After a 10-year-long archaeological excavation, the tomb was chilling when it was opened, and the tomb unearthed 186 naked girls! This is the tomb with the largest number of martyrs since the Western Zhou Dynasty, and it is also the largest and most terrifying one excavated so far.
And the highest level of "yellow intestine inscription" in the rafters also shows that the identity of the tomb owner is noble, so who would build such a heinous mausoleum?
In 1976, Lao Zhao of Fengxiang County, Shaanxi Province, planned to repair the walls of his own courtyard, so he went to a wasteland in the village to dig up soil, but all that could be dug out were strangely shaped blocks, not only red and yellow in color, but also rubble mixed in the soil blocks.
Strange is a little strange, but this does not affect the repair of the wall, and later he learned in small talk that it came from hundreds of years, no matter how much rain this wasteland is in spring, summer, autumn and winter, no matter how much rain, the crops that grow out of the soil are like frosted eggplants.
In this way, this strange phenomenon spread ten, ten hundred, all the way to the ears of archaeologists in Shaanxi Province.
You should know that the ancient capital of the Thirteen Dynasties of Shaanxi, a shovel down, may be the tomb of the princes and nobles. The ancient city walls and palaces are commonly used rammed earth, and the soil excavated by Lao Zhao is very similar to the rammed earth, and archaeologists believe that there must be something strange under this wasteland.
So the archaeological team hurried to conduct a field survey, and sure enough, those strange pieces of soil were rammed earth, and the next discovery shocked the on-site personnel.
Beneath this wasteland is a huge tomb, covering an area comparable to two basketball courts! The depth is 8 stories high. After preliminary judgment at the scene, this should be the tomb of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
At the same time, archaeologists also found that this ancient tomb has been stolen many times before, and there are as many as 247 robbery caves at the scene, which means that in this ancient tomb, perhaps there are few funerary products left, which is good, and the bronze of the ancient tomb identity information must have been looted.
So, how can archaeologists prove the identity of the owner of this tomb?
With all kinds of questions about the tomb, the archaeologists began the formal excavation, but a terrifying scene made the people at the scene all creepy!
At the base of the tomb's second floor, scattered limb fragments were strewn all over the ground, and archaeologists excavated a skull with its mouth strangely wide open, as if it were screaming with exhaustion before death.
After overnight work, the archaeological team cleared out a total of 20 human skeletons. What is puzzling is that these 20 corpses not only have no coffins, but also placed in a disorderly position, archaeologists even found that most of these corpses are in different places and mutilated limbs, and from the movements and the state of the skull, it can be seen that they must have struggled painfully before death, and may have been tortured to death.
In this huge tomb, why are there such people buried?
All indications are that this may be an extremely frightening funerary system in ancient times - human martyrdom.
In a slave society, slaves were subordinate to the slave owners, and when the slave owners died, there was no need to live as slaves, and they had to accompany the slave owners on the road.
"Death is like life, death is like survival", the slave served the slave owner before he died, then the slave owner died, the slave must follow to serve. That's how martyrdom came about.
The 20 remains found in the tomb may have been slaves before they were buried, and when they were buried in the tomb, the slaves were cut down for sacrifice, so all that was left were messy bones.
Through this cruel burial, it can probably be judged that this huge ancient tomb should be a pre-Qin tomb. However, which period does this belong to in the pre-Qin period?
In order to solve the puzzle, the archaeologists did not stop. Underneath the 20 skeletons, another coffin was found, and sure enough, it was another human skeleton.
Soon, more than 160 such coffins were excavated at the site! Unlike the previous 20 corpses, the lower limbs of these 160 corpses were all curled up strangely!
According to historical records, there was a kind of flexion burial in the Qin martyrdom during the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States Period, that is, when people just lost their breath, they tied up the lower limbs with cloth strips and buried them in a coffin.
The total number of human bones found so far is as high as 186! Such a cruel and luxurious form of tomb shows that the owner of the tomb must be of noble status.
But who is the owner of the tomb? When will the final mystery be revealed? No one expected that this answer would wait for ten years.
It was not until 1986 that the top of the main coffin of the burial chamber was revealed. The east and west sides of the main coffin, as well as the bottom of the coffin and the coffin lid, are made of cypress wood, and the mortise protrudes from the coffin and is located on the north and south sides of the main coffin, which is a piece of shape into a cabinet style.
This special coffin shape in front of me is called "Yellow Intestine Inscription". According to historical data, the "yellow intestine inscription" is the funeral mode of the emperors of the Zhou Dynasty.
This made everyone very confused, the pre-Qin was only a princely state, according to the Zhou ritual system, even the princes of the pre-Qin did not have the right to bury a coffin of this level. What's going on? The identity of the owner of the tomb was instantly covered with a layer of fog.
Due to the many thefts, the archaeologists had no hope, and sure enough, only a section of femur was found in the main coffin, and nothing else.
But there are always exceptions, and archaeologists then find a pair of stone soles pieced together at the bottom of the tomb, and the soles are stained with cinnabar!
Next, archaeologists found other stone fragments, which were verified to be stone chimes with inscriptions on the edges of the stones. All the mysteries are about to be revealed!
The inscription "Gonghuan is the Heir" indicates that the owner of the tomb is the 14th prince of Qin and the 18th ancestor of Qin Shi Huang,Qin Jinggong.
However, Qin Jinggong was ultimately a prince, so after hundreds of thefts, more than 3,000 treasures were still unearthed, of which more than 100 were gold objects, including golden beasts, round golden bubbles, golden birds and so on. There are also 3 columns of funerary carriages and horses in the tomb, but this is a real car and live horse, which can be said to be the predecessor of the Terracotta Warriors of Qin Shi Huang.
During the excavation of Chema Pit, archaeologists also found some precious funerary items such as jade bi, jade fish, copper pieces, bronze hammers and so on.
And Jing Gong used the yellow intestine inscription burial style that only emperors could use, which showed that the ambition of pre-Qin at that time had long been revealed.