Shuozhou excavated a number of tombs from the Eastern Zhou to the Qin and Han dynasties

Shanxi Evening News (reporter Sun Yiqiong) A few days ago, a reporter from the Shanxi Evening News learned from the Shanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute that the Houzhai cemetery was discovered in Houzhai Village, Yaozitou Township, Shuocheng District, Shuozhou City, and a total of more than 400 tombs from the Eastern Zhou to the Qin and Han Dynasties were excavated, of which the Eastern Zhou tombs were the mainstay, followed by the Qin and Han tombs. It 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 Houzhai cemetery is in a critical area where farming culture and nomadic culture blend. From October 2019 to December 2020, the Shanxi Archaeological Research Institute, together with the Shuozhou Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics, the Shuozhou Municipal Cultural Relics Conservation and Utilization Service Center, and the Shuocheng District Cultural Relics and Tourism Bureau, formed a joint archaeological team to systematically excavate the area of the construction project covering an area of about 120 acres, and finally found a large number of tomb groups. According to Gao Zhenhua, director of the Scientific Research Management Department of the Shanxi Archaeological Research Institute, in the excavated Eastern Zhou tombs, most of them are mainly earthen pit vertical cave tombs, and there are a small number of vertical shaft tombs, but the partial chamber tombs are more special, the horizontal excavation depth of the burial chamber is generally shorter, the largest can only put in half a wooden coffin, and the smallest one is only a few tens of centimeters. Most of them use wooden coffins and rafters as burial tools, and the burial styles include two kinds of straight limbs on the back and flexed limbs on the back, and the age extends from the late Spring and Autumn period to the middle of the Warring States period, and there is no interruption in the middle.

The excavated Relics of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty 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 jar 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. Among them, the excavated ear jars have only been concentrated in the Nanliang Cemetery and the Houzhai Cemetery in Pingping, Pinglu, Shuozhou, so far, and only sporadic excavations have been made in other areas. According to the inferences of previous scholars, this local ethnic group is likely to be a branch of the Lou nu tribe that had long been active in the northern part of the Zhao state during the Warring States period. In addition, in the early Warring States period with indigenous cultural artifacts coexisted with pottery mane and extravagant drum belly jar, Houzhai cemetery excavated from the Eastern Zhou pottery mane mainly sand ash pottery, these characteristics and the central plains popular pottery mane in the same period has a certain difference, such pottery mane has been found in Shaanxi Qingjian Lijiaya, Huangling Zhaitou River has been concentrated, luxury mouth drum belly jar is very similar to the Jade Emperor Temple cemetery of Yanqing Jundushan Yuhuang Temple cemetery of the Jade Emperor Temple culture, so the tomb owners of these tombs are likely to have a deep connection with the Jade Emperor Temple culture of the JunduShan Cemetery. According to the research of many scholars, the culture of the Jade Emperor Temple should be related to the founding of the founding state after Bai Di moved east.

Qin and Han tombs have three kinds of earthen pit vertical tombs, partial chamber tombs and earthen cave tombs, with the largest number of earthen cave tombs, all using wooden coffins as burial tools, some earthen cave tombs are built along the burial chamber soil, and the burial style is mainly based on upright burials on the back, and the age extends from the qin and Han dynasties to the New Mang period. At the time of the Qin and Han Dynasties, there was a folded belly jar, which was very close to the clay pot produced by the Qin Dynasty tomb in the Lintong Xinfeng Cemetery, and the shallow plate pottery pot was decorated with triangular dark patterns on the upper abdomen, which was a common ornament in the Three Jins region during the Warring States period, and the lower abdomen was stamped with the words "Mayi City", which was a common mark for the market regulatory authorities set up by the government at the time of the Qin and Han Dynasties. It can be seen that the Shuozhou area at the time of the Qin and Han Dynasties had both the cultural relics of the Eastern Wednesday Jin Dynasty and the Qin cultural factors. In this excavation, the number of tombs in the late Western Han Dynasty is the largest, the Western Han Dynasty in the Shuozhou area is at the forefront of the confrontation between the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu, the number of tombs in the Late Western Han Dynasty has increased significantly, it is not difficult to see that the Han Dynasty has won many battles with the Xiongnu after the WuDi to the Zhaoxuan period, and after the Southern Xiongnu were annexed, the northern border counties gradually became stable, the population increased, and the economy prospered.

This excavation 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 discussing the history of political and military development in the Central Plains and northern regions during the Warring States period.

(Editor-in-charge: Ma Yunmei)