The location of the Han Dynasty Emperor's tomb was determined The next step is to focus on protection

Since 2019, the "Jiangcun Tomb" has become a national key cultural relics protection unit. (Courtesy photo: State Administration of Cultural Heritage)

A few days ago, at the important progress work meeting of the "Archaeology China" major project held by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, three important archaeological achievements such as the Jiangcun Tomb in Xi'an, Shaanxi Were informed. 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.

In March this year, the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, the Xi'an Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology, and the Hanling Archaeological Team put forward the "Proposal on Delineating the Scope of Protection of the Jiangcun Tombs", proposing that the west trench of Renjiapo Village, Xiwang Street, Baqiao District, Xi'an City, in the north, the sixth street of Jinxing Village and its west side of the trench in the south of Dizhai Street, from the east of Jiangcun village of Dizhai Street to the east of Dou Empress Mausoleum in the east.

Archaeological evidence has been searched for over the years

Looking back along the timeline, from July 2006 to May 2009, the Xi'an Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology discovered a "Ya" shaped tomb and its surrounding outer pits, stone ruins, and gate ruins. Because it is located in the east of Jiangcun, Baqiao District, Xi'an City, it is called "Jiangcun Tomb".

According to the data, the Jiangcun Tomb is located at the western end of Bailuyuan in the eastern suburbs of Xi'an, about 800 meters northeast of the Tomb of Empress Dou, and about 2000 meters southwest of the Southern Tomb of Empress Bo.

From 2011 to 2013, according to the archaeological work plan of the Western Han Dynasty Emperor Mausoleum, the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute and the Xi'an Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology formed the Hanling Archaeological Team, led by Jiao Nanfeng, and conducted archaeological investigation and exploration on the areas of "Phoenix Mouth", Jiangcun Tomb, Empress Dou Mausoleum and Empress Bo Nanling, which roughly explored the distribution range and shape layout of the remains of the two mausoleums.

Since 2017, exploration and test excavation have found the Jiangcun Tomb, the "stone boundary" of the Nanling Tomb, the outer garden wall of the Baling Tomb, as well as the architectural ruins and pottery kiln ruins. Excavations have been made of some of the outer pits of the Jiangcun Tomb and the outer pits of the Nanling Tombs, and finally confirmed that the Jiangcun Tombs are the tombs of the Han Emperor.

Uncover the mystery through archaeological exploration

Prior to this, the traditional understanding of the location of Baling was the "Phoenix Mouth" two kilometers north of the Jiangcun Tomb. Through archaeological exploration, it was confirmed that there were no Han Dynasty tombs at the site of "Phoenix Mouth", which was excluded as the possibility of a baling tomb.

Jiangcun tomb plane is "Ya" shape, the surface of the land is not sealed, the tomb side length of about 72 meters, more than 30 meters deep, more than 110 outer burial pits have been found around the burial chamber, and there are pebble-paved cemetery facilities (tentatively named "Stone Boundary"), the edge length is about 390 meters, and there are gate sites on the front and outside of the four sides of the stone boundary, which is speculated to be an independent imperial mausoleum. The remains of the cemetery wall found outside the Jiangcun Tomb and the Mausoleum of Empress Dou are speculated to be in the same mausoleum, which is about 1200 meters long from east to west and about 863 meters wide from north to south. Archaeology has excavated 8 outer pits of Jiangcun Tomb, and unearthed more than 1,500 pieces of pottery figurines, copper seals, copper carriages and horses, iron tools, pottery, etc., and the copper seals have "Chefu", "Instrument House", "Riding Thousand People in China", "Fuyin", "Cangyin", "ZhongsikongYin", etc., indicating that the outer Tibetan pits around jiangcun tombs should be built to imitate the actual official office and the government 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.

Sort out the names of the 11 imperial tombs of the Western Han Dynasty

Relevant experts said that the archaeological work determined the accurate location of the Tomb of emperor Wen of Han, plus the previously determined Changling, Maoling, Weiling, etc., to solve the problem of the name of the 11 imperial tombs of the Western Han Dynasty. The structural layout of the dual mausoleum, the imperial tomb center, and the outer tibetan pit shows obvious differences with the Han Gao Ancestral Mausoleum and the Han Hui Emperor An Mausoleum, which lays the foundation of the imperial tomb system in the middle and late Western Han Dynasty, and is of great significance for the in-depth study of the Chinese imperial tomb system.

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Excavations are not currently taking place

Ma Yongyi, a researcher at the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute and the leader of the Hanling Archaeological Team, recently said: Because of the limitations of cultural relics protection technology, the current Han Wen Emperor's Tomb will not be excavated, and will focus on protection. "Wait until future generations have a way to solve the problem of cultural relics protection, and then excavate." Now that the owner of the tomb has been identified, the main task next is to protect it. ”