The Peach Spinning Tomb Group is located in Zhangjiang Subdistrict, Taoyuan County, Changde City, Hunan Province, and the tomb group is distributed on the terrace on the west side of the Yuan River, with an area of about 300 mu. From December 2020 to August 2021, due to the construction of real estate projects, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (Kao Zhi Zi 2021 No. 036), the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Taoyuan County Bureau of Culture, Tourism and Sports jointly carried out cooperative archaeological excavations in the tomb areas involved within the red line of the project. A total of 307 tombs were excavated this time, including 70 Warring States Tombs, 1 Tang Tomb, 89 Song Tombs, 27 Ming Tombs, 120 Empty Tombs, and 472 artifacts (sets) were excavated. A Song Dynasty site was also excavated, with an excavation area of 625 square meters. The archaeological excavation results of the Taoyuan Taofang Tomb Group are briefly introduced as follows:
Figure 1 Aerial photography of the tombs of the Peach Spinning Tomb Group (partial)
01
Tomb shape system
Warring States Tomb
According to the width of the tomb, it is divided into three categories: A type (wide pit tomb), B type (narrow pit tomb), and C type (narrow long tomb).
Type A tombs 39. Generally longer than wide, some tombs have a small difference in length and width, close to a square. The width of the bottom of the tomb is generally more than 1.4 meters (excluding 1.4 meters), of which 7 tombs with sloped tombs. Some have burial utensils, which are single coffins, one coffin and one coffin, or two coffins and one coffin.
M179: Rectangular vertical pit tomb with slope tomb passage, tomb direction 90 °, the upper part of the tomb is destroyed and broken by Y2, the tomb wall is slope-shaped, the tomb mouth is 3.84-3.98 meters long, 2.9-3 meters wide, the bottom of the tomb is 3.22-3.23 meters long, 1.96-2.06 meters wide, the residual depth is 2.6-2.8 meters, the tomb passage is 2.4 meters long, 1.3-1.5 meters wide, the depth is 0.92 meters, the coffin is 1.9 meters away from the tomb entrance, the coffin cover plate has decayed, and there are no head boxes and side boxes. The bottom of the rafter is made of four square wood spliced together, the preservation is relatively complete, the coffin side plates and baffles are made of 2 pieces of wood up and down, the sleepers are cylindrical, 0.12 meters in diameter, with grooves in them, and a depth of 0.05 meters. There are sleeper ditches at both ends of the tomb, which are 2 meters long, 0.38 meters wide and 0.1 meters deep. The burial items are placed on the east side of the chamber, including 1 piece of Tao Ding, 1 piece of Tao Dun, 2 pieces of clay pots, and 2 pieces of Tao Dou.
Fig. 2 M179 tomb shape system
Fig. 3 M179 burial pottery
15 B-type tombs. The length is greater than the width, and the width of the tomb base is generally greater than 0.86 meters, less than or equal to 1.4 meters. Some have funerary implements.
M180: rectangular vertical pit tomb, tomb direction 90 °, the upper part of the tomb is destroyed, broken by M182, the tomb wall is obliquely straight and adducted in a slope-like shape, the tomb mouth is 1.92 to 2.76 meters long, 1.22 to 1.3 meters wide, the bottom of the tomb is 2.52 meters long, 1 to 1.1 meters wide, and the residual depth is 0.5 to 0.7 meters. The burial artifact is placed in the northeast corner of the tomb, which is a clay pot.
Figure IV M180 tomb shape system
Fig. 5 M180 burial clay pot
19 C-type tombs. The width of the bottom of the tomb is less than or equal to 0.85 meters, the tomb pit is narrow and long, there is no burial tool, and some have a head niche.
M50: Rectangular vertical pit tomb. The tomb is 92 °, the upper part of the tomb is destroyed, the tomb wall is slightly adducted in a slope-like shape, the tomb mouth is 2.26 meters long and 0.7 to 0.76 meters wide, the bottom of the tomb is 2.16 meters long, 0.58 to 0.68 meters wide, and the residual depth is 0.94 to 0.96 meters. On the west side of the tomb wall, there is a rectangular head niche 0.12 meters from the tomb entrance, which is 0.46 meters wide, 0.28 meters high and 0.24 meters deep. Burial utensils are placed in the head niche, including 1 clay pot and 1 pottery bean.
