Wuxi suspects that someone is robbing a tomb? The official response: It is not tomb robbery, but archaeological exploration and excavation

Archaeological work in progress.　Ma Si generation photo

Wuxi, January 11 (Reporter Sun Quan) Recently, some netizens posted on the Internet that someone is suspected of stealing a tomb near the tomb of Hongshan Taibo in Xinwu District, Wuxi City, and is accompanied by several pictures as evidence. In this regard, Lu Junning, head of cultural relics work of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau of Xinwu District, Wuxi City, said in an interview with China News Network reporter on the 11th that the situation mentioned by netizens is not tomb robbery, but the archaeological team is in archaeological exploration and excavation.

Lu Junning introduced that the place where netizens reported that someone had robbed the tomb was near the Hongshan site. The specific location is in Xinwu District Hongshan Street to Xian Road on both sides of the A and B plots.

Hongshan Ruins is a tomb site of Wuyue culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, located in Hongshan Street, Xinwu District, Wuxi City.

In order to cooperate with the preparation of the "Hongshan Tomb Group Protection Master Plan", in 2006, the Wuxi Cultural Management Department organized a professional team to conduct a general exploration of the mounds within the Hongshan ruins, and macroscopically grasped the mounds within the site.

In 2010, the Hongshan Site Museum, together with the Wuxi Institute of Archaeology and the Nanjing Museum's Large Site Protection Research Center, compiled the "Hongshan Site Protection Archaeological Work Plan", which made a master plan for the archaeological work of the Hongshan site from 2010 to 2025.

"The curiosity of netizens has also attracted the public's attention to the Hongshan ruins." Lu Junning told China News Network that since 2010, the archaeological work on the Hongshan site has not stopped. In the archaeological work, archaeologists also found that there are still many ruins around the Hongshan site.

For example, in 2021, the Wuxi Institute of Cultural Heritage Protection and Archaeology was commissioned by the Wuxi Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics to conduct archaeological surveys and explorations on plots A and B on both sides of Zhixian Road.

After investigation and exploration, archaeologists found ancient tombs, wells, and Spring and Autumn ruins in plot A, and many ancient tombs were found in plot B.

Subsequently, the Cultural Relics Department of Wuxi Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism organized relevant personnel to hold a coordination meeting on the protection of cultural relics of plots A and B on both sides of Zhixian Road. The meeting clearly carried out archaeological excavations of ancient tombs and ancient sites that have been discovered.

"In recent years, Xinwu District has actively carried out the assessment of cultural relics protection areas, and actively implemented the preliminary archaeological investigation work of 18 projects, such as the second phase of the urban parking lot project plot, the south side plot of Hongtaiyuan District 7, and the A and B plots of Zhixian Road." Lu Junning said that through nearly a year of practice, the archaeological pre-work here has been carried out smoothly, which not only properly protects the underground cultural relics, but also does not affect the construction of key projects, and truly implements the protection of cultural relics.

Talking about the next stage of work, Lu Junning said that it will mainly focus on the assessment of cultural relics protection areas, active archaeological excavations and multidisciplinary research. "We also attach great importance to the situation reflected by netizens, which shows that everyone is very concerned about the cause of archaeology." In the next stage, we will also find opportunities to release the latest situation and results in our work to maintain a good communication with the public. (End)