In the inventory of historical jewelry, the highest rate of appearance is generally the Royal Family in Europe, as everyone knows, we also have a lot of weighty royal treasures in China, but these treasures often follow their owners into the ground for a long time, but rescue archaeological excavations can let people today see the style of royal jewelry in the past.
Today's protagonist is a prince from the Ming Dynasty - Liang Zhuang Wang, his tomb suffered many excavations but failed, the burial variety and number of burials in the tomb is extremely rich, is another major discovery of the mainland Ming Dynasty archaeology after the Dingling Tomb.
Image source Baidu
King Zhuang of Liang, whose name was Zhu Zhan'an, was the younger brother of Emperor Xuanzong of Ming, Zhu Zhanji, and according to the Fourth Table of the Ming Dynasty: "King Zhan'an of Liangzhuang, the ninth son of Emperor Renzong, was enfeoffed in the twenty-second year of Yongle, and Xuande was in Luzhou in the fourth year of xuande, and the sixth year of orthodoxy was born." ”
The tomb of the King of Liangzhuang is the joint burial tomb of the King of Liangzhuang and the stepfather Wei, which has undergone the process of changing from a single tomb to a double tomb, of which the King of Liangzhuang died at the age of 30, buried first, and the Princess of Liangzhuang died at the age of 38, which was buried 10 years later than the King of Liangzhuang, and experts speculate that it may be because the two have no heirs, so the burial products in the tomb are so luxurious and rich.
| Why was the tomb of King Liangzhuang excavated? |
Around the Spring Festival in 2000, there were several tomb robbers, they were not idle in the New Year, the tomb top of the liangzhuang king tomb was blown out of a deep pit with explosives, so sensational, naturally attracted the attention of the local cultural relics bureau, on April 12, 2001, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Hubei Provincial Cultural Relics Group set up the "Ming Dynasty Liangzhuang King Tomb Archaeological Excavation Work Leading Group", officially began the rescue excavation of the tomb of Liang Zhuang King.
Structural diagram of the tomb of King Liangzhuang (image source network)
According to reports, when the archaeological team opened the underground palace, the water in the burial chamber was as deep as 3 meters, and it took 12 days to pump water, and the general high-grade tombs would have a drainage system, but Liang Zhuang Wang's did not, but built the tomb in a place where the groundwater could be seen, and experts speculated that it may be to express the meaning of "not hitting the Yellow Spring and not giving up".
Excavation site of the tomb of King Liangzhuang (source network)
In fact, so much water in the burial chamber, as well as the destruction of the tomb by the tomb robbers before, has made the experts not have much hope for this underground palace that has been closed for more than 500 years, but the fact is often unexpected, when the groundwater is pumped, what comes into view is the exquisite artifacts that make everyone present marvel.
| More than 5,300 cultural relics broke ground |
The treasure is related to Zheng He's voyage to the West
The joint tomb of Zhu Zhanyuan, the king of Mingliangzhuang, and his concubine, after being sorted out by archaeologists, unearthed more than 5,300 cultural relics, including 4,800 gold, silver, jade, jewelry, etc.
Some exquisite cultural relics of the tomb of King Liangzhuang
Graph source network
Among them, in the cultural relics excavated from the tomb of King Liangzhuang, a large number of jewelry from the West was found, which was obtained by Zheng He during the Yongle period during the Western Period, for which experts also speculated that the need for luxury goods such as jewelry by the Ming Dynasty nobles may be a major reason for Zheng He's voyage to the West.
Later, after archaeologists sorted out, they found a total of more than 3500 pieces of jewelry and jade, including diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, opals, including 173 rubies, 148 sapphires, 50 emeralds, 10 emeralds...
The following Ji Ge will take you to see the jewelry legend of this Ming Dynasty prince and his wife.
Top 6 pieces
In the tomb of King Liangzhuang, 6 pieces of hats were excavated, 2 pieces of gold-encrusted jade dragon hats, and 4 pieces of gold-encrusted gemstone caps, these 6 caps are gold-encrusted gemstone white jade skeletonized dragon wearing peony-patterned caps, gold-set blue sapphire caps, gold-encrusted blue sapphire caps, gold-encrusted blue-set gemstone caps, gold-encrusted sapphire caps, gold-encrusted colorless sapphire tops.
