Shanxi Daily reporter Meng Miao reported that on March 14, the Shanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute released new archaeological discoveries, archaeologists in our province found two Shang Dynasty tombs in Houshi Village, Xinyi Town, Lishi District, Lüliang City, one of which was found on both sides of the Yellow River in the Jinshan Plateau, the largest number of martyrs, the largest scale, the highest grade of the Shang Dynasty tombs, from the analysis of the scale of the tombs, the tomb owner is likely to be the highest level of nobles of the Lvliang Mountain Indigenous Group.
The two Shang Dynasty tombs discovered this time are located in the northeast of Houshi Village, Xinyi Town, Lishi District, Lüliang City, and are known locally as "Zhongheyuan". There are already clues in the early cultural relics census in the area, which was registered as the "Houshicun Ruins" at that time, and pottery pieces from the Miaodigou Phase II, Shang and Eastern Zhou Periods were collected nearby. In 2020, in order to cooperate with the construction of the national highway 209 line, the Shanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute and the Lvliang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology jointly carried out rescue archaeological excavations of 38 ancient tombs discovered within the scope of the land, of which 36 were tombs of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and only two Shang Dynasty tombs were laid out in the southwest part of the cemetery, numbered M32 and M21 respectively.
According to reports, the most valuable excavation is M32, the tomb shape is made of earth pit vertical cave tomb, the plane is nearly square, there is no tomb passage, and there is no waist pit at the bottom of the tomb. The tomb is 3.7 meters long from east to west, 3.5 meters wide from north to south, and the burial chamber covers an area of about 13 square meters. A total of 51 pieces (groups) of copper, pottery, bone, shell and mussel were excavated, including 39 sea shells (shell coins), 3 pieces of hair cockle shells and bone rings, and 1 piece of bronze short sword, turquoise pipe, mussel ornament, clay pot, clay pot and pottery three-legged urn fragment.
The pottery excavated from M32 combines clay pots, clay pots, and three-legged urns, and these 3 pieces of pottery and bronze short swords are very special in shape, and comparable similar types of utensils are relatively rare. Clay pots, small mouth low neck round shoulders, decorative rope pattern throughout, similar small mouth jars are mostly found in the Lijiaya cultural distribution area. Clay pots, flat bottom open, uneven thickness of the vessel wall, obvious mud strip coiling marks, the abdomen first decorated with vertical rope patterns, and then most of them were erased when trimming the walls. Compared with the lijiaya culture counterpart, the curvature of the urn foot and the body of the three-legged urn is relatively gentle, and the turn is not obvious. In particular, the hollow hilt of the bronze short sword and the style of the willow leaf-shaped spear body show a strong northern grassland culture atmosphere. Two of the closest to the form are currently visible, both collected in the Yakutia region of northeastern Russia. This kind of copper sword has a unique shape manufacturing type, which is the first time to be found in China.
According to reports, the owner of the M32 tomb was located above the coffin cover plate when it was found, and the skull and upper limb bones were seriously disturbed, and there were large areas of cinnabar marks under the body. Archaeologists also found 6 martyrs in the burial chamber. Of these, 2 were adult females between the ages of 20 and 35, 1 was a child, aged about 10 years, 1 was of unknown sex and aged 18 to 25, 1 was male between the ages of 15 and 20, and one was an adult male between the ages of 25 and 30.
Zhao Hui, the person in charge of the archaeological project and deputy research librarian of the Shanxi Archaeological Research Institute, introduced that from the current archaeological findings, the M32 tomb is the Shang Dynasty tomb with the largest number of martyrs, the largest scale and the highest grade found on both sides of the Yellow River on the Jin-Shaanxi Plateau, and the existence of violent tomb destruction such as the obvious fire marks in the upper part of the tomb chamber and the serious disturbance of the tomb owner reveals the complex political situation in the multicultural background of the region; its near-square tomb shape system provides new enlightenment for understanding the characteristics of high-grade tombs in the region. The excavation of the special bronze short sword has also refreshed the previous understanding, and is an important breakthrough in the archaeology of the Shang Dynasty on the Jin-Shaanxi Plateau in recent years.
Source: Shanxi Daily