The Khitans were a nomadic people from the north, from the Mongol region who had invaded the Central Plains many times in history. The Khitan invasion of the Central Plains is nothing more than to look at the prosperity of the Central Plains, where there are mountains and water, there are good land resources, they live on the grassland, although the seemingly boundless grassland is very free, in fact, the land resources are not rich, their homeland is only suitable for the development of animal husbandry, so the khitan leaders in order to let people live a better life, has been constantly launching aggressive wars against the Central Plains. Emperor Taizong of Liao led his troops south to the Central Plains to destroy the Later Jin Dynasty, and in 947 changed the name of the country to Great Liao. The history of the Liao State is relatively short, and the historical record of the Liao Dynasty is also very incomplete.
Villagers accidentally find bluestone slabs and find a thousand-year-old tomb
In 1986, villagers in a small village in Inner Mongolia were conducting a field survey, and their village wanted to build a reservoir here, so the villagers dug up a bluestone slab while digging for geology. This bluestone slab took a closer look, as if there were still some words, the villagers brought this bluestone slab back to the village, the village has a cultural villagers, said that this may be a cultural relic, so they called the Inner Mongolia Cultural Relics Bureau experts. After the experts of the Cultural Relics Bureau came to the village, they saw this bluestone slab and thought that the place where the villagers dug out the bluestone slab may have an ancient tomb. So archaeologists went to this place where the bluestone slab was excavated to conduct field investigations, and found an ancient tomb.
Archaeologists found that this tomb has a total of 2 coffins, and no robbery holes have been found around the tomb, and it seems that the tomb robbers have not invaded the tomb. In ancient Inner Mongolia, this was once the territory of the Liao State, so this ancient tomb is most likely an ancient tomb of the Liao Period. After archaeological excavation, a total of about 3300 pieces of funerary products have been unearthed in the ancient tomb, and the amount of gold and silver in these funerary items is very large, and it seems that the identity of the tomb owner is not low. Through the interpretation of the epitaph, archaeologists found that this ancient tomb is the joint burial tomb of Princess Chen Guo and her horse.
The joint burial tomb of the princess and the horse, excavated cultural relics to fill the historical gap
Princess Chen Guo was a Khitan princess of the Liao Dynasty and the granddaughter of Emperor Jingzong of Liao, who married her 36-year-old uncle Xiao Shaojue at the age of 16, but died of illness two years after marriage. When the princess's coffin was opened, archaeologists found a golden mask, this golden mask is very unique, this is also the first time archaeologists have found such a mask in the ancient tomb of the Liao Kingdom, perhaps this mask is related to the princess's illness and death. The coffin of the princess in the tomb and the coffin of the donkey horse are nestled next to each other, and through the investigation of history, the death of the two men has nothing to do with the struggle in the court, and in the eighties of the last century, archaeologists did not expect to carry out a pathological examination of the remains of the princess and the donkey, missing the best period of examination.
In the Republic of China period, China's tomb robbery phenomenon occurred frequently, many ancient tombs were stolen during this period, this period is also the most severe period of cultural relics loss in China, millions of cultural relics were lost overseas, exiled to the people. The Liao Dynasty existed in history for a short time, according to historical records, the people of the Liao Dynasty were not good at architecture, so their ancient tomb forms were basically very simple, and there was no way to preserve them for such a long time like the ancient tombs of the Qin, Han, Tang and Song dynasties. Therefore, when archaeologists discovered the tomb of Princess Chen Guo, they all shouted excitedly: 1000 years, finally found!
Previously, archaeologists have also found the tomb of Zhang Wenzao in the Liao Dynasty, but in addition to a table of wine and vegetables of great research value, there are very few documents in the tomb, not even an epitaph. In Zhang Wenzao's tomb, the most valuable research value is the mural in the tomb. The ancient tombs of the Liao Dynasty are very precious, through these ancient tombs, archaeologists can analyze more social culture and history of the Liao Dynasty, and people know too little about this dynasty. The significance of archaeology is that it can fill these historical gaps, and at present, the tomb of Princess Chen Guo is the best preserved Tomb of the Liao Dynasty found in China, and it is also the most abundant liao dynasty tomb with the richest cultural relics.