Excavation of the Warring States Cemetery in Chifeng Xiqiao Town
Yu Wenxuan Zhang Ying (Chifeng Museum, Inner Mongolia)
Abstract: Chifeng City, located in the east of Inner Mongolia, has been here since 10,000 years ago because of its unique geographical environment and rich natural resources. Subsequently, many ethnic minorities in the north used this as a political, economic and cultural center. The discovery of the Warring States Tomb in xiqiao, Qaraqin Banner, is a precious material for studying the history, culture and folklore of that time. Due to the repeated excavations of the cemetery by the tomb robbers, in May 2013, the Chifeng City Museum organized a rescue excavation of the cemetery. A total of 59 Warring States tombs were excavated, of which only 5 were not stolen and 54 stolen tombs were cleaned. The Warring States Cemetery excavated this time is the only highest high-grade Warring States noble tomb group found in chifeng area, and a total of more than 200 relics (groups) have been excavated from the cemetery, of which a number of exquisite bronze ceremonial vessels and bone tools have appeared for the first time in Inner Mongolia, which is a major discovery of Chifeng archaeology in recent years and fills the gap in the archaeology of the Warring States period in Inner Mongolia.
Keywords: nomadic culture; Chifeng West Bridge; Warring States tomb; bronze ceremonial vessel
Chifeng City is located in the eastern part of Inner Mongolia, with the majestic Xing'an Mountains in the north, the Qilaotu Mountain and nurul Tiger Mountain in the southwest, and the vast Mongolian grassland in the east, with the Xilamulun River and the Laoha River running in the middle. The unique geographical environment and rich natural resources here have become the ideal home for people in ancient societies to survive and reproduce. This land opened the prelude to civilization 10,000 years ago, followed by the emergence of a prosperous neolithic culture, and became the center of political, cultural and economic activities of the northern ethnic groups, and the ancient Shang, Shanrong, Donghu, Xiongnu, Wuhuan, Xianbei, Kumoxi, Khitan and Mongolian ethnic minorities appeared here. The Warring States tombs found at the West Bridge of Qaraqin Banner are valuable materials for the study of history, anthropology, and folklore at that time.
Xiqiao Town is located in the southeast of Chifeng Karaqin Banner, bordering Nailin Town to the east, Jinshan Town to the west, Xizi Town and Xiaochengzi Town of Ningcheng County to the south bounded by the Kundu River, and intersecting with Shijia Manchu Township and Yuanbao Mountain in the north, 47 kilometers away from the seat of the Qaraqin Banner Government. Since the cemetery has been excavated by many tomb robbers, the Chifeng City Museum has carried out rescue excavations of the cemetery. In May 2013, the Chifeng City Museum, the Karaqin Banner Cultural Relics Bureau in the Qaraqin Banner Xiqiao Town Gongyingzi Village, Tieyingzi three groups of villages houbeishan presided over the excavation of this batch of Warring States cemeteries, the excavation of the Warring States cemetery is currently the only highest level warring states noble tomb group found in the Chifeng area, the cemetery excavated a number of exquisite bronze ceremonial vessels, bone tools, etc., this is the first discovery in Inner Mongolia, is a major discovery of Chifeng archaeology in recent years, filling the gap in the archaeology of the Warring States period in Inner Mongolia.
The excavated cemetery is located on a gentle hill in the north of Tieyingzi Group 3 of Gongjiayingzi Village, 20 kilometers west of Xiqiao Town, Qaraqin Banner, covering an area of about 8,000 square meters. The cemetery is surrounded by mountains, with steep mountains to the southeast and southwest, village roads 100 meters to the south, and seasonal rivers to the south (Figure 1).
Figure 1 Photograph of the Warring States Cemetery overlooking the distance
The gentle slope where the Gongyingzi Warring States Cemetery in Xiqiao Town is located has now been reclaimed as farmland, and because there are tombs excavated here every year, the surface is scattered with sand red pottery, brown pottery and clay gray pottery pieces, as well as human and animal bones, teeth, etc. Sand pottery is mostly plain noodles, clay has plain surfaces, there are also thin rope patterns, sand red pottery, brown pottery pieces are the remnants of the upper culture of Xiajiadian, Warring States pottery pieces, human bones, animal bones are excavated by tomb robbers in the tomb. After excavation, it can be seen that the age of the cemetery is roughly equivalent to the middle to late Warring States period. The cemetery found remnants of the upper layer of Xiajiadian and the site of the kiln and ash pits, and excavated 59 Warring States tombs. Among them, 5 tombs that were not stolen and excavated were excavated, and 54 stolen tombs were cleaned. A total of more than 200 pieces (groups) of relics were unearthed.
