Aerial view (south-north)
The burial chamber overlooks
The Qiujiazhuang Cemetery is located at the eastern end of Mingtiaogang, about 100 meters north of Qiujiazhuang Village, Tongcheng Town, Wenxi County, Yuncheng. From November 2018 to September 2019, the Shanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute and other units conducted archaeological excavations on the cemetery and cleaned up a large tomb. The tomb has a rammed earth building site and a slope composed of plate tiles and barrel tiles, and the rammed earth building site on the tomb is 21.6 meters wide from east to west and 26.6 meters long from north to south, exceeding the scope of the tomb. In an area of about 1 meter below the foundation site of the rammed earth building and about 1 meter above the tomb entrance, a week of step-type remains were found, and a number of semi-circular grooves with a diameter of about 50 cm were found on the steps. There are 9 grooves on each side, for a total of 36. The step-by-step remains are the tomb entrance, and there is no tomb passage.
The tomb is a vertical pit tomb, the tomb mouth is large and small, in the tomb found a total of four layers of raw earth platform, the fourth layer of raw soil platform under the carbon deposit layer, below the carbon deposit layer is the rafter room, coffin room, cushion, carbon deposit layer, stone layer, raw soil tomb bottom. The structure of the rafters is from the outside to the inside, which is the raw earth tomb wall, the stone wall, the carbon wall, and the wooden wall. There is a circle of slate in the middle of the chamber. The tomb is by far the largest Eastern Zhou tomb excavated in Shanxi, and its special tomb shape is relatively rare. The tomb unearthed a total of more than 1700 pieces of cultural relics, because the tomb has been stolen many times, no bronze ceremonial vessels are found, all the excavated artifacts are small utensils, the utensils are pottery, copper, iron, gold, jade, stone, shells, bones, materials and so on. The shape and ornamentation of the excavated artifacts all bear a clear late Jin cultural style.
The archaeological discoveries and research of the Xia Shang Zhou in 2019 have yielded fruitful results and are the focus of academic and public attention. The excavation of sites such as Xiwubi in Shanxi County, Dunhuang Dry Gorge Jade Mine in Gansu, Yanshi Shangcheng in Henan, and The Tomb of Zengguo Nobles in spring and autumn in Suizhou Jujube Forest, Hubei Province, has achieved gratifying results. The research results in handicraft production, tombs, life, duyi, feudalism, regional cultural pattern and exchange and interaction are outstanding. According to incomplete statistics, nearly 400 relevant briefings and research papers have been published, and more than 70 reports, monographs and catalogues have been published. Academic conferences such as the "Second World Ancient Capital Forum and The International Symposium commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Scientific Excavation of the Erlitou Site", "The Second International Seminar on 'Xia Culture'", "International Academic Symposium on Panlong City and Yangtze River Civilization", "Academic Symposium on Archaeology and Culture in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties of Sulu And Yuwan Region", "International Symposium on Mr. Li Xueqin's Academic Achievements and Academic Thoughts" were held, and the scene was prosperous.
Originally published in The Yearbook of Chinese Archaeology 2020
Edited by the Chinese Archaeological Society, published in October 2021
Illustrations and text descriptions are from the Internet, not the original text with pictures