On December 14, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage held a working meeting on the important progress of the major project of "Archaeology China" in Beijing, focusing on important archaeological discoveries and research progress in the Han and Tang Dynasties. Among them, the great tomb of Jiangcun in Xi'an, Shaanxi, is confirmed to be the tomb of Liu Heng, the emperor of the Early Han Dynasty in the Western Han Dynasty.
According to reports, among the large number of precious cultural relics unearthed from Baling, seals, seals and other cultural relics with characters, etc., confirm the construction concept of "mausoleum Ruoduyi" and imperial tomb "imitating the real Western Han Empire". The numerous gold and silver ware with grassland style excavated from the Outer Tibetan Pit of Nanling are direct evidence of the cultural exchange and integration of agriculture and animal husbandry in the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, and witness the historical development trend of Chinese civilization from "pluralism" to "integration".
Baling confirmed that the problem of the names of the eleven imperial tombs of the Western Han Dynasty was solved
Jiangcun Tomb is located at the western end of Bailuyuan in the eastern suburbs of Xi'an, about 2100 meters north of the Han Wen Emperor's Baling Tomb (that is, Fenghuangzui) and 800 meters east of the Dou Empress Mausoleum, which is an important tomb remain in the Baling Mausoleum area.
The relationship between the jiangcun tomb and the baling, nanling and empress dou mausoleums (courtesy of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage)
The tomb plane is "Ya" shaped, the edge of the burial chamber is about 72 meters long, and more than 110 outer burial pits have been found around the burial chamber, and there are pebble-paved cemetery facilities around the outer pits, which are speculated to be independent imperial mausoleums. The remains of the mausoleum wall were found outside the Jiangcun Tomb and the Mausoleum of Empress Dou, and it is speculated that they are in the same mausoleum. More than 1,500 pieces of pottery figurines, copper seals, copper carriages and horse ware, iron and pottery have been excavated from the 8 outer tibetan pits that have been excavated, and the copper seals include "Chefu", "Instrument House", "Riding Thousand People in China", "Fuyin", "Cangyin", "ZhongsikongYin", etc., indicating that the outer Tibetan pits around the Jiangcun Tomb should be built to imitate the actual official office and the 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 the distribution of the Tomb of Empress Dou and the Tomb of Empress Bo around it, experts confirm that the Tomb of Jiangcun is the Tomb of emperor Wen of Han.
A large number of clothed pottery figurines have been unearthed from the pit outside the Jiangcun Tomb (Photo provided by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage)
The confirmation of the location of the Baling Tombs solves the problem of the name of the eleven imperial tombs of the Western Han Dynasty, and the structural layout of the double mausoleum, the center of the imperial tomb and the outer tibetan pit shows obvious differences with the Han Gao Ancestral Changling tomb and the Han Hui Emperor An Mausoleum, laying 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 ancient Chinese imperial tomb system.
In 1966, he began archaeological work on the tomb of Emperor Wen of Han
In 1966 and 1975, Mr. Wang Xueli and Mr. Wu Zhenfeng of the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Management Committee rescued and excavated the burial pits of Baling (Renjiapo) and Nanling.
In the 1980s, Mr. Liu Qingzhu and Mr. Li Yufang of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences conducted archaeological surveys and surveys of Baling and Nanling, laying the foundation for subsequent archaeological work.
Exterior view of Balingling District (Courtesy of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage)
At the beginning of the 21st century, the Xianyang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted archaeological surveys and explorations on Baling and Nanling.
From 2006 to 2009, the Xi'an Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology conducted rescue exploration and test excavation in the Baling Tomb Area, and found the Jiangcun Tomb and its funerary pit, which provided important clues for determining the specific location of Baling.
From 2011 to 2013, according to the archaeological work plan of the Western Han Emperor's Mausoleum, Researcher Jiao Nanfeng led a team to carry out a large-scale archaeological survey and exploration work on the Baling and Nanling mausoleum areas, and roughly explored the distribution range and morphological layout of the remains of the two mausoleums.
The archaeological work has continued since 2017, and the exploration and discovery of the "stone boundary" of the Jiangcun Tomb and the outer cemetery wall of Baling, as well as architectural sites and pottery kilns, excavated the ruins of the North Pottery Kiln of Jiangcun, the outer hidden pit of the Jiangcun Tomb, the outer hidden pit of the South Tomb, the Han Tomb of Lijia Village, etc., and unearthed more than 1,000 pieces of various pottery figurines, more than 3,000 pieces of gold, silver, copper, iron and pottery cultural relics.
In one excavation pit, 11 burglary holes were found
Although the state has strengthened the management and protection of cultural relics and sites in the BalingLing Area, it is more hidden because it is mostly distributed in the fruit tree gardens of local villagers, giving criminals an opportunity to take advantage of it. In the winter and spring of 2014-2016, criminals successively excavated the pit outside the Jiangcun Tomb and the pit outside the Tomb of Empress Bo, and stole hundreds of precious cultural relics of the Han Dynasty, such as gilded chimes and painted pottery figurines. In view of the security situation facing the Jiangcun Tomb and the Southern Tomb of Empress Bo, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, in November 2017, the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute and the Xi'an Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology jointly formed the Hanling Archaeological Team to carry out rescue excavations of the severely stolen outer pits on the west side of the Southern Tomb of Empress Bo and the northeast and southwest areas of the Jiangcun Tomb.
Excavation of the robbery cave at the site (Photo courtesy of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage)
The New Yellow River reporter noted in an archaeological work harvest report of the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute and the Xi'an Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology that at the No. 2 excavation site (the outer hidden pit in the southwest area of jiangcun tomb), one of the excavation pits was seriously disturbed, and a total of 11 pirate holes were found.
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On December 14th, at the "Archaeology China" major project important progress work meeting, important archaeological achievements such as the Zhengpingfang site in Luoyang, Henan, and the Tuguhun Tomb Group in Wuwei, Gansu were also reported.
Among them, the ruins of Zhengpingfang in Luoyang, Henan, are one of the important Lifang ruins in the Guochenglifang Area of Luoyang City in the Tang Dynasty, and are the locations of the Tang Dynasty Confucius Temple, Guozijian, and Taiping Princess Residence (later changed to Anguo Female Taoist Temple). The site is rectangular in plan, with a length of 533.6 meters from north to south and a width of 464.6 meters from east to west. The square is divided into three parts by a "D" shaped road: the western half of the square, the southeast district and the northeast district. The western half of the house is a large mansion, the southern half of the house is speculated to be a garden area, and the northern part is a courtyard area. The courtyard is symmetrically arranged in the central axis, with three roads in the east and west, and a total of five entrances in the middle road. Five large rammed earth platforms are distributed from the central axis to the south to the north, and are surrounded by walls (or corridors), which are presumed to be the residences of the Taiping Princess. In the southeast area, three courtyards side by side with east and west were found, and there were north-south passages between the courtyards, and there were pavilions (or buildings) at the northern end of the passage. The east road and middle road of the courtyard are both three entrances, which are speculated to be the Confucius Temple and the Guozijian respectively. The zhengpingfang site is a vivid example of the square system in the capital of the Tang Dynasty, and the pattern of the square connecting the north and south square gates of the T-shaped street seen by the excavation, as well as the symmetrical and multi-entry courtyard layout of the central axis, embodies the traditional urban planning ideas of ancient China and is of great value to the study of the history of the political system and social life history of the Tang Dynasty.
Gansu Wuwei Tuguhun Tomb Group is a Tang Dynasty Tuguhun royal family tomb group. Among them, the tomb of Murong Zhi, the xiwang king, 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 armaments based on iron armor, pen, ink and paper, etc., are the first or rare discoveries of similar cultural relics in China in the same period, and the excavated Murong Zhi's epitaph mentions the existence of Tuguhun's "Great Khan's 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. (New Yellow River reporter from Beijing)
New Yellow River Reporter: Li Yunheng Editor: Zhao Shanshan