Pottery is divided into wheel and handmade, mainly plain surfaces, individually with fine rope patterns and diagonal lines, divided into two kinds: clay and sand. There are two kinds of table colors, gray and brown, the latter can be divided into gray brown, black brown and yellow brown, etc., individual pottery table polishing, utensils mainly pots.
Bronze utensils and weapons include pots, duns, dings, wine utensils, spoons, knives, cones, and pendants, and the ornaments are mainly stone beads. In addition, there are turquoise beads and copper earrings, copper bubbles, copper cloud ornaments, bronze buckles and so on. Bone tools include musical instruments, hammers, bone rings, etc., in addition to pottery spinning wheels, mussel ornaments and so on.
The tombs of the cemetery are basically arranged in a northwest to southeast direction, which can be roughly divided into 10 columns, the arrangement density varies, the least column is only 3, the tombs are mostly rectangular earth pit tombs, and there are fewer slate tombs. The tombs have single tombs, two-person tombs, mainly single upright burials, followed by side straight limb burials, and some people are martyred, and large and medium-sized tombs have the phenomenon of martyrdom of animal heads and hooves. The owners of the tombs range from adults to children, some with incomplete bones or marked dismemberment.
The tombs of the entire cemetery can be divided into three types: large, medium and small. A few large tombs are 5 to 7 meters long, most of them are medium tombs, the tombs are 2 meters long and about 1 meter wide, and the small tombs are few, about 1 meter long and about 0.6 meters wide. Burial items: Bronze ware appears in groups such as ding, dun, pot, za, yao, boat, bucket, dagger, etc., as well as bronze halberds, knives, belts, harnesses, etc. The patterns are decorated with gluttonous patterns, cockroach patterns, hammer patterns, cloud thunder patterns, milk nail patterns, animal patterns, spiral patterns, character stories, etc.
M23 has been stolen many times, and can only be known as a rectangular earth pit vertical burial tomb. Most of the upper openings of the tomb were destroyed, and the second floor platform was also destroyed by two burglary holes, which can only be seen as a flat-bottomed straight wall. The depth of the second-story platform is 135 cm, the bottom of the tomb is 260 cm long and 140 cm wide, and the entire depth of the tomb is 575 cm. At the bottom of the tomb, it was found that the opening of the robbery hole of about 70 centimeters on the north and south sides entered the second floor platform. Inside the tomb are the remains of a stake from recent grave robbers' racks, and there are animal bones in the disturbed soil, which can be identified as deer heads, horse heads, bull heads, dog heads and hoof bones. There is no human skeleton at the bottom of the tomb, bronze and bone tools, stone beads, gold leaf, etc. are cleared out of the disturbed soil of the tomb, and an oval waist pit is found under the rammed layer (6 cm thick of the rammed layer) under the coffin at the bottom of the tomb. There are 20 pieces of precious bronzes unearthed inside: 2 pieces of bronze pots, both of which have lids and decorations on the lid, the large one has ring-shaped ears (there are also ornaments on the ears), and the lid and body have exquisite ornaments. The large bronze: 15.2 caliber, 32.5 abdominal diameter, 20.7 bottom diameter, 60.5 cm high, 9.85 kg weight. The other is a beam pot, which is different from the large pot. Caliber 10, abdominal diameter 21, bottom diameter 13, height 32 cm, weight 2.5 kg. One piece, round, the vessel is separated into two containers, and there are extremely exquisite patterns on the entire table, with ear handles and feet, and ornaments on them. Caliber 15.2, height 21.2 cm, weight 1.35 kg. Ding one piece, with a lid, the ornament is a dragon, the foot is an animal pattern, the caliber is 20, the abdominal diameter is 23.5, the lid height is 26, the height of the ding is 17.3 cm, and the weight is 2.45 kg. Wash one piece, remnant, plain face, fold along the upper abdomen with a copper ring. Caliber 38, base diameter 17, height 9.5 cm, weight 0.7 kg. One piece, plain surface, oval mouth, a ring along the front outer proximal mouth. The caliber is 17.6 cm long, 12.7 km wide, 10.8 cm long, 7.5 cm wide, 6.35 cm high and weighs 0.15 kg. Two pieces, plain surface, the same shape, caliber 10.7, bottom diameter 5.6, height 21 cm, weight 0.8 kg. Boat 10 pieces, plain surface, the same shape, oval mouth, two sides out of the plate lugs, caliber length 15.9, width 12.9, bottom diameter length 8.4, width 3.8, height 4.3 cm, each piece weighs 0.18 kg. Long-handled character story bucket, the front and back of the handle have exquisite character stories and other patterns engraved on the line, 60 long, 8.5 long, 6.7 cm wide, weighing 0.22 kg. Dagger one piece, plain noodles, slender handle, the dagger surface is oval, 21.1 long, spoon head 4.6 to 6 cm, weighing 0.066 kg, shaped like the current spoon (fig. 2), (fig. 3), the tomb also unearthed gold foil, copper knife. Bronze buckle arrows and turquoise beads and other burial items. The tomb is filled with laterite and gravel, rammed, there are circular rammed nests, rammed nests of about 1 cm, the rammed layer is about 6 to 10 cm thick, the soil is hard, and the rammed layer is sandwiched with wood carbon particles and red-burned soil particles and stones.
