01
Overview of archaeological work
The Lei Gongtang Tomb Group is located in Jingzhu Village, Yifuhe Town, Xiangtan County, at the confluence of the Xiang River and its tributaries (Figure 1). Since the discovery of the second cultural relics census in the 1980s, cultural relics archaeologists have successively investigated and excavated a large number of tombs here.
Figure 1 Geographical location of the Lei Gongtang Tomb Group
From May to August 2020, due to the construction of the Lianhua Avenue project of the county's key project, the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Xiangtan County Museum formed a joint archaeological team to investigate the cultural relics of the whole line and conduct key exploration here, and found a number of tombs within the red line. From the end of 2020 to July 2021, according to the actual progress of the demolition and construction of the project, the archaeological team carried out rescue archaeological excavations of this tomb group in stages.
02
Introduction to excavation tombs
This work cleaned up 16 tombs (Figure 2), which are relatively scattered in the tomb area. The chronology mainly includes several periods such as the Warring States, the Western Han Dynasty, the Xinmang, and the Tang Dynasty, and a total of more than 200 pieces (sets) of funerary artifacts have been unearthed.
Fig. 2 Aerial photographs of tomb excavations (partial)
Warring States Tomb
Only 2 Warring States Tombs have been found, numbered M1 and M2. The tombs are located near the top of the hill, and they are all rectangular vertical pit tombs, nearly north-south. Among them, M1 is 2.52 meters long, 2.02 meters wide, 0.4-0.8 meters deep, and 13 pieces of clay pottery such as pottery dings, clay pots, clay pots, and pottery beans are buried. M2 length and width are 3.1 meters, 2.5 meters, the depth of the residue is 2.2-3.6 meters, because the east and west sides of the tomb wall is slightly concave, the plane shape is sub-waist-shaped, the bottom of the tomb can be seen sleeper marks, the tomb wall is left with a small number of foot pits; 16 burial utensils, placed on the west side, the utensils include pottery ding, clay pot, pottery bean, pottery spoon, pottery bowl, etc. (Figure 3).
Figure 3 M2 overhead photo
Western Han Dynasty tombs
The Western Han Dynasty has the largest number of tombs, a total of 11. Due to the destruction of production activities such as nearby villagers taking soil and burning bricks and building houses here, most of the tombs have been shallow in depth. With the exception of 3 tombs, most of the tombs have found a varying number of burial artifacts. From the discovery of the "five baht" copper coin features and other artifact combinations, it is inferred that these tombs are all in the middle and late Western Han Dynasty. Depending on the shape of the plane, these tombs can be roughly divided into the following three categories:
A. Rectangular
Most tombs are rectangular in shape. The tomb is mainly in a near-north direction. The shape and specifications of the tomb are also relatively close.
For example, M3 is 4.75 meters long, 2.4 meters wide, and 0.4-0.5 meters deep. On the north side, there is a raw earth two-story platform. There are 27 burial artifacts unearthed, mainly placed at the northern end, and the types include pottery ding, pottery box, clay pot, pottery pot, pottery bean, clay pot, pottery bowl, copper coin, iron spear, iron knife, copper mirror, talc bi, etc. (Figure 4).
Figure 4 M3 unearthed burial vessel
The M7 is 4.2 m long (destroyed in the south), 2.6 m wide and 0.6–0.7 m deep. With the abundance of burial items, placed in the westernmost part of the center, 34 pieces of various types of artifacts were unearthed, including iron kettles, iron swords, iron spears, ring head iron knives, copper spears, copper mirrors, copper coins, copper milling, stone towns, talc bi, mud cakes, Tao Boshan furnaces, pottery bowls, clay pots, clay pots, pottery wells, pottery stoves, pottery pots, pottery pots, pottery pots, pottery pots, etc. (Figure 5)
Fig. 5 M7 excavation site
B. Knife shape
The number M6 is a tomb with a relatively special shape (Figure 6). Direction 340°. On the north west side, there is a long, stepped tomb passage with a length of 1.6 meters and a width of 1.75 meters. The southern burial chamber is nearly square, 3.2 meters long, 3.55 meters wide, and the depth of the residue is 0.25-0.3 meters. Burial utensils are located on the east side of the burial chamber, including pottery warehouses, pottery wells, pottery stoves, pottery lamps, clay pots, pottery boxes, pottery pots, pottery pots, pottery pots, pottery pots, copper pots, iron kettles and many other types.
