First, the overview of the tomb group
The Shuiquanzi Tomb Group is located 39 kilometers northwest of Shuiquanzi Village, Hongshan Yao Township, northwest of Yongchang County, Jinchang City, Gansu Province, with geographical coordinates of 38°23′01"N, longitude 101°37′16"E, and an altitude of 2294 meters above sea level (Figure 1).
In order to cooperate with the national west-to-east gas transmission project, the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted two rescue excavations in The Han Tomb Group in Shuiquanzi Village, Hongshan Yao Township, Yongchang County in August 2008 and October 2012. Among them, 15 tombs were cleaned in 2008 and 16 were cleaned in 2012. The 31 tombs excavated in the two years can be divided into four types in terms of shape, 1 earthen pit tomb, 27 vertical pit wooden tombs, 1 earthen cave tomb, and 2 brick chamber tombs. A large number of relics have been unearthed and harvested, providing important archaeological materials for understanding and studying the evolution of tombs in the Hexi region during the Two Han Dynasties (Figure 2).
2. Tomb shape system
1 pit tomb, tomb direction 355°. The tomb opening line is 0.3 meters deep from the surface. The tomb is rectangular in plan, and no human bones are found in the tomb. Artifacts unearthed include bronze, iron, lacquerware, coins, etc. There are mainly 1 copper mirror, 1 iron belt hook, and 1 5 baht.
There is 1 earthen cave tomb with a tomb orientation of 355°. It is composed of sealing soil, tomb passage, burial chamber, etc. The surface remains of a mound-shaped enclosure with a sloped burial path. The burial chamber is rectangular in plan, 3.6 meters long, 2.1 wide and 1.6 meters deep. The tomb was stolen, the top collapsed, and the structure is unknown. The bottom of the tomb is lower than the tomb passage, and there is a dirt step at the tomb door. There are no funerary items. There are 2 human bones, the location is scattered, and the burial style is ominous. There are 2 brick chamber tombs in total, all of which are single-chamber brick tombs, which were seriously stolen. The brick chamber tomb was built by first digging a long slope tomb path, then digging an earthen hole at the top of the tomb passage, and finally building a brick chamber in the earthen cave.
In 2008, the tomb M4 was cleaned up, the tomb was 180 °, the sealing soil was mound-shaped, the rectangular slope of the tomb passage, the tomb chamber plane was rectangular, and the top of the ticket was (Figure 3). The top of the tomb passage, near the tomb door, is consciously sealed with a large number of stones. There is no passage, and the tomb door opens directly on the front wall of the tomb. The tomb door is a single-storey ticket, which has been destroyed, and only the brick structures on both sides can be seen. The remnants of the tomb door are 1.5 meters high and 1.63 meters wide, and the brick remnants on both sides are 1.15 meters high. The burial chamber is 3.2 meters long and 1.63 meters wide and is made of long blue-gray bricks. The walls on both sides are straight, and the strips of brick are built horizontally and staggered. The top is buttoned with a mother-daughter brick buckle. The bottom of the tomb was not paved with bricks, and the brick surface of the back wall was destroyed, exposing the stratigraphic soil. Only the remains of the three wooden coffins remain, two placed in parallel and longitudinally at the rear, and the other horizontally in front of the tomb door. Because the coffin was destroyed, its detailed structure is unknown. The burial ceremony is also unknown. The burial items are placed on both sides of the tomb door. All are pottery, 1 set of pottery stoves, 2 pieces of pottery covers.
There are 27 vertical pit wooden tombs, the surface is preserved and sealed, some tombs have no tomb passage, and some tombs have a rectangular slope tomb path in the front of the vertical pit tomb, and some also add a hole between the tomb passage and the tomb. Large gravel stones were often stacked near the tomb and blocked.