Fig. 6 Shape and structure of the M50 tomb
2
Tomb of Tang
1 seat. Vertical pit tomb.
M71: Rectangular vertical pit tomb. The tomb is 135°, the upper part of the tomb is destroyed, and the tomb wall is slightly adducted in a slope-like shape. The tomb is 2.68 to 2.75 meters long and 0.8 to 0.92 meters wide, and the bottom of the tomb is 2.62 to 2.68 meters long, 0.8 to 0.88 meters wide, and the residual depth is 1.35 meters. The burial utensils are located in the middle and northeast corners of the tomb, including four series of pots, clay pots, hard pottery bowls, hard pottery cups, porcelain bowls, porcelain plates, copper mirrors, copper coins, and 3 porcelain cups.
Fig. 8 M71 burial form and burial utensils
Figure IX M71 burial part of the artifact
Figure 10 M71 buried with four series of pots
3
Song Tomb
89 seats. According to the tomb shape system, it can be divided into two categories: brick chamber tombs and vertical pit tombs.
There are 5 brick chamber tombs. All are rectangular brick chamber tombs, made of rectangular green bricks, of which 1 is relatively complete, and the rest are seriously damaged.
M170: Rectangular brick chamber tomb. Tomb to 264 °, the upper part of the tomb was destroyed and broken by the modern base groove, the tomb wall was built by green brick staggered masonry, a total of 19 layers, green brick length 0.25 meters, width 0.11 meters, thickness 0.04 meters, the bottom of the tomb no green brick laying, the tomb roof by eight rows of granite stone seal, its gap with green brick seal, the strip of stone are crushed. The bottom of the tomb is filled with lime, and the lime layer is 0.3 meters thick and 0.1 to 0.25 meters wide. The tomb is 3.08 meters long and 1.2 meters wide, the burial chamber is 3.05 meters long and 1.1 to 1.16 meters wide, and the burial chamber is 2.64 meters long and 0.94 meters wide, and the residual depth is 0.82 meters. The burial items are placed in the middle of the tomb, including 1 bronze mirror, 1 copper buckle, and dozens of copper coins.
Figure XI The roof of the M170 tomb
Fig. 12 M170 burial form system and burial utensils
Fig. 13 M170 buried with copper mirrors, copper buckles and copper coins
There are 84 vertical pit tombs. Some have head niches or side niches. The length is generally less than 2.4 meters, and the width is generally less than 1 meter.
M42: Rectangular vertical pit tomb. The tomb is 202 °, the upper part of the tomb is destroyed, and there is a rectangular head niche on the north side of the tomb wall, with a bottom width of 0.5, a height of 0.43, and a depth of 0.26 meters. The tomb wall is erect. The tomb is 2.46 meters long, 0.78 to 0.86 meters wide, and 0.41 to 0.61 meters deep. Burial artifacts are placed on the south side of the head niche and the bottom of the tomb. Including 2 soul bottles and 1 copper hairpin.
Fig. 14 M42 burial form system and burial utensils
Figure 15 M42 with burial soul bottle
4
Ming Tomb
27 seats. According to the tomb shape system, it can be divided into two categories: lime rafter tombs and vertical pit tombs.
3 lime tombs. The roof of the tomb was destroyed, and the chamber was surrounded by lime to form a rafter.
M6: Lime rafter tomb, direction 88°, the upper part of the tomb is destroyed and the eastern part of the burial chamber is broken by a modern pit, and the tomb wall is erect. The width of the lime rafter is 0.14 to 0.2 meters, the length of the tomb is 2.3 meters, the width of the remnant is 0.8 to 1.04 meters, and the depth of the residue is 0.05 to 0.13 meters. The burial utensils are placed in the waist pit in the middle of the tomb and are 1 porcelain jar.
Fig. 16 M6 burial form system and burial utensils
Figure XVII M6 burial porcelain jar
There are 24 vertical pit tombs. The length is generally less than 2.3 meters, and the width is generally less than 0.8 meters.
