were unearthed from the pit outside the Jiangcun Tomb. Courtesy of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage
Archaeology has excavated 8 outer pits of Jiangcun Tomb, and unearthed more than 1,500 pieces of pottery figurines, copper seals, copper carriages and horses, iron tools, pottery, etc., and the copper seals have "Chefu", "Instrument House", "Riding Thousand People in China", "Fuyin", "Cangyin", "ZhongsikongYin", etc., indicating that the outer Tibetan pits around jiangcun tombs should be built to imitate the actual official office and the government treasury.
The shape and scale of the Jiangcun Tomb are in line with the highest level tomb specifications of the Western Han Dynasty, coupled with its surrounding distribution of empress Dou Mausoleum and Bo Empress Mausoleum, experts confirm that the Jiangcun Tomb is the Han Wen Emperor's Mausoleum, and the "Phoenix Mouth" where the previous han Wen Emperor's mausoleum is located is just a natural loess beam.
Cultural relics excavated from the pit outside the Gangchon Tomb. Courtesy of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage
The confirmation of the location of the Baling Tombs solved the problem of the names of the eleven imperial tombs of the Western Han Dynasty. The structural layout of the Double Mausoleum, the Imperial Tomb Center, and the Outer Hidden Pit shows obvious differences with the Ancestral Tomb of Han Gao and the Mausoleum of Emperor Hui of Han, which lays the foundation of the imperial tomb system in the middle and late Western Han Dynasty, and is of great significance to the in-depth study of the imperial tomb system in ancient China.
Exterior view of the Baling Tombs area. Courtesy of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage
Gansu Wuwei Tuguhun Tomb Group is a Tang Dynasty Tuguhun royal family tomb group, located in the southwest of Wuwei City, Gansu Province, located in the northern foothills of Qilian Mountain, mainly distributed in wuwei Nanshan District, west of the Nanying Reservoir, binggou river and Dashui River on the north bank of the hill. In 2019, the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology excavated the tomb of Murong Zhi, king of Tuguhun Xi, in Chashan Village, Qilian Town, Tianzhu County, 15 kilometers west of Qingzui Bay and Lama Bay, and unearthed more than 800 pieces of various burial items. In the same year, the archaeological and cultural relics protection of the Tuguhun royal family tomb group in the Tang Dynasty was included in the major project of "Archaeological China".
Murong Zhi's tomb unearthed a town tomb beast
Murong Zhi's tomb unearthed a unicorn pattern and a phoenix pattern brocade
The tomb of Murong Zhi of Xiwang is the only well-preserved tomb of the Tuguhun royal family found at present, and the laboratory archaeology has cleaned up and protected more than 800 pieces of various burial items such as textiles, painted pottery figurines, lacquered wood, etc., of which the wooden bed, the large bed, the six-curved screen, the model of the Lieji House, the complete set of weapons mainly based on iron armor, pen and ink paper and other stationery supplies, etc., are the first or rare discoveries of similar cultural relics in The same period in China, and the excavated Murong Zhi's epitaph mentions the existence of tuguhun 'Great Khan Mausoleum' for the first time. Machangtan M1, M2 and Changling M1 are all single-room brick chamber tombs of the long slope tomb, and the burial custom of the whole horse was found in the tomb road, and the "Tombstone of Mrs. Dang of Feng Yi County" was unearthed to record that the tomb group was the Tugu Hun Pengzi family cemetery. The tombs all have the basic characteristics of the tombs of high-ranking nobles in the Central Plains in the early and middle Tang Dynasty, and at the same time have the characteristics of Tuguhun culture, Tubo culture and northern grassland culture, which shows the historical process of exchanges, exchanges and integration of various ethnic groups along the ancient Silk Road in China, and is an important empirical evidence of the pattern of pluralism and integration of the Chinese nation.
Murong Zhi's epitaph and zhi side text
MachangTan m1 unearthed the tombstone of Mrs. Dang of Feng Yi County
Ma Yuping said that the excavation of the tomb group allows us to glimpse the changes in the material life, ideological concepts, cultural identity and other historical details of the Tuguhun people in the Tang Dynasty from the written and physical level, vividly revealing the historical facts of the Tuguhun people's gradual integration into the Chinese civilization system in the past hundred years since the return of the Tuguhun people to the Tang Dynasty, and providing a typical case for enhancing national cultural self-confidence and casting a solid sense of the Chinese national community.
The three important achievements of this briefing are vivid embodiments of China's political system and national governance, urban construction and architectural skills, ethnic integration and cultural exchanges in the Han and Tang Dynasties, and show the glorious history and brilliant achievements of Chinese civilization from different aspects. Under the framework of the "Archaeology in China" major project, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage will continue to guide relevant archaeological institutions to strengthen multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research, in-depth study and interpretation of the connotation of cultural relics value, promote relevant cultural relics departments and local people's governments to strengthen the protection and utilization of cultural relics, and inherit and promote China's excellent traditional culture.
Source: Comprehensive People's Network, China Gansu Net, Lanzhou Evening News