Big discoveries!
This morning
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage held an online meeting in Beijing
It was announced at the meeting
The great tomb of Bailuyuan Jiangcun in Xi'an is the tomb of Emperor Wen of Han
soon
This news also quickly rushed to the top of the hot search
Archaeologists conducted archaeological exploration of the Jiangcun Tomb in the eastern suburbs of Xi'an City, and carried out rescue excavations of some of its outer pits and funerary tombs.
Image source: Shaanxi Archaeological Research Institute
According to the "Ya" glyph system of jiangcun tombs, high-standard funerary items such as clothed pottery figurines and copper seals of official offices, as well as the position relationship with the "Dou Empress Mausoleum" and "Bo Empress Mausoleum", experts believe that the "Phoenix Mouth" where the ancestral Han Wen Emperor's mausoleum is located is just a natural loess beam, and the newly discovered Jiangcun Tomb is the real Wen Emperor's tomb.
Since the Yuan Dynasty
Historical records record that Emperor Wen's mausoleum is located under the mouth of the phoenix
This mistake is nearly a thousand years old!
How shocking was the archaeological site?
Let's take a look!
Emperor Wen of Han was not in the mouth of the phoenix
The reporter learned that the online conference on the progress of the major project of "Archaeology China" focused on important archaeological discoveries in the Han and Tang Dynasties. Among them, the tomb of Emperor Wen of Han, the third emperor of the Han Dynasty, is undoubtedly the most concerned project. Until the identity of the owner of the tomb was confirmed, the tomb in Bailuyuan, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, was known as the "Jiangcun Tomb".
△ Exterior view of BalingLing District
Through meticulous excavation and careful analysis, the archaeologists judged that the "Jiangcun Tomb" was the tomb of Emperor Wen of Han. The other two projects are the ruins of Zhengpingfang in Luoyang City, Sui and Tang Dynasties, and the latest research results from the tombs of the Tuguhun royal family in the Tang Dynasty found in Wuwei, Gansu.
△ "Jiangcun Tomb" is located relative to Xi'an City
Thousands of clay figurines were shocked by the excavation scene
Jiangcun Tomb is located in Baqiao District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province. In 2016, the outer pit of jiangcun tomb was disturbed, in order to confirm the preservation status of the tomb and the distribution of surrounding cultural relics, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, archaeologists conducted systematic archaeological investigation and exploration of the tomb of Empress Dou and the southern mausoleum of Empress Bo and the "Phoenix Mouth" site that is said to be the tomb of Emperor Wen of Han, and carried out archaeological excavations of the outer pit of the cemetery.
Jiangcun tomb east of the Dou Empress Mausoleum about 800 meters, the surface of the land is not sealed, after exploration, the tomb shape of the tomb is made of "Ya" shape, the tomb side length of 73 meters, more than 30 meters deep, there are more than 100 outer hidden pits around the tomb, in the excavation of the outer pit of the tomb unearthed a large number of clothed pottery figurines, pottery, bronze and "Riding a Thousand People", "Zhongsikong Seal", "Zhongsikong Cheng" and other Han Dynasty official seals, especially the discovery of the convict figurine is the first time in China.
△ Seal of the Official Office of the Han Dynasty
△ Torturers
Archaeologists on the outskirts of Jiangcun Tomb and Empress Dou Mausoleum also found the ruins of the rammed wall with an east-west remnant length of more than 1200 meters and a width of more than 860 meters from north to south, and after experts argued that the site of the wall should be the ruins of the outer cemetery of Jiangcun Tomb and Empress Dou Mausoleum.
△ Excavation site of rammed wall site
△ Excavation site discussion
△ Emura Tomb K38 panorama
Ma Yongyi, a researcher at the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute and the leader of the Hanling Archaeological Team, told us that judging from the location of the Jiangcun Tomb, the shape of the tomb, the outer tibetan pit, the cemetery facilities, and the official seals and dressed pottery figurines excavated from the Outer Tibetan Pit, especially the outer garden wall of the Tomb of The Great Tomb of Jiangcun and empress Dou, it can be determined that the Jiangcun Tomb is the tomb of Emperor Wen of Han.
△ Baling
△ Nanling
△ Nanling NWK1 dragon head gold flower ornament excavation site
△ Nanling gold ware
△ Nanling iron tools
△ Baling copper gear
This archaeological work has determined the exact location of the tombs of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty and 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.
How was the Tomb of Xi'an Jiangcun discovered?
Let's start with 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.
This article is synthesized from: Xinhua News Agency, CCTV News
WeChat Editor: Jia Simin
Proofreader: Miss Pi