In early 2015, all other sub-chambers of Tomb No. 1 wangshan bridge in Jingzhou City, Hubei Province, were stolen, but the coffin room was intact. The reasons for the rest of the tomb are even more bizarre.
At the end of 2012, the excavation of Wangshanqiao No. 1 Tomb was put on the agenda. Before the excavation, the archaeologists once again conducted a meticulous survey of it. This time, in addition to the traditional drilling tools such as the probe shovel, high-tech equipment such as high-altitude hydrogen balloons and total stations are readily available.
Wangshan Bridge No. 1 Tomb has a total of 13 steps, and the depth from the tomb entrance to the coffin cover plate is about 10 meters. Tomb No. 1 wangshanqiao is in the shape of an inverted pyramid, located on the surface, nearly square. The 1,088-square-meter tomb mound is a total of 13 floors at the base of the tower, each of which is close to 80 cm of steps, which makes up the tower. A huge rafter with a height of 2 meters and a length and width of 7.6 meters constitutes the spire. The center of the tomb line on the east side extends a cemetery passage 10.3 meters wide. Such a large tomb was the highest level of burial that the Chu Guoqing doctor class could enjoy.
Excavations officially began in September 2013, and a month later, the excavations were suddenly stopped after the mound had just been cleared. Originally, after repeated weighing, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage once again proposed to further improve the plan for archaeological excavation and cultural relics protection.
Excavations resumed on October 18, 2014, which had been interrupted for a year. At first, the excavations went very smoothly, but on November 7, 2014, a team member found an abnormal state in the east of the grave, and the soil in one area showed a different state. The soil in the area is relatively loose and the water content is large. Such a feature points directly to the fact that archaeologists are most reluctant to accept, but always face, that there may be holes in the curtain.
The accidental discovery of the robbery hole made the archaeologists frustrated more than a dozen. But who knows the misfortune is not alone, the day after the discovery of the robbery cave, the archaeologists actually found a new robbery cave, and finally the total number of pirated caves reached four. After investigation, the archaeologists also found disturbed green paste mud in the depths of the two caves.
Qing paste mud is a typical feature of Chu tombs, but they are only wrapped around the rafters. Appearing in the middle of the cave indicates that the chamber has probably been stolen.
On December 11, 2014, a clay pot and a piece of pottery beans were found in the cave. After the analysis, everyone believes that these things should not be burial utensils, but tools used by tomb robbers. According to this, the team members concluded that the tomb robbery occurred shortly after the burial of the large tomb, which is often referred to as "hot robbery" by archaeologists.
After nearly three months of excavation, the filling and cleaning is nearing completion, and the excavation has also entered the rafter surface. At first, it was discovered that two of the caves had probably penetrated the chamber, but when the chamber was completely exposed, the team members found that the two holes had converged and entered the chamber from the east side.
After taking pictures of the drawings, the archaeologists began to use a crane to uncover a rafter chamber weighing more than a ton. After the heavy rafters were picked up piece by piece, people could finally visually witness the situation in the rafters.
The Wangshan bridge tomb chamber consists of five spaces, and in the middle is the coffin chamber where the coffin of the tomb owner is placed. The coffin chamber is surrounded by four spiral-shaped chambers arranged in the southeast, northwest, and east, and the chambers are now filled with water.
The groundwater level in The area around Jingzhou in Hubei Is generally relatively high, because there is often precipitation, so the accumulation of water is very beneficial to the protection of ancient cultural relics, especially for the protection of lacquered wood and bamboo silk.
Because the air in this water-filled environment is isolated, long-term and buried deeply, thousands of years in this relatively constant state, archaeologists call this a "time capsule".
The water in the rafters was dark in color, and people could not know the specific situation inside. After retrieving the lacquered bamboo tools floating on the surface of the water, the archaeologists began to use a pumping machine to slowly pump the accumulated water.
When the water was pumped to a certain extent, archaeologists found some holes in the siding separating the tombs. Apparently, after the tomb robbers entered the east chamber, they flowed from here to other sub-chambers.
Like other Chu tombs, the east room of The First Tomb of Wangshan Bridge was originally decorated with bronze ware, but only some small pieces of bronze and accessories on large pieces of utensils were left.
Due to the limited diameter of the cave, these large bronzes were probably smashed in the east chamber and transported out.
Therefore, there are a large number of leg residues. For tomb robbers of this period, bronzes were often used for smelting, so they did not consider the artistic value of these artifacts at all.
In addition to the east outdoor, the damage to other sub-chambers was also very serious. Functionally, the North Room is a living room and a parlor, leaving only lacquered woodware including lacquer cases and screens.
The west room is a storage room, and some bamboo sharpeners belonging to tools have been unearthed. The south room is the weapons room, and most of the long weapons such as spears are only wooden poles.
Through the gap in the floor on the side of the tomb, the archaeologists observed some scenes in the coffin room in advance. Looking closely around the official room, the archaeologists accidentally found that although the siding here was very large, it was not vandalism.
In addition to the remains of the owner of the tomb, the coffin room will also place the utensils he wore with him during his lifetime and many precious burial jade objects.
The main coffin of the Wangshan Bridge Tomb is 2.5 meters long, 1.36 meters wide and 1.31 meters high. Despite its large size, the structure is intact. After research, the archaeological team decided to transport it back indoors for cleaning.
In the indoor archaeological laboratory of the Jingzhou Museum, which has been closed for more than 2,000 years, the coffin is opened again.
Sure enough, people cleaned up a large number of precious cultural relics, including bronze swords, jade, and silk fabrics.
In the end, the archaeologists judged based on the artifacts and writings that the owner of the tomb was a member of the Chu royal family, who died in a war as a general in the army. The Chu people transported his body back to Jingzhou, where the capital of the country was Yingcheng, and built a lavish tomb for him.
Archaeologists have analyzed that the retreat of the tomb robbers at the last moment may be due to the fear of the owner of the tomb and dare not attack the final burial chamber. However, for whatever reason, the Wangshanqiao No. 1 Tomb was finally destroyed by the retreat of the tomb robbers, and the excavation of more than a thousand artifacts made the half-century wait have a fairly successful result.
It is precisely under the persistent pursuit of thousands of archaeologists that the tombs that have survived the disaster can still leave countless treasures and vivid historical pictures after being robbed.