Tuguhun Royal Tomb The key to unlocking the time of the ancient highland country

Tuguhun, the ancient kingdom of the plateau that is only sporadically recorded in the history books, its face gradually became clear.

With the excavation of the tombs of the Tuguhun royal family, this dusty kingdom began to enter people's field of vision.

Schematic diagram of the tomb of the Tuguhun royal family in the Tang Dynasty of Wuwei, Gansu

The Tuguhun Royal Family Tomb Group of the Wuwei Tang Dynasty in Gansu Province is located in the southwest of Wuwei City, Gansu Province, at the northern foot of qilian Mountain, mainly distributed on the hills on the north bank of the Binggou River and the middle and lower reaches of the Dashui River in the Southern Mountains of Wuwei. In recent years, led by the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, the Tuguhun Archaeological Project Team has been set up to carry out continuous archaeological and cultural relics protection and research work on the tomb group. At present, a total of 23 tombs of the Tuguhun royal family have been confirmed.

Map of the tomb site of the Tuguhun royal family in the Wuwei Tang Dynasty, Gansu

On the Qilian Mountains, Murong galloped.

Tuguhun (313–663), also known as Tuhun (吐浑), was a national name of the northwestern nomadic Murong Tuguhun. Originally a branch of the Xianbei Murong Clan of Inner Mongolia, known to the Tibetan people as Achai, it originated in inner Mongolia on the Xilamulun River (present-day Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia). It was an independent state located in the upper valleys of the Yellow River and Liangzhou in the Qilian Mountains and Qinghai during the Western Jin Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty.

The discovery of the Tuguhun royal tomb group vividly reveals the historical facts that the Tuguhun people have gradually integrated into the Chinese civilization system in the nearly one hundred years since their return to the Tang Dynasty, and glimpsed the changes in the ideological concepts, material life, cultural identity and other historical details of the Tuguhun people in the Tang Dynasty. Let this history have a full proof.

Three-dimensional image of Murong Zhi's tomb and Yongdao

In 2019, the project team excavated the tomb of Murong Zhi, the King of Tuguhun Xi, which is located on the top of the hill where the chashan village of Qilian Town, Tianzhu County, about 15 kilometers east of the Tombs of Qingzui and Lama Bay, is the only completely preserved Tomb of the Tuguhun Royal Family found so far.

Murong Zhi (649–691), a member of the Tuguhun royal clan during the Wu Zetian period of the Zhou Dynasty, was made a general of the Great Zhou Yunlu (大周云麾), a general of Zuo Yuju Wei (左玉钤衛), and a member of the Outer Xi Dynasty, who died of illness on the second day of The Second Year of Tianzhi (691 CE), at the age of 42.

Murong Zhi's tomb unearthed wooden Hu figurines

A large number of exquisite burial items have been unearthed in the tomb, including warrior figurines, town tomb beasts and other town tomb god figurines; equestrian figurines, hood figurines, civilian officials figurines, military officer figurines and other travel ceremonial figurines.

Murong Zhi's tomb unearthed gold and silver dining utensils

Murong Zhi's tomb unearthed winged beast patterns and phoenix-patterned brocade half arms

Dogs, sheep, chickens and other livestock and poultry figurines, lacquer plates, silver spoons, mills, forks, sheng, flutes and other food and drinking music and dance models, clay pots, clay pots, beard beds, six-curved screens, large painted wooden beds and other practical utensils and burial utensils.

Iron armor was unearthed from Murong Zhi's tomb

Murong Zhi's tomb unearthed gold silk embroidered shoes

Iron armor, saddles and various gilts and silver harnesses, bows, Hulu and other complete sets of weapons and equipment. Among them, many precious burial items are the first or rare discoveries of related cultural relics in China in the same period.

Murong Zhi's epitaph and Zhi Gai

The epitaph unearthed in the middle of Yongdao, with a clear era and rich content, shows that the owner of the tomb is the third son of Murong Nuobao, the last king of Tuguhun, Murong Zhi, "the general of the Great Zhou Yunqi Guarding Zuo Yuju Wei Andi Xi Wang" Murong Zhi. The epitaph mentions for the first time the existence of the "Great Khan's Mausoleum" in the Nanshan District of Wuwei, and the left side of the epitaph is also engraved with two lines of text synthesized using the chinese characters, which is initially judged to be Tuguhun script, which is the earliest nomadic script of the era created according to the Han script that has been seen so far.

Murong Zhi's tomb unearthed pen and ink paper inside a lacquer box

Racecourse Beach M1 Panorama (Southeast -Northwest)

In 2021, the project team took solving the specific location and layout problems of the "Great Khan Mausoleum" and enriching the cultural connotation of the Tuguhun royal family tomb group as the main academic goals and tasks, and carried out archaeological excavations of the newly discovered three tombs in the Changling-Machangtan area of Qilian Town, Tianzhu County.

The three tombs are located on a hill on the north bank of the Binggou River flowing through the Changling-Machangtan District, facing north and south, about 5 kilometers from Murong Zhi's tomb in the west and about 10 kilometers from the tombs of Qingzui Bay and Lama Bay in the east. The tombs are all "A" type single-chamber brick chamber tombs with sloped burial passages, of which the Racecourse Beach M1 also has a side chamber, which is very rare.

Horse martyrdom at the bottom of the M1 cemetery at Racecourse Beach

There are whole horses buried in the cemetery, ranging from 1-3 horses, and there are also burned sheep bones, cow bones, etc. There are more than 290 pieces of burial items such as lacquer, wood, pottery, stone, leather and various metal utensils unearthed in the tomb, most of which are residual lacquer woodware, and some lacquered wood ware has painted paintings, and is pasted with gold and silver foil, which is exquisitely made and richly decorated.

An epitaph excavated from Racecourse Beach M2

It can be seen from the "Tomb of Mrs. Dang of Mrs. Feng Yijun" excavated from Machangtan M2 in the 27th year of the new century (739) that the tomb group is the tomb of the Tugu Hun Pengzi family in the early and middle Tang Dynasty (Figure 19). The excavation clarified the general scope of tuguhun 'great khan mausoleum', clarified the basic layout of the tuguhun royal family tomb group in the southern mountain area of Wuwei, and further enriched the cultural connotation of the tomb group.

Reporter Song Fangke Ren Lei Comprehensive photo courtesy of: Wuwei Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology