The formation of earth burials has existed since the Neolithic Age, in the 1930s in Beijing Zhoukoudian Keel Mountain found the tomb of the cave people on the top of the mountain, found in three complete human skulls and trunk bones, according to archaeological judgments these cave people survived for 18,000 years, this is the earliest burial that can be found in China, until the 1950s when China began to implement cremation, earth burials have existed in Chinese history for 18,000 years, and the actual time of existence may be earlier.
In the land of China alone, from the Neolithic Era to modern times, there are tens of billions of people who have lived and died, so many people should have so many tombs, so where are these tombs?
I. Neolithic (Primitive Society)
1. Yangshao culture Banpo ruins
In the 1950s, a prehistoric site covering an area of 50,000 square meters was discovered on the east bank of the Chan River in Baqiao District, the eastern suburb of Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, which was ordered as a Banpo site, belonging to the Yangshao culture type, and 250 tombs were excavated, of which 174 belonged to adults and 73 urn coffins for young children were unearthed.
Children's urn coffins at the Banpo site
Banpo ruins are dated from 4800 BC to 4300 BC according to carbon 14, and between 6300 and 6800 years ago, the Banpo site is identified as a matrilineal clan settlement site, including houses, cellars, pottery kilns, tombs, circles, trenches and various prehistoric buildings, and its tombs are unified in the north of the settlement, which is used as a public cemetery for clans at that time.
Adults in the tribe use earth burials, the vast majority are single burials, because in the matriarchal society, the characteristics are not rich, so there are not many funerary products, some are mostly some daily necessities, such as pottery, the burial pit is also small, only allow one person to bury, the joint burial tomb is very rare, the burial of young children is different from adults, it is buried in the urn coffin, there are small holes in the urn, and most of the cemeteries of young children are around the house where they live in the settlement.
2. Dawenkou ruins
In the late 1950s, a site was discovered in Dawenkou Town, Daiyue District, Tai'an City, Shandong Province, covering an area of 820,000 square meters, excavating 189 tombs, in addition to houses, ash pits and various prehistoric buildings, the site was identified as the site of a patrilineal clan social settlement.
Prehistoric tombs in Dawenkou
Dawenkou site was tested to be about 3500 BC ~ 2500 BC, between 4500 and 5500 years ago, the site unearthed a large number of pottery, stone tools, bone tools, ivory tools, etc., the tomb of the Dawenkou site is also in the public cemetery around the settlement, but there has been a clear class differentiation, a single tomb has become large, medium and small, and the number of funerary products is proportional to the size of the tomb.
From these two examples, the burials of Neolithic (primitive society) residents are buried near the settlement, the so-called settlement is the place where primitive people gather to live, similar to the current countryside, primitive people gathered together with certain blood relations, and their young children were even buried directly near the house, and the vast places outside the settlement were impossible to be buried.
There were relatively few human beings in the primitive society period, and if you want to find the tombs of primitive humans, you can only excavate the settlement sites of primitive humans, and there will be no tombs in other places.
Dawenkou ruins tomb group
Second, the transitional era between the Neolithic age and the era of civilization
1. Liangzhu culture
In the 1930s, the Liangzhu culture was discovered, its central area is located in the Qiantang River Basin and taihu Lake basin, including today's northern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu, equivalent to the Taihu Lake area, Liangzhu culture found a large number of ruins and tombs, and found a prehistoric ancient city and city wall, unearthed a number of exquisite jade and ceremonial artifacts, its existence age is about 5300-4000 years ago.
Many people once thought that Liangzhu should be a civilization rather than a culture, in the Liangzhu cultural site found an ancient city covering an area of 2.9 million square meters, but also found the city wall, in the ancient city found a large scale similar to the king's tomb tomb, such as the anti-mountain tomb, Yaoshan tomb, Huiguanshan tomb, with the characteristics of the king's tomb, as well as a large number of medium-sized tombs and small tombs, are distributed in and around the ancient city.
Liangzhu ruins tombs
2. Ruins of Tao Temple
From the late 1970s to the 1980s, a large prehistoric site was found in the south of Taosi Village, Xiangfen County, Shanxi Province, covering an area of 2.8 million square meters, and was named taosi site, which was tested by carbon 14, and the existence of the taosi culture was between 2300 and 1900 BC, and about 3900 to 4300 years ago.
Tao Temple site found more than a thousand tombs, is the prehistoric site found the most tombs in the place, the tomb in the southeast direction of Miyagi, the entire public cemetery covers an area of 30,000 square meters, the tomb is divided into large, medium and small three, respectively, in line with its class status, funerary products are also directly related to the size of the tomb, the larger the size of the cemetery, the more funerary products.
From the perspective of the ruins of the transition period from primitive society to civilized society, the main tombs of residents are generally in Miyagi or around the city, at this time the city has replaced the settlement, becoming the main living area of the residents at that time, this is the development of the times, history entered the city era, this time the dead people are all buried near the city, the area outside the city is often uninhabited, there can be no tombs, so the tomb is not anywhere, want to find prehistoric tombs, either looking for settlements, or looking for cities.
Tombs at the site of Tao Temple
Third, the era of civilization
1. Xia Dynasty (Erlitou Site)
Located in Yanshi District, Luoyang City, Henan Province, the Erlitou site covers an area of 3.75 million square meters, and is generally considered to be the site of the capital of the Xia Dynasty, which was tested by carbon 14 and its dating distribution was about 1750 to 1500 BC, and between 3500 and 3800 years ago.
Hundreds of tombs have been found at the Erlitou site, the vast majority of which are distributed in the northeast and north of Miyagi, and there are also many tombs around the sacrificial area north of Miyagi, most of which are small and medium-sized, and many exquisite cultural relics have been unearthed, one of which has unearthed turquoise dragon-shaped vessels, known as the earliest Chinese dragon, and is the most famous cultural relics of the Erlitou site.
Erlitou site turquoise dragon type vessel
Judging from the distribution of tombs at the Erlitou site, the tombs of the Xia people are also within the city, very close to the palace city and the sacrifice area, and outside the city, there are few traces of human activities, of course, there are no tombs.
2. Shang Dynasty (Yin Ruins)
Yin Ruins is the capital of the late Shang Dynasty, famous for the discovery of a large number of oracle bones and exquisite bronzes, the entire site covers an area of 36 million square meters, found 13 royal tombs and more than 2500 small and medium-sized tombs and sacrifice pits, is the most found tomb site, tombs are mostly distributed in the miyagi, the surrounding area of the sacrifice area, in all directions, dense, almost all over the entire site area.
One of the most famous is the tomb of women, whose tomb unearthed a large number of bronzes, jade, bone tools, sea shells and other exquisite cultural relics, from the perspective of the distribution of tombs in the Yin Ruins, due to the increase in the population of the Shang Dynasty, the cemetery began to be in short supply, the burial of residents is no longer cramped in a certain area, but buried everywhere in the entire urban area, staggered with the residential area, for a long time, there may be a large number of tombs under the residential area.
Yin Ruins Women Good Tomb
3. Zhou Dynasty (Fenghao Site)
Fenghao site is the capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty, covers an area of 17 million square meters, has been excavated more than a thousand tombs, tombs according to the scale can be divided into: the royal tomb area, the noble area, the civilian area of the three functional areas, which also become the tomb standard of later dynasties, tombs are distributed around the city, due to the large increase in population, some tombs have begun to move away from the city, specially in the surrounding feng shui treasure land to form a mausoleum area, this kind of tomb is mostly the tomb of the king and the nobles.
From the beginning of the Qin Dynasty, the tomb began to be far away from the residential area and the city, such as the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, which is at the foot of Lishan Mountain, more than 30 kilometers away from the current Xi'an City, and more than 60 kilometers away from the Qin capital Xianyang City at that time, which is far from the city, which is the feng shui treasure place personally selected by Qin Shi Huang, and there are a large number of funerary pits around, both noble tombs and a large number of terracotta warriors, with a total of more than 600 burial pits.
Thus forming a trend, the tombs of later generations to the royal tomb or imperial tomb scale is the most grand, in the royal tomb and the imperial mausoleum around the range, there are a large number of noble tombs, the imperial tombs are excellent site selection of feng shui treasure land, after several years or decades of construction, the scale is very grand, only meritorious and higher status nobles are eligible to accompany the burial of the imperial tomb.
Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum Funerary Pit - Terracotta Warriors Pit
For example, the tombs of the Western Han Emperors are alloted on the high platforms of the river on the north and south banks of the Weishui River near the capital, the tombs of the Eastern Han Emperors are on the Mountain of Luoyang, Henan, the Ming Tombs are on the Tianshou Mountain in Beijing's Changping District, and the Qing Dynasty is just the Qing DongLing and the Qing Xi Mausoleum, all form a fixed royal tomb area, and there are a large number of funerary tombs.
As for ordinary civilians, they can only find a place to bury themselves outside the city, or be buried in a fixed public cemetery, because the tomb is simple and timey, under the action of nature, the tomb becomes flat, hidden by nature, and the tomb becomes farmland, mountain or forest, and if it is found by chance, it becomes a site excavation.
In 2012, the tombs of civilians in the Western Han Dynasty were found near the Zhuhe River on National Highway 107 in Handan City, Hebei Province, and a total of 93 tombs were found, hundreds of cultural relics were unearthed, the tombs were simple, there were not many funerary products, most of them were husband and wife burial tombs, and this tomb group was likely to be the public tomb of a certain family.
Mao Mausoleum of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty
Ancient tombs also have no distinction between nobles, commoners, royal families all buried in a public cemetery, this kind of cemetery has become a functional area, only for the burial of dead people, such as the Astana tomb group found in Turpan, Xinjiang, after testing, Astana tomb group used from the 3rd century to the 8th century AD, a total of more than 500 years, more than 1700 years ago.
Astana ancient tomb group has a total of more than 500 tombs of different dynasties, the buried residents are residents living in different eras, there are Han, Turkic, Xiongnu, Gaoche people and other people of different ethnic groups, the local is the location of the ancient Gaochang kingdom, Astana ancient tomb group is 6 kilometers away from Gaochang Ancient City, 40 kilometers away from Turpan, it can be seen that this is a public cemetery outside the city, the total area of the cemetery is 10 million square meters.
Similarly, there is the Xiaohe Cemetery, located in the desert about 60 kilometers south of the lower valley of the Peacock River in Xinjiang, 102 kilometers away from the Loulan site, and the Xiaohe Cemetery has more than 330 tombs, covering an area of 2500 square meters.
Creek Cemetery
From the above examples, it can be seen that in ancient times to the present, there are not no tombs, but tombs do not appear anywhere, and the ancient people chose the cemetery to go through several stages, from the earliest burial near the residential area, to the burial to the city, to the burial to the surrounding area of the city, and then to the feng shui treasure land outside the city, and the ancients liked to be buried together, and now the tombs found in addition to the tombs of kings and nobles are almost all buried in the public cemetery.
Thinking of finding the tombs of the ancients, as long as the excavations can be found in public cemeteries, or find ancient ruins, there will certainly be a large number of tombs around them, but more tombs should be buried under the land where we live, not found, does not mean that there is none.