At the beginning of 2022, the archaeological community announced a sensational "big project" - the archaeological survey and survey of the Eastern Zhou King's Mausoleum in Luoyang Jincun was officially launched a few days ago, and it is expected to last for 5 years.
Nearly a hundred years ago, the tomb of the Eastern Zhou King of Jincun was discovered due to a torrential rain and was excavated by madness, and most of the rare treasures have long been lost overseas, becoming a deplorable history. Now, the first comprehensive archaeological survey directly targeting the Tomb of Jincun in Luoyang is about to be launched. According to the preliminary plan, in the next 5 years, archaeologists will be divided into three stages to fully understand the basic situation of cultural relics in the Wangling District - the Eastern Zhou Tombs have an important position in the history of the development of China's mausoleum system, and the project will provide valuable archaeological information for solving major problems such as the transformation of ancient Chinese mausoleums and cultural inheritance.
The surface of the Tomb of Jincun Is Now Cultivated Land (According to Luoyang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology)
A torrential rain in 1928 and the mystery of the cultural relics of the Golden Village
In 770 BC, King Ping of Zhou moved east and established the capital Luoyang, known in history as Eastern Zhou. In the 59th year of King Zhao of Zhou (256 BC), Eastern Zhou was destroyed by Qin, and a total of 25 kings were passed on, lasting 515 years. According to documentary records and archaeological findings, the 25 generations of Zhou kings in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty were buried near Luoyang, divided into three mausoleum areas: Zhoushan, Wangcheng and Jincun.
Among them, the Tomb of the King of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in Jincun, located in Pingle Town, Mengjin District, Luoyang City, has a high reputation in the chinese and foreign archaeological circles. But this popularity that spread far overseas is accompanied by a history of theft that people can't bear to look back on.
It is rumored that at the turn of the summer and autumn of 1928, Jincun suffered several days of torrential rain. The farmland at the eastern end of the village suddenly sank, revealing a huge crater on the surface. The bold villagers went into the cave to investigate and found that there were antiquities that resembled chimes in the silt. Locals soon realized that this might be the entrance to an ancient tomb, and the treasures inside the Tomb of king Jincun were also discovered. However, this rumor is not supported by convincing information.
Nearly a hundred years ago, in China, when the situation was turbulent and surrounded by foreign enemies, the government at that time had no intention or ability to effectively protect, supervise and scientifically excavate the tombs and their excavated cultural relics. According to the records: from 1928 to 1932, 8 large tombs in Jincun were stolen, and a large number of exquisite Eastern Zhou cultural relics were unearthed. Most of these rare treasures have been scattered overseas.
Among them, the Canadian missionary William Charles White collected a large number of Gold Village artifacts and transported them back to Canada. Today, the Royal Ontario Museum of Canada houses a number of exquisite artifacts from the Golden Village Tombs. Huai Luguang later wrote a book "Luoyang Ancient City Ancient Tomb Examination" (Luoyang Ancient City Ancient Tomb Examination) according to his own collation of these cultural relics.
However, according to Shen Chen, a researcher at the Royal Ontario Museum of Canada, in the article "The Legend of the Golden Village: The Mystery of Huai Luguang and Luoyang Cultural Relics", because Huai Luguang himself never came to the excavation site in person, the cultural relics obtained were basically from the hands of antique dealers, so many of the cultural relics written in the book are not clear in date and provenance, and some of them are likely not from the Tomb of Jincun.
However, due to the lack of first-hand archaeological information, the answer to these mysteries may never be known.
Huai Luguang's "Examination of the Ancient Tombs of Luoyang Ancient City"
After the tomb was fixed, it no longer took the initiative to excavate the imperial tomb
According to incomplete statistics, at present, dozens of cities in more than ten countries such as Canada, Japan, and the United States have found suspected Golden Village cultural relics. This is also the largest scale of stolen excavations, the highest level of cultural relics and the largest number of cultural relics on the mainland in modern times. "For more than 90 years, the precious cultural relics scattered overseas in the Jincun Tomb have always been a regret of the mainland archaeology community." Zhao Xiaojun, president of the Luoyang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said, "In the hearts of many archaeologists, they have a lingering complex for Jincun. ”
Artifacts have been lost, but history remains. The comprehensive archaeological survey and survey of the Jincun Wang Mausoleum is not mainly to find cultural relics, but to comprehensively understand the Jincun Wang Mausoleum, cemetery, auxiliary tombs, chema pits, etc., but does not involve the excavation of the Eastern Zhou Tombs.
"The Eastern Zhou Dynasty was a critical period in the transformation of China's ancient mausoleum system." Zhao Xiaojun told Red Star News, "Although the mausoleum was discovered in the late 1920s, it was all pirated excavations and did not leave complete scientific archaeological information. ”
The reason why the Tombs of the Eastern Zhou Kings is no longer excavated has a historical background - in the 1950s, the Dingling Tomb of the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was excavated, but due to the limited technical level at that time, insufficient protection means, plus other historical factors, a large number of precious cultural relics were damaged. Since then, not taking the initiative to excavate imperial tombs has become an important principle in the archaeological community. The State Administration of Cultural Heritage generally does not approve archaeological excavations of imperial tombs.
Careful readers may notice that at the end of 2021, in the news report that the Jiangcun Tomb in Bailuyuan, Shaanxi Province, was confirmed as the tomb of Emperor Hanwen, the only thing that was really "excavated" was the outer pits, funerary pits and pottery kilns that fired building materials for the tombs of some emperors, and for the tombs of Emperor Wen of Han and the southern tombs of Empress Bo, the mother of Emperor Wen of Han, they were only meticulous "archaeological exploration" and not informal excavations.
The "Jincun Dading" now in the Luoyang Museum is one of the only three remaining cultural relics in China that have been confirmed to have been excavated from the Jincun Tomb
Luoyang shovel took the lead, and large-scale exploration was launched after a few years
According to Zhao Xiaojun, the initial plan for the archaeological work carried out around the Jincun Tomb is to take three steps, the first step is to understand the basic situation of the cultural relics of the Eastern Zhou King's Tomb in Jincun through a comprehensive exploration of the Jincun Mausoleum area and its surrounding areas.
The second step is to select key sites that will help solve major academic problems on the basis of the first step of work and conduct archaeological test excavations. "The current idea is to select a funerary carriage pit or a small tomb in the mausoleum area for trial excavation, so as to understand the cultural connotation and chronological relationship of the remains, and carry out relevant archaeological research."
The third step is to conduct a comprehensive analysis, summary and academic research on the cultural relics of the Eastern Zhouling District of Jincun through the first-hand information obtained through the preliminary field archaeological work, and finally on this basis, a further cultural relics protection plan is formulated.
At the end of the interview, Zhao Xiaojun told the Red Star News reporter that it had snowed heavily in Luoyang before, "Just today it was sunny." After the Spring Festival, they will continue to carry out investigation work, the specific way is to use the famous Luoyang shovel, large-scale field exploration, "In addition to formal excavation, the most effective method of exploration work is the Luoyang shovel." ”
The Tang Dynasty poet Wang Jian once wrote: "There is little idle land at the head of the Northern Qiao Mountain, and it is full of old tombs of luoyang people", and today, this area of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty Tombs with an area of about 1 square kilometer is currently cultivated land, and there are no related relics on the ground. But archaeologists will not forget. A shovel went deep into the dirt of more than 2,000 years ago from the feet of the archaeologists, patiently searching for traces of that history in the vast land.
Red Star News reporter Qiao Xueyang
Edited by Li Jie
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