On December 14, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage held an important progress meeting on the major project of "Archaeology China" in Beijing, and reported 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.
Gansu Wuwei Tuguhun Tomb Group is a Tang Dynasty Tuguhun royal family tomb group. Among them, the tomb of Murong Zhi, the King of Xi, is the only well-preserved tomb of the Tuguhun royal family found so far. The laboratory archaeological cleanup protected more than 800 pieces of burial items such as tomb textiles, painted pottery figurines, lacquered wood and other burial items, including wooden beds, large beds, six-curved screens, models of the House of Columns, complete sets of armaments based on iron armor, pens, ink and paperware and other stationery supplies, all of which were the first or rare discoveries of similar cultural relics in the same period in China, and the unearthed Murong Zhi's epitaph mentioned the existence of the "Great Khan Mausoleum" in Tuguhun for the first time.
In addition, Machangtan M1, M2 and Changling M1 are all single-room brick chamber tombs of the long slope tomb road, and the burial custom of the whole horse was found in the tomb road, and the "Tomb 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.
At the press conference on the same day, the basis for the existence of the "Great Khan's Mausoleum" attracted the attention and great interest of archaeologists, and the black technology used in its restoration process was also refreshing.
Chen Guoke, a researcher at the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, introduced: "In September 2019, the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted rescue excavations of Murong Zhi's tomb in Tianzhu County, Qilian Town, and Chashan Village. Under the guidance of archaeologists, the Institute of Cultural Relics cleaned and restored the iron armor, and roughly grasped the basic shape of the armor, and restored murong Zhi's portrait. According to Murong Zhi's epitaph, Murong Zhi was murong Zhi's third son, and the epitaph first mentioned the 'Tomb of the Great Khan'. According to the location of Murong Zhi's tomb and the records of the epitaph, it can be speculated that in the Wuwei Nanshan area, in addition to the 'Yanghui Valley Mausoleum Area', there is also a 'Great Khan Mausoleum' area, and the location should be in the surrounding area of Murong Zhi's tomb. ”