Excavated artifacts (file photo). Xinhua News Agency (Courtesy of Shanxi Institute of Archaeology)
Taiyuan, 17 Jan (Xinhua) -- The Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology recently released its latest archaeological results, saying that archaeologists have excavated more than 400 tombs from the Eastern Zhou to the Qin and Han dynasties in Shuozhou City, which is of great value for discussing the history of political and military development in the Central Plains and northern regions during the Warring States period.
The excavation site 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, the Shanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute, the Shuozhou Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics, the Shuozhou Municipal Cultural Relics Protection and Utilization Service Center, and the Shuocheng District Culture and Tourism Bureau formed a joint archaeological team to systematically excavate an area of about 120 mu, 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.
The Eastern Zhou relics excavated from the cemetery have the largest number of pottery and a rich variety of utensils, including ding, bean, pot, plate, turn, bean handle small pot and other pottery ritual vessel combinations, of which the pottery belt ear pot has the most cultural characteristics, which should be the local indigenous cultural artifacts, and the age of such artifacts extends from the late Spring and Autumn period to the early Warring States period. Gao Zhenhua, director of the Scientific Research Management Department of the Shanxi Archaeological Research Institute, said that according to past scholars, 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. The area belonged to the territory of the Zhao State during the Warring States period, and the bean handle small pot was a pottery vessel with the characteristics of 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.
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, the shallow plate pottery pot is decorated with triangular dark patterns on the upper abdomen, and the lower abdomen is stamped with the 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, and scholars speculate 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.
Gao Zhenhua said that the Houzhai cemetery excavated this time provides rich archaeological materials for studying the layout of cemeteries, burial hierarchy and funerary customs from the Eastern Zhou to the Qin and Han dynasties along the Great Wall in the north.
This is a burial chamber photographed at the excavation site (file photo). Xinhua News Agency (Courtesy of Shanxi Institute of Archaeology)
Source: Xinhua Net