Top of 6 pieces (source network)
The hat top is one of the important discoveries of the tomb, experts say that these hat tops or Yuan people old objects, is extremely precious, Lu Xixing in the "Study of the Tomb of King Ming Liang zhuang" and the portrait of the Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, can also explain that these hats are part of the Yuan Ming big hat system.
The figure shows the method of wearing the cap (source network)
One of the most special hats excavated from the tomb of King Liangzhuang is the one below, and the olive-shaped colorless sapphire set at the top is nearly 200 carats! It is the largest sapphire ever found, and there are nine other gems on the top of this hat.
Colorless sapphire crown in gold (source network)
Ornament The Tomb of King Liangzhuang (Burial of One King and One Concubine)
A total of 13 belts were unearthed
A total of 13 belts were excavated from the tomb of King Liangzhuang, more than 12 of which were dingling, of which the gold-encrusted gem belt, the gold-rimmed silk-encrusted gem belt, the white jade crane catching goose belt, and the green jade sunflower belt were found for the first time.
In the Ming Dynasty, the leather belt was regarded as a symbol of status, and there were extremely strict rules for its use, and the green and white jade hollow cloud dragon pattern jade belt found in the tomb of King Liang zhuang this time was as high as 18 knots, which was of a higher grade than the same jade belt seen before.
Green and white jade skeleton cloud dragon pattern jade belt (source network)
The gold-tired silk-encrusted gem belt is composed of 24 pieces of gold-tired silk-encrusted treasure belt handcuffs and 2 pieces of gold belt and a falling gold latch, weighing a total of 641.9g, and the whole belt is inlaid with 84 gemstones such as rubies, sapphires, emeralds, Tanglin stones, feldspars, etc. The precious materials used and the exquisite craftsmanship have to sigh the aesthetics of the ancients.
Gold-rimmed gemstones (source network)
The gold-set gem belt is also inlaid with a lot of emeralds, sapphires, cat's eyes, golden emeralds, quartz cat's eyes, turquoise, beryl, Tanglin stone, etc., and is also a small gemstone stage, with a total of 98 gemstones.
Gold-set gemstone band (source network)
The center of the gold-encrusted jewel ring below is set with bone or wood chips, and the small tray is inlaid with gemstones, with 14 co-existing gemstones, including 6 rubies, 3 sapphires, 4 emeralds, and 1 Tanglin stone.
Gold-set gemstone tassel ring (source network)
| Husband and wife burial |
The tomb contains a large number of heads and accessories from the princess
King Liang zhuang and his stepfather Princess Wei had a deep affection, and had planned to be buried with Princess Liangzhuang before Princess Wei's death, but the previous tomb had been sealed, and everyone could only break the west door and move princess Wei's coffin into the underground palace, and the later stone door was replaced by a wooden door.
Therefore, the tomb not only has the relics of King Liang Zhuang, but also has a lot of jewelry faces of Princess Wei, which also allows us to travel through a hundred years and understand how the noble ladies of Daming are dressed.
Gold-studded gemstone-encrusted jade skeleton double luan bird peony hairpin
(Source Network)
This piece of gold and silk set with gemstones and jade hollow double luan bird peony is set with 17 gemstones, worn in the middle, commonly known as "picking hearts", which is an accessory for married women in the Ming Dynasty after pulling their hair in buns.
Gold Jewelry (Source Network)
Because the gold processing technology of the Ming Dynasty period has been very mature, it is found that many works are integrated into the filigree inlay process, engraving process, etc., so that the exquisite degree and aesthetics of the whole work are further improved.
Some exquisite cultural relics of the tomb of King Liangzhuang (source network)
| Conclusion |
The above list is only the tip of the iceberg of the tomb of King Liangzhuang, in addition to some gold-encrusted gemstone ornaments, there are a large number of exquisite royal treasures such as gold, jade and porcelain in the tomb.
These treasures tell the luxurious life of the Ming Dynasty full of pearls and gold and jade, and also witness the historical feats of Zheng He's voyage to the West, and everyone can personally feel the shock brought to us by these cultural relics, which is also the treasure brought to us by the long history of China.