In terms of burial chamber construction methods, rectangular vertical cave tombs are first dug, and then a rafter chamber is built in the tomb. Most of them are single chambers (Fig. 4), and individual tombs are composed of the main chamber and the outer rafters. The chamber consists of a base plate, a side wall panel, a tailgate, and a cover plate. The entrance to the chamber is sealed, plugged with a vertical plate, and blocked with gravel on the outside. In addition, individual tombs have dug grooves into the walls on both sides of the earthen enclosure, with wooden columns to support the reinforced chambers, such as the M8, which was cleaned in 2012 (Figures 5 and 6). The floor of the chamber is paved horizontally with several square wooden boards, the side wall panels are built longitudinally, and the joints are mostly connected by sets of mortise. The covers are mostly covered horizontally by logs or semi-logs.
Tombs can be divided into three categories: single burial, heterogeneous burial and co-burial. The joint burial of the same cave is buried in two categories according to the existence and absence of the tomb, and the burial is divided into two categories: burial and secondary relocation. Under the same sealed soil, two tombs are constructed, and the two tombs are of the same size and the same direction. The two tombs are separated by a partition beam, which is 0.3 to 0.5 meters wide, showing that the two are closely related (Figure 7). Its rafter shape is similar.
The burial tools are wooden coffins, and the material is mostly pine. Wooden coffins have double coffins and single coffins, and some tombs do not have coffins. Most of the wooden coffins are well preserved. The two coffins are placed side by side at the back of the rafters, and the gap between the two coffins is small, and some are close together. Single burial coffins are mostly placed on the side of the rafters. The wooden coffin is composed of a base plate, a side plate, a baffle at both ends and a cover plate. The thickness of the coffin plate varies, no coffin nails have been found, and the tenon and tenon structure should be used. The coffin or the bottom of the coffin are mostly wrapped with mats, and a small number of tomb coffins are also covered with grass and wood ash. Fragments of inscriptions have also been found on individual coffins.
The burial style is mostly straight on the back, and some of the burials are disturbed twice. Some of the bones have wooden pillows at the ends and the face is covered with a cover. Tombs are generally buried with sheep, chickens and other animal limbs and bones, and sprinkled with grain crops such as grain and hemp. The burial items are mainly pottery, as well as lacquerware, woodware, bronze ware, silk fabrics and so on. It is generally placed in front of the coffin, and occasionally placed on the side of the coffin.
3. Excavated relics
In 2008, 15 tombs were cleaned up, and about 123 pieces (groups) of pottery, bronze, wood, lacquerware, wood jane, silk fabrics and other utensils were unearthed. In 2012, about 265 relics were unearthed.
The number of pottery is relatively large, and it can be seen in tombs with burial items, and the number of tombs varies from 1 to 10 pieces, the most common is 3 5 pieces.
There is a certain law in the placement of utensils, pottery is mainly placed outside the coffin near the end of the front wall of the coffin; lacquerware is placed outside the coffin, some are placed inside the coffin; coins are scattered on the coffin; and some coffins are placed on small animal bones.
Most of the pottery is clay black and gray pottery, and some clay painted pottery and sand red brown pottery. The utensils are composed of pots, pots, urns, pots, bowls, bristles, etc. Tanks are divided into binaural cans, single ear cans, earless cans and other categories, of which the number of earless cans is larger. Amphora jars are clay pottery with individual paintings (Fig. 8). The single ear jar is composed of sand red brown pottery and clay gray pottery. Earless jars are clay pottery, divided into round belly jars, hanging belly jars, broad shoulder jars, circular bottom jars and other types, also see painted jars (Figure 9).
The pots are mainly plate pots, mostly black and gray pottery, the neck is long and short, the round abdomen or lower abdomen is obliquely closed, and the upper abdomen is decorated with a ring to lay the head and circle the feet (Figures 10 to 12).
The urn is clay gray pottery, which is divided into three types: straight mouth, luxury mouth and mouth mouth.
The smoker is made of clay painted pottery. The whole is "bean" shaped, and the lid and body are fastened with the mouth of the mother and son. The whole body is first coated with white pottery, which is outlined with red color triangles, coated with red, and separated by plain triangular shallow grooves, and triangular perforations are found individually. The narrow banded instrument table is divided into ten equal parts (Fig. 13).
The stove is composed of a stove surface, a stove body, a stove door, a fire eye, a smoke wall, etc. The stove surface is semi-circular, with a plain surface or edge decorated with a grid pattern, and the koshiki and the stove are co-produced, but not connected.
The number of bronze artifacts unearthed is relatively small, including copper basins, bronze mirrors (Fig. 14), copper rings, bubble nails and caps, Danglu (Fig. 15), and pendants.
Coins are mainly five-baht, and the rust is not clear.
Burial lacquerware is more common, but most of them are poorly preserved, and the recognizable vessels are box, 奁 (Fig. 16), case, plate (Fig. 17), ear cup, bowl, spoon, etc., and there are also written words on the bottom of individual utensils (Fig. 18). There are many wooden utensils, including wooden combs, grates, wooden figurines and so on. The figurines are shaved out of human form, and the faces and costumes are outlined with ink threads, and some are painted. Male figurine, wearing a suke on his head, wearing a long robe, and his right side. The left hand is placed at the waist, and the right hand hangs to one side (Fig. 19). Female figurine, with triangular hair, wearing a deep coat and a right side. Chin slightly chin, hands hanging to the sides (Fig. 20). Silk fabrics are mainly unearthed in coffins. After preliminary collation, there are hemp, silk, yarn, brocade, cotton and so on. Items that can still be identified include cloth pillows, cloth bags, silk shoes, and hemp shoes (Fig. 21).
The coffin is poorly preserved, and the painting is drawn with thin lines and flat color, and the colors used are brown, black and white. For example, the M8, which was cleaned up in 2012, painted the image with angry eyes and a vicious face, and the tongue sticking out and drooping to the chest. The upper body is bare, the arms are bent to 90°, and the hands are holding an object. The lower body seems to be wearing a pair of shorts, and the legs are separated (picture 22).
Excavations in both years unearthed a certain amount of wood. In 2008, the wooden jane was placed in the wooden coffin of M5, which was damaged by the squeezing of the collapsed rafter and coffin cover, and the burial chamber was very wet due to the high groundwater level in the cemetery, and the wooden jane was mostly broken when it was excavated. There are more than 700 pieces (segments) of the more complete ones, and a total of about 1400 pieces (segments) together with severely damaged fragments. At the same time as Mu Jian, there were also writing instruments such as ink and stone. Part of the mujian is the Seven-Character Book of Cangjie (Fig. 23) and the other part is the Book of The Day (Fig. 24). Among them, a simple piece of "the second year of the beginning of this year" was also found (Figure 25).
The 2012 excavation of the wooden jane was placed on the cover of the wooden coffin on the north side of the M8, and by the time of excavation, the brochure had been scattered and lost, and some fragments were scattered between the two coffins. The wood is made of pine wood and is poorly preserved. There are a total of 174 numbers in the existing fragments and fragments, which can be conjugated to determine that the original brochure consists of 35 janes. The content of this batch of wooden janes is an almanac, and because a "Five Feng Two Years" chronology (56 BC) was unearthed, it was determined to be the "Five Feng Two Years" almanac (Figure 26).
4. Academic value
According to the investigation and excavation, the Shuiquanzi tomb group is large in area and concentrated in distribution, and there are a large number of tombs distributed on the east and west sides of the current Lianhuo Expressway. In 2003, the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology excavated 98 Han tombs in the construction project of the West-to-East Gas Transmission Line, plus 31 tombs excavated twice in 2008 and 2012, indicating that this is a large-scale tomb group. Judging from the situation that has been cleaned, the vertical cave wooden tomb is the main type, most of the tombs have a sloped tomb passage, it is worth noting that there is a hole between the tomb passage and the burial chamber, and a large number of stones are filled in the cave, which plays a blocking role, and the stone block is the front wall of the wooden rafter, and most of the vertical wooden planks are used to plug. It is mainly a double burial tomb, and the burial style is mostly seen with straight limbs on the back. Pots and pots are the main combination of pottery; the stove surface is semi-circular, and the koshiki (kettle) and the stove are made separately.
