Yangquan Lu County Jin Dynasty mural tomb
The Jin Dynasty Shanxi Mengyin Xijing Datong Province and the benefits of regional resources belong to a relatively rich land, belonging to the Jindong Mountains of Hedong and North Road. Although there were occasional wars, the relatively closed terrain created conditions for the family life of small farmers, leaving a large number of frescoed tombs, and the Nihe Golden Tomb also belonged to this category.
The tomb is located in the north of Nihe Village, Xiushui Town, Lu County, in March 2021, according to the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (2021) No. (379), the Shanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute led the rescue excavation of the tomb.
Burial location
The tomb looks down
Different from the previous discovery of mural tombs, the golden tomb of Nihe does not have stylized filial piety and feasting and drinking, but mainly based on baby plays, Fluke and other auspicious patterns, including deer offering Linzhi, boy play, lion play hydrangeas, etc., the doorman holding bones at the tomb door, and the couple sitting picture.
Illustration of the murals in the burial chamber
The tomb door and the two sides of the abbot
Boy riding a crane
Lion play hydrangea
In addition to these themed murals, the two sides of the tomb door are decorated with feather patterns, tangled branches and flowers, and there are also a small number of architectural paintings on the columns, bucket arches, arched eye walls, Pubai fangs, rafters, etc., and the tomb roof is decorated with sun and moon stars.
Brackets
Arch eye wall
The tomb is well preserved, and a total of 4 people were found at the bottom of the tomb; the owner and his wife were placed on the coffin bed, and a group of cremation jars was placed on each side of the tomb door.
In addition to the long sleeping lamp at the bottom of the tomb, 1 piece of copper noodles, and 2 pieces of Kaiyuan Tongbao, a group of clothes and rice bowls are placed near the tomb door.
There have been many Jin Dynasty mural tombs found in the area of Lu county and Yangquan, and the tomb shape system and architectural painted decoration style are similar to the characteristics of the golden tomb of the "Dading Eight Years" in the queen village of Lu County, and its bucket arch, column form and arch decoration are similar to the Nanguan mural tombs in Fanzhi County, and the age is comparable to the latter two. The composition of funerary utensils is complete, with porcelain bowls for long sleeping lamps, porcelain pots and porcelain bowls for clothes and rice bowls as the center, as well as individual headdresses and copper coins, reflecting the basic combination of funerary utensils in this period and has a certain representativeness. In addition, the murals in the tomb of the Fulu faith, the concept of multi-person joint burial of bones and cremation further enriched the understanding of the mountain family beliefs of the Jin Dynasty and Jindong.
2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of modern Chinese archaeology, and archaeology that has developed in China for a hundred years has long made a tradition of archaeology purely for excavation, turning to a new path of excavation, protection, research interpretation and utilization. Under the guidance of this line of thinking, the Shanxi Archaeological Research Institute and the business department worked together to adopt the full-chain operation mode in the excavation of the Nihe Golden Tomb, and completed the basic excavation, mural cleaning and unveiling, tomb relocation, fine restoration, data collation, report writing and publication within one year, creating a new paradigm for the rapid operation of the whole chain of such single tombs.
Fresco restoration
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Source丨 Shanxi Institute of Archaeology (Text/Zhang Guanghui, Zhu Zhibo, Shi Guangwei, Nan Puheng, Zhang Haijiao, Zhao Peiqing)