Oriental Today Daily Mammoth News Reporter Guo Shuai Chen Lin /Wen Zhang Huanhuan/Photo
【Core Tips】
"Come and see! What is it? Recently, a circular stone artifact was excavated at the excavation site of the Baicaopo Eastern Han Cemetery Site Archaeological Project in the northeast of Baicaopo Village, Pangcun Town, Yibin District, Luoyang City, and this stone artifact was cracked into several pieces, and the outer wall of one of them was engraved with the words "Light and Three Years of Manufacture".
"'Guanghe' is the era name of emperor Hanling at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, but the Wenling Tomb of Emperor Hanling has been determined to be in the Lingshan Mausoleum Area, so we believe that this stone artifact was made by Emperor Hanling when he built a mausoleum for his previous emperor, that is, Emperor Huan of Han, and then linked to the literature to record the location of Emperor Huan of Han's mausoleum, it is basically determined that the Eastern Han Mausoleum of Baicaopo is the Xuanling Tomb of Emperor Huan of Han." Wang Xianqiu, head of the archaeological project at the Site of the Eastern Han Cemetery in Baicaopo, told reporters.
(Archaeological site of the Eastern Han Dynasty Emperor's Mausoleum)
Newly unearthed stone artifacts, "Guanghe" era name basically determines that the Baicaopo Eastern Han Cemetery is the Xuan Mausoleum of the Han Huan Emperor
The ruins of the Baicaopo Eastern Han Cemetery are located in the northeast of Baicaopo Village, Pangcun Town, Yibin District, and are the closest imperial tombs to the capital city in the Eastern Han Tombs District of Luonan. In 2017, archaeological work on the site of the Eastern Han Cemetery in Baicaopo was restarted.
"According to the "Imperial Century", the nearest tomb of the Eastern Han Emperor to Luoyang City is the Xuanling Tomb of the Han Huan Emperor, and although the site of the Eastern Han Mausoleum in Baicaopo meets this condition, there has been no strong evidence to support the inference that it is the Xuanling Tomb of the Han Huan Emperor." Wang Xianqiu said that it has long been determined that the tombs around Baicaopo are large tombs at the level of the Eastern Han Emperor's Mausoleum, but it has not been possible to determine which emperor's mausoleum it is, and the stone artifacts unearthed this time have the era number of "Guanghe" on it, and it is speculated that the Han Ling Emperor built a mausoleum for the Han Huan Emperor, which can basically be confirmed as the Xuanling Tomb of the Han Huan Emperor. As for the name and function of this round stone artifact, further research is needed.
Restoring the original appearance of the Eastern Han Emperor's Mausoleum, the tomb system is an important part of Chinese civilization
Since the resumption of archaeological work at the site of the Eastern Han Cemetery in Baicaopo in 2017, archaeologists have successively found remnants of courtyards, housing sites, patios, corridors, wells, roads, drainage channels and other relics at the site of the cemetery, and have a deeper understanding of the overall layout of the cemetery.
(Each group of buildings has its own walls and gates around its perimeter)
(Drainage canal remains)
"At present, our excavations are concentrated in a large complex in the northeast corner of the cemetery, which can be divided into three relatively independent groups, each with a separate wall and gate site around the perimeter. The complex consists of a well-arranged courtyard, taking the west building unit No. 1 as an example, the wall is distributed with a total of 24 courtyards in four rows from north to south and six columns from east to west, a bit like our current dormitory. Wang Xianqiu told reporters that each yard is an independent living space, with living facilities such as housing sites, patios, warehouses, wells, and drainage channels. Depending on the layout and location of the complex, it may have been the "garden temple official's house" recorded in the literature, that is, the management of the cemetery, as well as the residence of the tomb keepers, cemetery service personnel, and low-level concubines. Some scholars believe that this may be the "garden province" recorded in the literature, that is, the residence of the nobles and concubines of the cemetery.
(The scale of the Eastern Han Emperor's Mausoleum is very large)
Wang Xianqiu said that the scale of the Eastern Han Emperor's Mausoleum is very large, not only the underground palace where the emperor is buried and the sealing soil above, but also the complex mausoleum complex such as stone halls and sleeping halls, just like a "miniature version" of the imperial palace. There were also many service personnel and a certain number of guards, and even a corner tower with a lookout defense function was found.
"The mausoleum system has its own set of systems, one dynasty after another, although there will be changes and developments in successive dynasties, but it contains the genes of China's five-thousand-year-old unbroken civilization." Wang Xianqiu said that through the excavation of the ruins of the Eastern Han Cemetery in Baicaopo in recent years, the layout and connotation of the mausoleum of the Eastern Han Emperor have gradually become clear.
(Excavated building materials)
At present, the excavation of the courtyard area of the Baicaopo Eastern Han Cemetery site has basically ended, and the excavation of other mausoleum buildings such as the stone hall will continue to be carried out, hoping to study the mausoleum system of the Eastern Han Dynasty in depth.
The tomb of the Eastern Han Emperor was divided into two parts, Mount Yao and Luonan, which is speculated to be related to the emperor's blood
The Eastern Han Dynasty Emperor Mausoleum is divided into two major blocks, the Baicaopo Eastern Han Mausoleum Site belongs to the Luonan Mausoleum Area, and there are also 5 Eastern Han Emperors buried in the Qiaoshan Mausoleum Area. In the 10 years from 2007 to 2017, the archaeological work on the tombs of the Eastern Han Emperors was mainly concentrated on the mountain, and the location of the five Eastern Han Emperors, including the original tombs of Emperor Guangwu of Han, has been basically confirmed. From 2006 to 2007, the Luoyang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted preliminary investigations and excavations of the Baicaopo Eastern Han Cemetery in order to cooperate with the construction of the Zhengxi High-speed Railway. "At that time, only a long strip of area was excavated along the pressure of the railway, and it was difficult to see the full picture of the cemetery, and in 2017, the archaeological work on the site of the Eastern Han Cemetery on Baicaopo was restarted." Wang Xianqiu said that the practice of setting up two mausoleum areas near the capital city was not the first of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Wang Xianqiu said that the Western Han Emperor's Mausoleum also has a north-south distribution, but most of them are in the north, not as evenly distributed as the Eastern Han Emperor's Mausoleum, which is obviously deliberately planned. Archaeologists have explored this phenomenon in depth, and it may be related to the blood of the heir to the throne. "There were many small emperors in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and some of them died prematurely before they had children, so the heir to the throne was selected from the collateral bloodline of the uncle or uncle's family, so that the successor and the previous emperor were not directly related by blood, and in general, the emperor's imperial tomb would not be in the same place as the previous one." Wang Xianqiu said that for example, the newly identified Xuanling Tomb of Emperor Huan of Han was in Luonan, and the lingdi who succeeded to the throne, because he was not emperor Huan's own child, built his mausoleum on Mount Huan.