On January 10, the Shanxi Institute of Archaeology announced the latest archaeological results. In order to cooperate with the infrastructure construction of Shuozhou City, archaeologists rescued and excavated more than 400 tombs from the Eastern Zhou to the Qin and Han Dynasties in Houzhai Village, Shuocheng District. The Houzhai cemetery excavated this time provides rich archaeological materials for studying the layout of cemeteries, burial hierarchies and funerary customs from the Eastern Zhou to the Qin and Han dynasties along the Great Wall in the north, and is of great value for exploring the history of political and military development in the Central Plains and northern regions during the Warring States period.
Houzhai Cemetery is located in the west of Houzhai Village, Yaozitou Township, Shuocheng District, Shuozhou City, in a key area where farming culture and nomadic culture blend. From October 2019 to December 2020, in order to cooperate with the construction of the new funeral home in Shuozhou, the Shanxi Archaeological Research Institute formed a joint archaeological team with the Shuozhou Municipal Cultural Relics Bureau, the Shuozhou Municipal Cultural Relics Protection and Utilization Service Center, and the Shuocheng District Cultural Relics and Tourism Bureau to systematically excavate the construction project covering an area of about 120 acres, excavating more than 400 tombs from the Eastern Zhou to the Qin and Han dynasties. Among them, the tombs of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty are the main ones, followed by the tombs of the Qin and Han Dynasties.
According to reports, the Eastern Zhou relics excavated from the Houzhai cemetery have the largest number of pottery, rich types of utensils, there are Ding, beans, pots, plates, mounds, bean handle small pots and other pottery ceremonial vessel combinations, of which the pottery belt ear pot has the most cultural characteristics, should be the local indigenous cultural artifacts, such artifacts from the late Spring and Autumn period to the early Warring States period, according to the previous scholars' inference, this local ethnic group is likely to be a long-term activity in the northern part of the Zhao state during the Warring States period of the Lou Fu tribe. During the Warring States period, the area also belonged to the territory of the Zhao State, and the bean handle small pot was one of the most characteristic pottery vessels of the Zhao culture, so the tombs of this batch of burial pottery vessels should be the tombs of the Zhao people who moved north to Shuozhou.
According to the "Chronicle of the Zhao Shijia", "In the second year of King Huiwen (297 BC), the lord's father went to Xindi, so he came out of the dynasty, and met the king of Lou Lou in the west and sent his soldiers to the West River. It can be seen that the Houzhai cemetery is not the core activity area of Lou Fu, but the Zhao people have already had frequent contact with Lou Fu, which also laid a cultural foundation for Zhao Guo to later absorb a large number of Lou Fu troops.
There are three kinds of Qin and Han tombs: earthen pit vertical cave tombs, partial chamber tombs and earthen cave tombs, which extend from the Qin and Han dynasties to the Xinmang period. The main burial utensils excavated from the Qin and Han tombs are the folded belly jar, which is very close to the clay pot produced by the Qin Dynasty tomb in the Lintong Xinfeng Cemetery, the shallow plate pottery pot is decorated with triangular dark patterns on the upper abdomen, and the lower abdomen is stamped with the three words "Mayi City", which is a common mark of the market regulatory agency set up by the government at the time of the Qin and Han Dynasties, which shows that the Shuozhou area at the time of the Qin and Han Dynasties has both the cultural heritage of the Eastern Wednesday Jin Dynasty and the Qin cultural factors.
Transferred from: Shanxi Daily
Photo and text production: Shanxi Radio and Television Rong Media
Source: Shanxi Radio and Television Station