Figure 2
Figure 3
M33 is located in the middle of the entire excavation area. Rectangular rounded earth pit vertical pit flat bottom straight wall tomb, the entire tomb length 690 ~ 710 cm, width 420 ~ 450 cm, tomb depth 366 ~ 370 cm, two layer platform length 354 cm, width 120 ~ 146 cm, depth 1.20 ~ 1.50 meters (the second floor tainan from the tomb wall 1.35 meters, the west from the tomb wall 2.0 meters, the north from the tomb wall 1.20 meters, the east from the tomb wall 1.00 ~ 1.06 meters). The rammed layer inside the tomb is about 5 to 10 cm thick, with wood carbon particles and pottery pieces inside, and the direction is 157° (Figure 1). The tomb was recently stolen and seven caverns were found inside. The skeleton at the bottom of the tomb does not exist, the burial style, the gender and age of the owner of the tomb are unknown. On the west side of the opening of the second-story platform in the tomb, there were martyrs, and the burial tomb was 1.90 meters long, 0.63 to 0.88 meters wide, and about 0.20 meters deep. Head south, facing upwards, for straight limbs on the back. The martyr was male, about 30 years old, with an angular jaw, a complete bronze belt at the waist, a total of 58 pieces, shell coins on the west side of the head, a bone bow on the upper right side of the head, and a bronze knife and bronze cone excavated on the east side of the waist. The beasts were mainly placed on the second-level platforms in the south, southwest and southeast of the burial chamber, with animal heads and hooves, and horses, dogs, deer, cattle and pigs could be recognized.
Figure 4
In this archaeological excavation, many surviving burial items and martyrs were also unearthed, including 58 bronze belts, 8 shell coins, 3 bronze ornaments, 1 bronze knife (remnant), and 1 bronze cone. In the soil filling, 1 special-shaped bronze golem, 2 bronze bells, 4 bronze rings, 1 bronze car tool, 6 horse darts (remnants), 5 bronze ornaments, 4 bronze rings, 2 bronze arrows (remnants), 31 black and white stone beads, 2 ring bone tools, 9 bone arrows, and 1 pottery spinning wheel.
Figure 5
Figure VI
According to historical records, Chifeng was inhabited by the Eastern Hu people during the Warring States period, and in the early Warring States period, the territory was extended to the south of Chifeng during the Yan Zhaowang period. In order to prevent the invasion of Eastern Hu, the State of Yan built the Great Wall along the border. The Warring States Tomb Group, excavated by the Chifeng Museum, is located on the inner side of the Yannan Great Wall. In the Great Wall of Inner Mongolia, there are many excavations of Warring States tombs, but few bronze ceremonial vessels have been found. It is therefore believed that the owner of the tomb may have held an important position.
Looking at the Great Wall of Inner Mongolia, the excavation of warring states tombs is not a minority, but few bronze ceremonial vessels appear, indicating that the identity of the owner of the tomb is by no means ordinary, which shows the strength of its power and power. This seems to indicate that there must be an important political center of the Yan state near the cemetery that is unknown. Near the cemetery is the wide Plain of the Old Ha River Valley, which has been a place of contention for soldiers since ancient times, Liaodai'en Prefecture is here, and there is a large city called Tuchengzi nearby that has not been valued so far, and the owner of the tomb may hold an important position here. Linked to the Right Beiping County, which has not yet been found, the bronze ceremonial tomb, the old Ha River Fortress, and the ancient city are strung together into a line to provide us with an important clue to find the location of the Right Beiping County, and also highlight the important position of the tomb owner. With the in-depth collation of this batch of tomb data and further work around the area in the future, a series of mysteries of the Yan Kingdom in Chifeng may be solved, and this archaeological achievement cannot be underestimated for the archaeological history of Chifeng. Stringing them together will provide us with an important clue to find the location of the right Peking County, etc., and as the work around us continues to be carried out in the future and the data are more deeply sorted out, I believe that more important harvests will be presented.
Originally published in Journal of Chifeng University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition), No. 8, 2015