M15: Rectangular vertical pit tomb. In the direction of 210 °, the upper part of the tomb is destroyed and the tomb wall is erect. The tomb is 2.38 meters long, 0.8 to 0.84 meters wide, and 0.18 meters deep. At the southern end of the burial chamber, 2 pieces of green tile are laid to form a concave tile pillow with two sides of the high middle, and the burial artifacts are located in the middle and south of the tomb. Including 1 piece of copper mirror, 3 pieces of copper hairpin, 1 piece of iron hair band.
Figure XVIII M15 Burial form and burial utensils
Fig. 19 M15 buried with copper hairpins and iron hairbands
Figure 20 M15 burial bronze mirror
Burial artifacts
The Taofang Tomb Group excavated 307 tombs, including 70 Warring States Tombs, 1 Tang Tomb, 89 Song Tombs, 27 Ming Tombs, and 120 Empty Tombs.
There are 70 Warring States tombs, and 72 pieces (sets) of pottery, bronze and glass ware have been unearthed. Among them, the pottery has Ding, Dun, pot, bean, spoon, dagger, dagger, pot, bowl, spinning wheel, etc., the pottery combination is relatively fixed, to imitate copper pottery Ding, pot or Ding, Dun, pot combination and daily utensils beans, pot combinations and daily utensils beans, pot combinations; bronze ware has swords, go, spears, daggers, mirrors, rings, hooks, etc., no copper ceremonial vessels; glass ware only unearthed dragonfly eyes 1 piece.
There is 1 Tang tomb, and a total of 11 pieces of pottery, porcelain and bronze ware have been excavated.
There are 89 Song tombs, and 316 pieces (sets) of ceramics, bronzes, jade, iron, gold, crystals, etc. have been excavated, of which ceramics include bottles, pots, pots, urns, bowls, bowls, cups, saucers, cups, cups, etc.; bronze ware has copper coins, copper mirrors, copper hairpins, etc., and most of the copper coins are Song coins. The copper mirror is mainly a plain round mirror, and there are square mirrors, sunflower mirrors, peach mirrors, etc., and some of them are Huzhou mirrors. In addition, ornaments such as crystal hairpins, jade rings, jade materials, gold leaf, and iron hair bands have also been unearthed.
There are 27 Ming tombs, 73 pieces (sets) of porcelain, bronze, iron, etc. have been unearthed, of which porcelain has porcelain jars; bronze ware has copper mirrors, copper coins, copper hairpins, etc., most of the copper coins are seriously damaged and cannot be identified, and some of the copper hairpins are gilded and treated, and the workmanship is exquisite.
Preliminary understanding
The Warring States tombs found this time are all small and medium-sized tombs, and the burial utensils are mainly pottery and bronze, while there are very few tombs with pottery and bronze, only 4. The Warring States tombs in the Taofang Tomb Group not only have typical Chu-style tombs, but also widely distributed cultural factors such as Bapu, and their cultural connotations are more complex. This batch of Warring States tombs is only 5 kilometers away from the ruins of Cailing City in the northwest of Taoyuan County, and the burial era roughly coincides with the era used by Cailing City, and it is speculated that the owner of the tomb group should be Cailing City and its surrounding residents.
Although only 1 Tang tomb was found, its burial porcelain is very distinctive, mostly for the northern kiln system, rarely seen in Hunan and its surrounding porcelain, the owner of the tomb is likely to be a northerner who escaped from the war in the middle and late Tang Dynasty.
The discovery of a large number of Song tombs and Song Dynasty ruins confirms the historical record of Taoyuan County in the second year of Song Qiande (964) in the Taoyuan County Chronicle, and the area where the tomb group is located should be the western suburb of Taoyuan County at that time, in addition to the tombs, there are also house sites, ash pits, kiln sites and other remains, which together constitute a small settlement with more complete functions.
The cleaning of the Ming tombs has provided a new perspective for understanding the tomb system, local history and social history of the Taoyuan area of the Ming Dynasty, and filled the research gap in the region.
Although most of the tombs found in the Taofang Tomb Group have been destroyed, most of the tombs only have the bottom, but their scale is huge and rich in connotation, and the tomb age continues from the Warring States to the Ming Dynasty, which provides us with important reference value for understanding the spatial distribution of tombs in this area, the form of settlements and the funerary customs, social economy and cultural outlook of different periods.
Reprinted from Hunan Archaeology