In the Central Plains, during the Zhao and Xuan dynasties of the Western Han Dynasty, the joint burial of husband and wife in the same cave has gradually become the main form of burial. Before and after Wang Mang, no matter how many people died with fistulas, there was often only one set of pottery. Most of the Shuiquanzi wooden tombs are buried together in a wooden rafter, which is the same as the above-mentioned late Western Han Dynasty tombs. There is only one set of burial pottery, and the pottery shape system is mainly Han style, and both the shape and method of the vessel are the same as those of the Central Plains Han Tomb. Considering that it takes a certain amount of time for the tomb shape system in the Central Plains to spread to Hexi, it is speculated that the age of the Shuiquanzi wooden tomb is from the end of the Western Han Dynasty to the early and middle period of the Eastern Han Dynasty. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the brick chamber tombs in the Central Plains replaced the earthen cave tombs and wooden tombs, and this new burial structure was also absorbed by the Hexi region, and the single-chamber tomb of the brick chamber with a coupon roof, a long slope tomb, and many people were buried together, all in line with the characteristics of the tombs in the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty, so the age of the shuiquanzi brick chamber tomb should be after the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Vertical cave wooden tomb is a more common tomb system in the Central Plains since the pre-Qin Dynasty, the Western Han Dynasty is still popular, and there is a trend of spreading to the northwest region, to the late Western Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Central Plains with new hollow brick tombs, small brick tombs and other forms instead of the traditional wooden tombs. The wooden tomb was still the main form of burial in the Western Han dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty in the northwest region, such as the Han tomb in the Han and Jin tombs in The Shangsun Family Village in Qinghai and the Han tomb in the southern region of Inner Mongolia. According to the information currently released, less than 10 wooden tombs have been found in Gansu province only in Lanzhou Langongping [1] and Gulang Heisongyi [2]. This excavation enriched the data of Han Dynasty wooden tombs in Gansu, which is of certain significance for the development of Han Dynasty wooden tombs in Gansu. From the perspective of Shuiquanzi tombs, there is a certain evolution in the tomb shape system in Hexi, from vertical cave wooden tombs and earthen cave tombs to brick chamber tombs, which are developed and changed
It is also influenced by the central plains tomb shape system, which was produced in the context of the han dynasty's exploration of the northwest region, showing the influence of Han culture and its burial customs on Hexi.
The wooden Jane excavated from the ShuiquanZi Han Tomb is the first time that the wooden Jane has been excavated in Yongchang County, and it is also another important harvest in Gansu Province in recent years in terms of Jian Mu cultural relics. The number of wooden Jian Rishu in this batch is relatively large, and the content is relatively rich, which should be the one that has unearthed a large number of Han Dynasty Japanese books so far, which will have a greater impact on the study of Qin and Han numerology. The "Five Phoenixes and Two Years" calendar is of enlightening significance for us to understand cultural phenomena such as the compilation of ancient calendar days, the gradual convergence of the art of the Day and the calendar of the Qin and Han dynasties, and the calendar.
Yongchang is located at the key point of the Silk Road, with a long history and a rich cultural heritage in the territory. Since the Neolithic Age, many sites have been found, mainly including Mandarin Duck Pond, Mao Bula, Shuimoguan, Erba, Chaodunzi Beach, etc., most of which belong to the Majiayao culture horse factory type, and there are also a small number of Qijia cultural remains. Later, a large number of cultural relics were also found in the Han and Jin Dynasties, the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Tang and Song Dynasties, such as the Chaodunzi Han Tomb Group, the Great Wall of Han, the Grottoes of the Northern Zhou Shengrong Temple, and the Stone Carvings of the Yushan Rui Statue, showing the long-standing cultural features of Yongchang. This excavation not only enriched the information of Han tombs in Hexi area, but also provided new materials for understanding the local history and culture of Yongchang.
bibliography
[1] Pu Chaofu: "Tombs of the Han Dynasty in Lanzhou", Northwest History, No. 2, 1992.
[2] Gansu Provincial Cultural Relics Administration Committee, "Overview of the Cleaning of the Han Dynasty Wooden Tombs of Dongjiatai, Heisongyi, Gulangxia, Gansu", Cultural Relics Reference, No. 7, 1955.
Source 丨 Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology (Text/Wu Xun, Wang Yong'an, Sun Mingxia, Wei Meili)