In the southeast of Dunhuang, there is a large group of ancient tombs in the Bay of the Buddha Temple, which is 20 kilometers long from east to west and about 5 kilometers wide from north to south. Within this range, tens of thousands of ancient tombs are distributed. Among them, in addition to scattered burials, there are many ethnic burials. In the past, mainland archaeologists have done a lot of excavation work on the Buddha Temple-Xindiantai Tomb Group. In May 1980, the Dunhuang County Museum of Gansu Province excavated three more tombs (number 80DFM1-3) at the first floor of the Buddha Temple Bay at the northern foot of Mingsha Mountain, 9 kilometers southeast of the county seat and 7 kilometers north of the Anton Highway.
Schematic map of the location and excavation site of the Dunhuang Buddha Temple - Xindiantai Tomb Group
What are the burial artifacts?
As shown below, M1 and M2 are in the same grave circle, and M3 is in the other grave circle. M1 is the largest. The sealing soil forms tall sand dunes, and the tombs are piled up with long sand ridges. All three tombs are gravel cave chamber tombs.
The tomb circle where M1 and M2 are located is 85 meters long from east to west and 80 meters wide from north to south. The walls of the tomb are about 2 meters wide and open to the south. Seven tombs are arranged in turn in the circle, and the tomb passages are all to the west. Between the third and fourth tombs, there is a pile of 2.7 × 2.7 meters of gravel on the ground, suspected to be an altar.
Burial utensils are mainly pottery, but there are also copper coins, iron mirrors, amber beads, stone stones and fabric fragments. The copper coins, one each with five baht and one from the cargo spring, were excavated in the north coffin and in the middle of the burial chamber. Most of the pottery is placed in front of the head of the south coffin in the southwest corner of the burial chamber, and others are placed between the two coffins near the back wall. Clay pots of Zhu shu or ink books are placed in front of the head or feet of the deceased in the coffin. In the abdomen of the deceased in the southern coffin, some pottery pieces with Zhu Shu were also found, which were restored to pottery bowls, which may have been deliberately broken at that time and put in. There are also similar fragments of ink book pottery bowls in the north coffin.
A total of 65 burial artifacts and 6 coins were unearthed from the three tombs. Including clay pots, clay vases, clay stoves, clay pots, clay vases, pottery warehouses, pottery bowls, pottery lamp holders, pottery plates, pottery fruit boxes, clay pots, pottery bowls, pottery plates, pottery wells, etc.
Map of artifacts inside the M1 burial chamber
1.Crushed pottery pieces 2,13.Small pottery bowls 3,4.Amber beads 5.Stone slabs 6,9,17,18,21-24,26,28,30,32,33.Clay pots 7.Five baht money 8,34.Pottery bowls 10.Grass weaving 11.Pottery fruit boxes 12.Pottery plates 14.Pottery lamp holders15.Cargo springs 16.Pottery stoves 19.Pottery koshi 20.Pottery bowls 25.Pottery plates 27.Pottery vases 29.Pottery jars 31.Residual iron mirrors 35.Silk fragments 36.Blue stranded silk fragments 37.Brocade fragments (inside of the coffin)
Others include small stone slabs (blue-grey, smooth surface, ink marks, suspected of being stones), amber beads (brownish yellow, translucent, slightly rounded, with perforations in them); iron mirrors; copper ornaments (all in long strips, with a brocade fragment inside, light ochre color, woven with a dark ochre trapezoidal pattern); grass weaving fragments (hexagonal hollow in the middle, suspected to be maran grass weaving); multi-child boxes of ramie lacquer (divided into three grades, a total of sixteen grids); mica pieces (with round holes).
80DFM3 burial chamber internal artifact distribution map
1、2. Pottery straight belly pot 3.Pottery chicken first stove 4.Pottery warehouse 5.Pottery pot 6, 13, 14, 15.Zhushu clay pot 7.Pottery fruit box 8.Pottery plate 9.Clay pot 10.Pottery lamp holder 11.Pottery plate 12.Lacquer multi-child box remnants 16.Mica pieces 17.Five-baht money 18.Clay pot fragments 19.Pottery bowl fragments
What is the identity of the owner of the tomb?
M1 tomb owner Zhang Fu pillow unearthed a small stone slab, there is ink on the board; left and right hands are placed in an amber bead, the coffin still has silk, brocade, other burial utensils are also many, archaeologists speculate that the owner of the tomb may belong to the clan of scholars.
M2 has fewer burial utensils and a simpler burial chamber. Judging from the arrangement of the tombs, the owner of the tomb seems to be the fourth generation of the Zhang family, that is, the great-grandson of Zhang Fu. Even if this tomb is separated from M1 by a hundred years, it should be a tomb of the Northern Dynasty period.
The Zhushu clay pot (M3:13) of the western coffin of M3 reads "The deceased [Ji] ling xiong self-note...", and the suspected tomb owner's surname "Ji" is "Ling Xiong". This tomb is also a joint burial tomb for husband and wife. From the analysis of the tomb structure and excavated artifacts, it is believed that the identity of the tomb owner of M3 and M1 is similar.
Pottery Chronology
Judging from the chronology on the pottery, M1 and M3 began from the thirteenth year of the former Liang Zhang Tianxi Taiqing (375, that is, the fifth year of Xian'an), and finally the tenth year of the Mengxun Xuanshi decade (421) of the Northern Liang Depression Canal, which lasted for 47 years, during which although the war continued and the dynasty changed, the burial customs did not change much. The burial utensils produced, such as boxes, pottery lamps, chicken head stoves, clay pots, etc., are basically the same as the artifacts excavated from the Jin tombs in this area.
M1: 6 clay pot Zhushu inscription
M1: 34 Clay pot Zhushu inscription
M1: 8 clay pot Zhushu inscription
Tao Wen can make some supplements to the historical record of this period. For example, the "Biography of Li Xuansheng, King of Liangwu Zhao" of the Book of Jin, says: "In the first year of Yixi, Xuansheng changed the yuan to Jianchu. "The month in which Li Huan changed the yuan in the first year of Yixi is not clearly recorded in the Book of Jin. The pottery inscription has "Gengzi 6th year of the first month of the first month of the water is not shuo 27 days", the sixth year of Gengzi is the first year of Yixi, indicating that the change of yuan should be after the first month of the first year of Yixi.
M1:6 The ink book has "26 days in August of the tenth year of the Xuan Dynasty", indicating that before 421 AD, Northern Liang had been destroyed in Western Liang, and Dunhuang was under the jurisdiction of Northern Liang. The Book of Song records that northern Liang Mengxun flooded Dunhuang and Western Liang Li Gong was destroyed in March of the third year (422) of the third year of the yongchu year of Emperor Wu of Song. The Tongjian article of the Song Wu Emperor Yongchu in March of the second year of yongchu records this incident in March of the second year of Yongchu (421). The chronology of the book in the clay pot proves that it is correct in the General Commentary.
The fragments of silk fabric in the M1 South Coffin belong to the Western Liang Period. The excavation of Xiliang silk fabrics in Dunhuang is the first time, which provides physical data for the study of the "Silk Road" and the silk weaving process in Dunhuang during the Wuliang period.