Fig. 6 M6 overhead photo
C. Convex shape
Number M8, direction 330°. The tomb retains a partially sealed mound. Located in the middle of the north, the tomb is a long slope step, 2.9 meters long and 1.5 meters wide. The burial chamber is rectangular, 4.2 meters long, 2.8 meters wide, and the deepest point is 1.4 meters from the surface. There are 30 burial utensils, mainly placed on the south side of the east side of the burial chamber, including copper milling, copper mirrors, copper coins, talc bi, stone town, iron knives, iron spears, iron swords, iron kettles, pottery pots, copper pots, copper crossbow machines, pottery dings, pottery stoves, clay pots, pottery pots, pottery boxes, Tao Bo mountain furnaces, hard clay pots, etc. (Figure 7)
Figure 7 M8 excavation site
3
Tomb of Xinmang
Tower 1, number M5. The tomb is rectangular, with a direction of 330 °, a length of 3.2 meters, a width of 2.1 meters, and a depth of 0.25 meters. 30 burial artifacts were unearthed, including iron spears, iron swords, iron kettles, talc bi, copper mirrors, copper coins, copper pots, clay pots, clay pots, clay pots, pottery wells, pottery stoves, Tao Bo mountain furnaces, pottery warehouses, pottery dings, etc. (Figure 8). From the discovery of the "Oizumi Fifty" coin, it can be seen that the tomb is dated to the Xinmang period.
Fig. 8 M5 excavation photos
4
Tomb of Tang
A Tang Dynasty tomb, numbered M16. The relative location of the tomb is farther away from other periods and was partially destroyed when it was found. After cleaning, the length of the residue is 1.2 meters, the width is 0.85 meters, and the depth of the residue is 0.3-0.6 meters. The tomb is rectangular in shape and oriented from east to west. During the investigation, a blue-glazed pan pot was found in the middle of the burial chamber. During the excavation, 5 brown-glazed jars and 1 yellow-glazed porcelain dish (Fig. 9) were unearthed, which were located in the southwest corner of the burial chamber and the east of the south wall, respectively. From the analysis of the shape and other characteristics of the excavated porcelain, its kiln mouth may be related to the Changsha kiln, and it is speculated that the age of this tomb is the Middle Tang Dynasty.
Figure 9 M16 unearthed burial artifacts
Discover understanding and meaning
Lei Gongtang Tomb Group is an important burial concentration area in Xiangtan area, mainly in the Warring States and Western Han Dynasties. In 2011 and 2012, the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology also carried out rescue archaeological excavations in this neighboring area, cleaning up a number of tombs of the same period.
The tombs excavated this time are mainly small and medium-sized tombs in the Western Han Dynasty, which have distinct characteristics, all of which are single-chamber earth pit tombs, most of which have no tombs, and the tomb direction is mostly north-south, and the burial products are mainly a set of Ding box pot pot pottery vessel combinations, in addition to hard pottery altars, pot pots, iron kettles, pottery warehouses, stoves, wells and other practical utensils and model mingware are abundant, accompanied by copper coins, mud coins (five baht), mud cakes and so on.
At the same time, the discovery of a small number of Warring States tombs and Xinmang tombs, especially the Tang Dynasty tombs, is the first discovery in this area, which further enriches the cultural connotation of the Lei Gongtang tomb group, and has more important academic value for the staging of western Han tombs and the evolution of funerary customs in xiangtan area since the Warring States.
Reprinted from Hunan Archaeology