More than 250 relics of various periods have been found underground of the original Qujiang International Convention and Exhibition Center, which is often visited by Xi'an people, of which 9 tombs are a Yuan Dynasty Zhao family cemetery, and the use time basically runs through the Yuan Dynasty. A wide variety of cultural relics have been unearthed in this family tomb, as if opening a crossing door to chang'an city in the Yuan Dynasty.
This archaeological excavation project was successfully selected as the second shaanxi important archaeological new discovery. On January 24, at an online press conference organized by the Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics, Zhu Lianhua, the project leader, introduced the situation of this archaeological project.
The nine tombs are arranged in two rows, north and south, from northwest to southeast
According to reports, from May to November 2021, in order to cooperate with the construction of Xi'an China Resources International Cultural and Commercial Center project, the Xi'an Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology excavated more than 250 units of ancient tombs, ash pits, kiln sites, ancient wells and other types of relics on the south side of Yanzhan Road in Qujiang New District, Xi'an, and the era of remains continued from the Warring States to the Ming and Qing dynasties. Among them, a group of 9 tombs was found in the middle of the excavation project, in two rows, north and south, arranged from northwest to southeast. Based on the excavated textual materials and the arrangement of the cemeteries, excavators speculate that the nine tombs are a Yuan Dynasty family cemetery.
The tombs in this cemetery are neatly arranged, there are three kinds of stepped tomb road brick chamber tombs, step tombs and vertical cave tombs, all of which are southeast-oriented, the first two are larger, mainly located in the west of the cemetery, consisting of stepped tombs, caves, patios, brick sealed doors, earthen caves or brick burial chambers and left, right and rear three niches and other structures, the latter is relatively small, mainly located in the east of the cemetery, composed of vertical cave tombs, earthen cave burial chambers, and some have a back niche on the back wall of the tomb.
For the Tomb of the Zhao Family in the Yuan Dynasty, the burial chambers of the three tombs have surviving murals of human figures
Located in the northwest of the cemetery, M45 unearthed a piece of Zhushu to buy land coupons, although the Zhushu text is vague, but it can be roughly read that the owner of the tomb is Zhao Bojie, a proton of Zhulu, who was buried in the fourth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1267). The M44 excavation in the middle of the cemetery is a combination of epitaphs, on which is inscribed "Yuan Gu Xingping Wei Zhao Cemetery Inscription".
According to the epitaph, the tomb owner's name was Zhao Hao, a lieutenant of Xingping County, who died in Yanyou Gengshen Xia (1320), his grandfather Zhao Bojie, his father Zhao Zhongrong, and his son Zhao Rui. The chronological text materials excavated from these two tombs can be determined to be the tomb of the Zhao family in the Yuan Dynasty.
Located in the northwest of the cemetery, the M45 era is the earliest, and the southeast era is gradually late, and the cemetery is used from the yuan dynasty to the fourth year of the Yuan dynasty, and it is speculated in the order of arrangement that the cemetery should be buried in the 4th to 5th generations of the Zhao family, and the continuation time basically runs through the Yuan generation.
The early tombs in the cemetery are larger in scale and the burial products are relatively rich, while the late tombs are relatively small in scale and have fewer burials. The four walls of the M45, M40 and M38 burial chambers on the westernmost side of the cemetery have murals based on human figures.
Many tombs in the cemetery have secondary burial and reconstruction, expansion traces, such as M40, which was originally supposed to be a brick chamber mural tomb, which was remodeled and expanded before the second burial, demolished the top of the tomb and the east and west walls, and expanded the east and west sides of the tomb by about 0.5 meters, the tomb buried a total of 4 people, should be a joint burial tomb of a husband and wife. Although the burial tools are all wooden coffins, the burial customs of the four human bones are different, and the two in the middle are buried with burnt bones (Fig. 5).
A total of more than 500 burial artifacts of various types have been excavated from 9 tombs (groups)
A total of more than 500 pieces (groups) of various types of burial utensils have been excavated from the 9 tombs, of which tao ming ware is the bulk, and porcelain, sancai ware, bronze ware, gold and silver ware, iron ware, jade and stone ware are also of various types.
There are three main types of pottery vessels: antique pottery vessels, daily life vessels and terracotta figurines. Antique pottery ritual vessels include imitation Shang Zhou bronze vessels such as square pots decorated with cloud thunder patterns, gui, mounds, incense burners, and imitation Han Dynasty Ming vessels such as warehouses, stoves, kettles, etc.; Daily life utensils include cans, bottles, candlesticks, pots, turns, plates, cups, etc. There are animal figurines such as tomb dragons, chickens, dogs, sheep, camels, horses, etc., and the traveling car figurines mainly include leading horses, carriage horses and camel combination figurines, and there are various types of male and female attendants with vivid appearances.
Porcelain sources are found in the southern kilns and in the northern kilns, most of which are practical utensils
There are more than 30 pieces of porcelain, which are divided into plum bottles, jade pot spring bottles, bowls, cups, plates, etc. in the shape of utensils, and white glaze, blue glaze, white glaze, sauce glaze, etc. with glaze color, and are divided into tea utensils, wine vessels and eating utensils for purpose, most of which are practical utensils, and the traces of use are more obvious. After preliminary identification, these porcelains include Jingdezhen kiln, Longquan kiln and Hutian kiln from the south, Jun kiln and Huozhou kiln from the north and Yaozhou kiln in Shaanxi. There are also several pieces of tricolor utensils, including pillows, plates, incense burners, bottles, etc.; More than ten pieces of jade, mainly including pendants, crown ornaments and beads; Several pieces of goldware, mainly small ornaments such as hair pins. In addition, in most tombs, there are five square and five color town tombstones or iron ploughs, iron cattle and other town tombs with burial items.
It provides a reliable reference for the study of the ideology and culture of middle- and lower-level officials in guanzhong in the Yuan Dynasty
Zhu Lianhua believes that the discovery of these 9 tombs composed of the Yuan Dynasty family cemetery, clearly arranged, orderly inheritance, the era basically runs through the Yuan generation, the tomb connotation is relatively rich, including a variety of burial customs and a large number of, a variety of types of funerary products, not only reflects the history of the rise and fall of the Zhao family in Xi'an City in the Yuan Dynasty, but also provides a reliable reference for the study of the ideological culture and funerary customs of the middle and lower-level officials in the Guanzhong area of the Yuan Dynasty. In addition, the porcelain excavated from the tomb is rich in varieties, clear in time, and long in duration, which provides physical information for the study of the characteristics of the vessel type of Yuan Dynasty porcelain, the exchange and trade between the Yuan and the Southern Song Dynasty, and so on.
Huashang Daily reporter Ma Huzhen (Courtesy of Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology)