Large tombs were found in the west of the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang. Courtesy of the Qin Shi Huang Emperor Mausoleum Museum
Xi'an, December 30 (Reporter Tian Jin) The Qin Shi Huang Emperor Mausoleum Museum revealed on the 30th that the institute carried out detailed archaeological investigation and exploration work on the mausoleum area on the west side of the outer city of Qinling. More than 20 ancient tombs, 120 ash pits, 4 pottery kilns, and 4 ancient riverbeds were found. 14 newly discovered burial pits. A tomb unearthed the earliest single golden camel seen in the country.
Among them, there are 9 large tombs, 4 on the east side are in the shape of a Chinese character, close to the mausoleum of the first emperor of Qin, and 5 on the west side are in the shape of a zigzag, which is slightly farther from the Qin Tomb. At the same time, a complete circle of trenches was found around the westernmost group of three zigzag tombs, in the shape of an "eye". This is the unique, largest and best-preserved tomb remains with trenches found in the Qinling area.
Archaeologists clean the tombs. Courtesy of the Qin Shi Huang Emperor Mausoleum Museum
From the perspective of position, this batch of tombs is arranged in a word, has a certain regularity, is deliberately planned and arranged by man, and its era should be the same period. The easternmost Chinese-shaped tomb is only more than 100 meters away from the outer city of Qinling, indicating that the relationship between the owner of the tomb and Qin Shi Huang is very close, and it is suspected that it is a group of large funerary tombs on the west side of the Qin Shi Huang Emperor Mausoleum, and it was initially believed that the era was about the late Warring States - Han Dynasty.
The picture shows the excavated cultural relics. Courtesy of the Qin Shi Huang Emperor Mausoleum Museum
At present, a large tomb excavated is located about 440 meters west of the outer city of the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin, with a "middle" shape; there are three rectangular funerary pits on both sides of the north and south tombs; and there are discontinuous trenches on the south and west sides of the tomb. The natural riverbed on the east side, the man-made trenches on the west and south sides enclose the tombs, forming a relatively complete independent cemetery.
The tomb is opened under the cultivated soil layer, and the south tomb passage and the burial chamber break the widely distributed black earth layer in the Qinling area. The central part of the burial chamber collapsed badly. During the collapse process, the steps of the tomb wall are less affected, and the rammed earth layer in the tomb chamber breaks at the edge of the steps. The depth of the fracture part of the rammed earth layer in the center of the burial chamber is larger, and according to the correspondence of the rammed soil layer, the rammed layer is restored higher than the open soil layer of the burial chamber. It can be confirmed that the tomb has sealed soil and is not less than 7 meters high. Five burglary holes were found inside the tomb, 3 of which entered the burial chamber.
The picture shows the unearthed golden camel. Courtesy of the Qin Shi Huang Emperor Mausoleum Museum
The bottom area of the burial chamber is about 116 square meters, with a two-story platform and a height of 3.8 meters. The original burial chamber was covered with charcoal at the bottom of the tomb, the keel was cushioned, the keel was laid on the floor, the coffin was placed on the floor, and the charcoal with a thickness of not less than 40 cm was laid on the floor, the south was thick and the north was thin, and then the rough rammed backfill, and the upper part was thin rammed. After the collapse, the thickness of the accumulation below the charcoal layer of the burial chamber is 0.2-0.8 meters. The coffin is located in the south-central part of the burial chamber, surrounded by a cloister, and the outer side is a side box, where a large number of pottery, bronze, jade and a small number of gold and silverware, iron and so on are placed. The central coffin is still under further cleaning.
According to reports, according to the location of the tomb, the shape of the tomb and the excavated objects, it can be presumed that the tomb era belongs to the Tomb of the Qin Dynasty after the unification of the Qin. This batch of tombs in the west of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang should belong to a high-ranking noble funeral cemetery planned by the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum, and the tombs are mostly surrounded by trenches and natural rivers to form a relatively independent cemetery, and the tomb owner is closely related to Qin Shi Huang.
This tomb is the largest, highest grade and best-preserved large-scale tomb found in the Qin Dynasty, filling the gap in the archaeology of high-ranking nobles in the Qin Dynasty, and is another major harvest in the archaeology of the mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin.
The excavated golden camel is the earliest single golden camel seen in China. These excavated artifacts not only provided an important basis for the cultural exchanges between China and the West before the opening of the Silk Road in the Han Dynasty, but also provided important physical materials for the study of politics, economy, military, science and technology, and culture in the Qin Dynasty.
The archaeological exploration and excavation of the west tomb of the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum is conducive to the in-depth discussion of the funerary system of the high-ranking nobles of the Qin Dynasty, provides new information for the study of the planning and tomb system of the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum and even the ancient Chinese mausoleum, provides a key basis for the development and evolution of the ancient Chinese mausoleum system in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and is the archaeological data proof of the ancient Chinese state system from blood politics to geopolitics and from feudalism to empire. (End)