On December 14, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage officially announced the Jiangcun Tomb of emperor Wen of Han in Bailuyuan, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, instead of the Phoenix Mouth as recorded in historical records.
Aerial panorama of the Baling Mausoleum area (Empress Dou Mausoleum, Gangchon Tomb Excavation Site, Nanling Tomb).
In 2006, archaeologists analyzed the stolen artifacts and found that there was such a "Sub" shaped tomb with four tomb passages hidden in Bailuyuan.
This "Ya" glyph-shaped tomb did not have a sealed ground, and in the Han Dynasty, the "Ya" glyph tomb was the top configuration of the tomb, and only emperors and empresses could enjoy this level of configuration.
This makes archaeologists feel that the status of the owner of this tomb is by no means ordinary.
In 2017, archaeologists began excavating eight outer pits outside the Gangchon Tomb. The picture shows the distant view of the excavation site no. 1 of Jiangcun Tomb.
In 2017, archaeologists began to excavate 8 outer tibetan pits outside the Jiangcun Tomb, and unearthed more than 1,500 pieces of pottery figurines, copper seals, copper carriages and horses, iron and pottery, etc., and the copper seals were "Chefu", "Instrument House", "Riding Thousand People in the Middle", "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 fu treasury.
Archaeologists conducted archaeological excavations on 8 outer pits in the northeast and southwest areas of jiangcun tombs. Among them, the two small outer pits located in the southwest corner are rectangular vertical pit soil circle-shaped, 3.5 meters long, 2 meters wide and 7.5-9 meters deep. The picture shows a horse bone cleared out of the pit.
Except for the above two small outer pits, the rest of the outer pits are vertical pits with slopes. There are zigzag steps on both sides of the pit wall, and there are wooden rafters at the bottom. The main remains in the pit are: dressed pottery figurines (individually worn with torture instruments), pottery, iron, bronze, and lacquered wood relics. The picture shows some painted clothed pottery figurines excavated from the Jiangcun Tomb.
A penal figurine excavated from the Gangchon Tomb K27.
Gangchon Tomb K27 excavated copper gears and copper components.
Gangchon Tomb K38 panorama.
Copper droplets excavated from the Gangchon Tomb K38.
In the outer tibetan pit, many Ming organ seals such as "Zhongsikong Seal", "Zhongsikong Cheng", "Mountain Official", "Cangyin", and "Stable Seal" were also cleared. A set of seals was unearthed from Emura Tomb K27. These seals later became reliable evidence revealing the identity of the tomb owner.
The Gangchon Tomb is surrounded by these outer pits, which also shows that the owner of the Gangchon Tomb must be the person who leads these officials.
Schematic diagram of the approximate location of the Phoenix Mouth, Jiangcun Tomb and Empress Dou Mausoleum.
About 800 meters east of the Jiangcun Curtain is the Mausoleum of Empress Dou (the mausoleum of Emperor Wu of Han's grandmother). Archaeologists found that the remains of the wall of the cemetery were found outside the Jiangcun Tomb and the Mausoleum of Empress Dou, and it was speculated that they were in the same mausoleum. The two large curtains are in the same cemetery, and one person and one tomb and one tomb become a different cave. This reflects the "tongzhi different caves" of the han dynasty emperors and queens.
Vista of Empress Dou's Mausoleum.
From 2018 to 2019, archaeologists excavated 23 Han tombs about 3,900 meters southwest of the Jiangcun Tomb. Although the largest tomb was seriously stolen, more than 2,000 pieces of jade clothes were still excavated, as well as more than 200 precious cultural relics such as trick figurines, pottery chimes, and chimes. In addition, other tombs have unearthed artifacts such as copper seals with inscriptions.
During this period, archaeologists also set their sights on the "phoenix mouth", and after half a year of "physical examination" of the phoenix mouth, they found that there were no traces of artificial excavation here, nor did they find tomb ruins.
It is passed down as the "phoenix mouth" of the Han Wen Emperor's tomb.
At this point, archaeologists have overturned the claim that "there is a tomb of emperor Wen of Han under the mouth of the phoenix" and confirmed that the tomb of Emperor Jiangcun is the real tomb of Emperor Wen of Han.
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.