Xiangcheng is a county-level city in the southeast of Henan Province, which belongs to the middle reaches of the Huai River like Bengbu in Anhui, and Xiangcheng is located at the junction of Henan and Anhui provinces, with a railway network in all directions. Some time ago, a Warring States period Chu state tomb was found near Dingzhuang in Xiangcheng, and there were no valuable funerary items in the tomb. However, archaeologists in Henan Province believe that the research value of this Warring States period tomb may not be worse than Cao Cao's Gaoling! So what's so different about this slightly shabby tomb?
It is reported that the tomb found a human bone, due to poor preservation conditions have no possibility of extraction, so the age, gender, identity of the owner of the tomb is also to be examined. At the same time, the tomb unearthed a lot of pottery pots, pottery plates, copper belt hooks and other funerary items, but unfortunately most of these funerary items are broken, or even torn apart. In short, this tomb is not like the residence of the dignitaries and nobles, the author analyzes that the owner of the tomb will not be a lower-class commoner, there should be a certain class in society, similar to the middle and small nobles, empty status but no savings of the upper class. Because from the overall situation of the tomb, its east-west length is only 9 meters, and the north-south width is only about 4.5 meters. In addition to more than 10 pieces of pottery, there are no gold, silver, jade and other valuable funerary objects.
However, after the relevant archaeological experts from Henan Province came to the scene, they found that the tomb revealed a kind of strangeness, and it turned out that the tomb used mussel shells as the main composition to spread around the tomb. In layman's terms, the main burial chamber does not use sealing soil or five-color rammed earth, but uses shellfish as building materials, so what cats can be seen by cultural relics experts in Henan Province from this ancient tomb? According to a professor in the History Department of Zhengzhou University, many official texts have recorded that as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there may have been a sea in the southeast of Henan. But until today. The archaeologists also did not find conclusive evidence of the historical henan sea from ancient tombs or ancient sites (archaeologists have found that there are many shells, small fish and other fossils of marine organisms in the rocks of Songshan Mountain).
However, the main burial chamber of the tomb actually used many shells as building materials, and considering that the identity of the owner of the tomb was at most a middle and lower noble. How did he have that financial resource? Can it be used as its main burial chamber in ancient times, a shell comparable to gold? Therefore, in the late Warring States period, at least in the area of Zhoukouxiang City in Henan, there should be a sea, or it is very close to the sea to get these mussel shells. At the same time, cultural relics experts in Henan Province also put forward another idea: it is also possible that there was indeed a sea in Henan Province thousands of years ago, but the location of the sea is closer to Zhengzhou, that is, by Rizhao in Shandong. For example, the owner of the tomb may be a nobleman in Zhengzhou, who used the shells he had accumulated during his life as the main building material for his residence.
Therefore, cultural relics experts in Henan Province and professors in the History Department of Zhengzhou University seem to have a high degree of research when they put forward these two views. After all, Henan Province is not bordered by the sea, and there is not even a trace of coastline. In addition to going to Lianyungang and Rizhao in Shandong, it is absolutely impossible for most Henan people to see the sea in this province. Perhaps as the experts expected, otherwise we would not be able to explain why this lower nobleman of the Chu State had so many shells in his main burial chamber.
However, the author puts forward another view: although the tomb confirms to some extent that Henan may have an ocean a thousand years ago, this is not absolute. Because this tomb has not unearthed any written records, even the surname of the owner of the tomb is not clear, and we cannot do such arbitrariness. In short, the research value of the tomb in this place may be comparable to Cao Cao's Gaoling in some aspects, which is the unanimous conclusion of many literary and historical experts in Henan Province. In the next step, local experienced artifacts and archaeologists will go all out to decipher why there are so many shells in this tomb. If you can figure this out, you will be able to fully know whether Henan had a sea in ancient times.
References: Xiangcheng Online, Water Notes