Gao Zhenlong of the Henan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology's report is entitled "Report on the Achievements of the 2021 Archaeological Excavation of hebi Xincun Site in the Zhou Dynasty Weiguo". The site of Xincun, formerly known as the Xincun Cemetery in Xun County, was first excavated in 1932 by the Institute of History and Philology of the Academia Sinica, which was the core area of the territory of the princely states and the Wei state in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and the beginning of the archaeology of the Western Zhou Dynasty in China. In 2021, after the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the active archaeological excavation of the site was opened for the first time, and 1 ancient channel of the Qihe River, 1 artificial canal, a number of bronze tombs and jade tombs were cleared, 1 new settlement and 1 bone-making workshop were added, and the excavation site in 1932 was reconfirmed; more than 20 pieces of copper ceremonial vessels, a large number of jade, aggregates and pottery were excavated in many settlements and burial areas, and important archaeological harvests were achieved.
[The report was published at the "2021 Henan Archaeological Work Achievements Exchange Meeting" held in Nanyang, Henan on the morning of December 18, 2021]
Extended Materials:
The tombs of the nobles of the Yin remnants were found in Hebi Xin Village
Source: Henan Daily December 2021
Henan Daily client reporter Chen Zhuo Wen Xiaojuan Zhang Tiyi
On the morning of December 18, at the 2021 Henan Archaeological Work Achievements Exchange Meeting, Gao Zhenlong, head of the archaeological excavation project of hebi Xincun site, introduced the important archaeological harvests since this year: a number of bronze tombs and jade tombs were cleared, including the tombs of the Nobles of the Yin Relics; a new bone-making workshop, an ancient river channel of the Qihe River, and an artificial canal were newly discovered, which provided important clues for clarifying the distribution of underground remains and settlement structures in the Shang and Zhou periods of the Xincun ruins, and revealing the social organization structure and economic form at that time.
In 1932, the first excavation of the Xincun cemetery shocked the archaeological community and opened the prelude to the archaeology of the Western Zhou Dynasty on the mainland. In 2017, large-scale archaeological excavations were restarted, and a series of new major discoveries such as copper casting workshops, bone-making workshops, ordinary settlements, civilian cemeteries, and Weihou Cemetery areas have confirmed this place from a simple cemetery to a super-large settlement site with the nature of a duyi. The site is centered on Xin Village, covering both the north and south banks of the QiHe River, with an area of nearly 10 square kilometers. In 2021, after the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the first active archaeological excavation of the site was launched.
In the southwest of Xincun Village, semi-crypt houses, cellar pits, tombs and other remains were found. Among them, 17 tombs of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties were found, including two complete bronze tombs of M2 and M3, 1 jade tomb and a number of pottery tombs. Among them, M3 is a tomb of a middle nobility in the Western Zhou Dynasty. 11 bronze ceremonial vessels including copper ding, gui, mane and knight were found, as well as weapons such as ge and spear, as well as copper cutting, jade, imitation copper pottery ceremonial vessels, etc., including wine utensils, eating utensils, cooking utensils, weapons and tools. The head of the tomb is facing south, the tomb filler and waist pit each martyr 1 dog, the second floor of the Taipei end there are 2 martyrs, all of them are juvenile individuals. In addition, three kinds of animal sacrifices were adopted, which belonged to the "Tai Prison" sacrifice according to the "Zhou Li".
It is worth mentioning that this is the tomb with the most bronze ceremonial vessels excavated from the Xincun site in the 89 years since the archaeological excavations in 1932, and it is also the most complete preserved and most abundant single tomb of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
M2 was badly stolen, and only a set of imitation copper pottery vessels was unearthed. According to the accumulation of soil and pottery pieces in the tomb passage, the tomb was stolen about the middle and late Spring and Autumn period. The historical background may be related to the loss of the state of Wei Yigong Haohe, when the Wei capital moved east, and Rong Di spread throughout the region, and carried out a large-scale looting of the Wei capital.
Gao Zhenlong believes that the excavation area is integrated with burial, the tombs are mostly waist pits, martyr dogs, and the combination of excavated artifacts is mainly based on mane + gui + jar, which has a strong Shang Dynasty style and belongs to a place where Yin relics live. This is in line with Shi Zaifen Kang's use of the "Seven Tribes of Yinmin". According to the "Zuo Biography", after the Zhou Dynasty destroyed the Shang, the Duke of Zhou assisted Zuo Chengwang and divided the feudal state into feudal states, and distributed them to Uncle Kang "seven clans of Yin: Tao, Shi, Fan, Fan, Fan, And Zhongkui", so that the yin remnants of these seven clans became subjects of the Wei state. The latest archaeological excavation results at the Hebi XinCun site have once again confirmed the historical records.
The newly discovered bone-making workshop area is located in the east of Xincun Village, close to the Weihou Cemetery area in the south. More than a dozen aggregate accumulation pits have been excavated, most of which are distributed in contiguous pieces, all of which are extremely shallow from the surface, mostly less than 1 meter. The amount of aggregate is quite abundant, and the animal species used are mainly cattle bones, which also have antlers, and the cutting marks are very obvious. Judging from the excavations, the aggregates that have been found are discarded after use, most of which have metacarpal bones, various types of bone ends, and rarely complete long limb bones. In addition, a little dog bone, pig bone, sheep bone and so on were also found. May be a waste pit.
The newly discovered Qihe Ancient River Channel runs northwest to the southwest of Pangcun Village, to the wetland park at the bend of the Qihe River, to the southeast to the West Chonggou of Xincun, and then into the Qihe River. The edge of the river channel is a clear gentle slope, and there are no obvious artificial traces, combined with the excavated pottery pieces, soil structure, and surrounding terrain, the river channel may belong to a seasonal river channel running through the site. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the site was uneven, a smaller hilly section, the channel belonged to the low-lying land between the two small hills, the flow time may only be when the Qi River flooded, in order to avoid flooding the site and divert water into Qi.
The artificial canal is located in the northern section of the site, and its initial exploration is about 300 meters long from north to south, bordering a low-lying wetland of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the north and the Xichong ditch of Xincun in the south.
Experts believe that the newly discovered qihe ancient river channel and water canal, and the newly explored wetland swamp can connect related settlements and various workshop areas, which will help to re-understand the settlement layout of the Xincun site.
In addition, in addition to the Weihou tombs that are being excavated, two new groups of Weihou tombs have been explored, representing the three generations of Weihou, which provides detailed information for improving the lineage of Weihou and studying the tomb shape system of the princes surnamed Ji of the Zhou Dynasty.
The excavation site in 1932 was reconfirmed, and three groups of Weihou tombs were excavated, which provided detailed information for improving the lineage of Weihou and studying the tomb shape system of the princes surnamed Ji in the Zhou Dynasty.