The Eastern Zhou Dynasty was full of shadows
The tranquility of a remote village of less than 10 families was discovered by a mysterious and bizarre thousand-year-old tomb broken.
There were 46 flower girls in the tomb, with not a single hair on their bodies, and archaeologists were puzzled when a black skull with a green crystal "cauliflower" was unearthed.
To the greatest shock to the experts, so many valuables were unearthed and so many people died in this mausoleum adjacent to a large tomb.
What caused the death of the funeral girl? Why do green crystals form on the remains of the bones?
So, what did the real tomb owner really think?
"Chuzhuang Cemetery?"
On December 28 this year, Xu Changqing, deputy director of the Jiangxi Institute of Archaeology, received news that an ancient tomb had been found in the countryside of Jing'an County, Jiangxi Province.
Xu Changqing had just finished his archaeological work in Xiushui County and returned to the institute exhausted. I was going to take a break, but a new tomb appeared. "How could it be an ancient tomb?" Xu Changqing was very surprised and asked his colleagues. Everyone shook their heads and said, "No! I haven't seen it!" Xu Changqing said. Sure enough, it was a tomb. Hearing this news, Xu Changqing perked up, all the exhaustion disappeared, and he did not hesitate to rush to the ancient tomb.
The ancient tomb is located in Lizhou Pass, Jing'an County, ào Li Village across the river, at that time the village had less than 10 households, surrounded by mountains, the scenery is unique, but few outsiders disturbed, until the tomb robbers came to sweep the tomb.
After Xu Changqing arrived at the scene, he immediately saw that the tomb robbers had dug a robbery hole about 1 meter high and about 80 centimeters wide.
But the dirt around them was still fresh, and when Xu Changqing examined it, he found that it was made of coffin debris and green paste mud, as well as some silk fabric. These were all picked up by Mr. Xu while digging ancient tombs, and he took them to the market and sold them to an antique dealer named "Aso". Unexpectedly, this "Aso" was actually bought! To Xu Changqing's surprise, the silk fabric was very strong and distinctive to the touch.
After on-site investigation, Xu Changqing determined that the ancient tomb was about 13 meters high. According to archaeological excavation data, the Xu family cemetery is the largest group of chu noble tombs found in the late Western Han Dynasty in Jiangsu. The cemetery is located near Datang Village, Malan Town, Liuhe District, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. Generally in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the larger the tomb area, the higher the sealing mound, indicating the higher the status of the tomb owner.
The height of the sealed mound was in line with the specifications of the tombs of the princes at that time. A large number of exquisite bronze and jade artifacts and other cultural relics have been excavated from the Xu family cemetery, which also provides us with precious physical materials for further study of Chu culture. In addition, the green paste mud is a typical feature of the tombs of the nobles of the Chu state in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, and Jing'an in Jiangxi is located at the junction of the Chu state and the Chu and Wu countries, and Xu Changqing judged that the tomb was the tomb of the nobles of the Chu state during the Spring and Autumn And Warring States period.
Since the tomb has already been stolen, protective excavations of the grave need to begin as soon as possible. When the tomb was investigated, it was found that the tomb was a brick chamber tomb in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and a large number of burial artifacts and epitaphs were excavated, which allowed us to further understand the social, political, economic and cultural life at that time. In January 2007, the Institute of Antiquities quickly dispatched an expert archaeological team.
But before the excavation began, Xu Changqing, who was in charge, heard that the gang had been caught, so he decided to inquire from the tomb robbers who were already in the tomb.
To commute their sentences, the tomb robbers racked their brains to recall what they found in the graves. When Xu Qing and several people came to the cemetery together, suddenly there was a rush of footsteps from the ground. "What sound?" How did you two get out? "It's us grave robbers!" Xu Changqing heard a tomb robber say, "Open three coffins." The crowd was stunned.
As an expert with more than 20 years of experience in archaeology, he knew that the outstanding feature of the tomb of the nobility was the huge coffin tomb, which had to be made to look like a huge box as a symbol of the living area. So he said: The tomb structure of the Chu people is such a big box! This box can be divided into several parts: first, the burial chamber; second, the space inside the coffin; third, burial items and tools, etc. Inside the coffin is a coffin, which should be divided into several squares and placed different items, which can only be placed in the middle of the coffin.
The picture shows a sample of the tombs of the nobles of the Chu state.
This means that in the grave of one coffin, there will only be one coffin, so how can there be a situation of "all three coffins open"?
Xu Chaoqing knew he was right, but what the tomb robber said didn't sound like a lie either.
What happened in the grave seemed to be known only if he saw it with his own eyes.
Mysterious 47 coffins
During the excavation process, Xu Changqing has been troubled by the "open 3 coffins" of the tomb thieves, and when he entered the tomb, he was surprised to find that the original three coffins were still very short, and there were enough 46 coffins in the tomb!
Because the mausoleum was high in the sealed mound, the archaeological team worked there for a full month before opening the sealed mound. The tomb is located about 20 kilometers west of the city of Xinye County, Henan Province. Much of what was excavated from the tomb has been destroyed, and only a small part is still intact. In addition to a large number of burial items in the burial chamber, there are also some bronzes. The scale of the ancient tomb excavated below shocked everyone, covering an area of 160 square meters, which was relatively large in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
Unfortunately, in addition to a recently discovered tomb robber, the archaeological team also found an older robbery cave on the southeast edge of the mausoleum, which appears to be guarded by more than one gang.
Later, the archaeological team dug out a lot of green paste mud, and when they dug out the last layer of dirt, Xu Changqing did not see the large coffins of the aristocratic style as expected, but neatly arranged in a row of small log coffins, a total of 46!
The figure shocked archaeologists at the site, and it turned out that the phrase "three coffins opened" was an understatement.
The 46 coffins are only 60 or 70 centimeters wide on average, and the shape and construction are relatively simple, apparently cluster coffins. This has led experts such as Xu Changqing to suspect that the coffin was filled with martyrs. Wasn't the coffin covered with a coffin lid? If it is a bush coffin, there must be a main coffin.
After a careful search, the team excavated 47 coffins near the entrance to the mausoleum.
It has been severely corroded, but there are still wooden remains in the coffin, but the size is small, dwarfed by the entire 160 square meters of the tomb, and the production process is as simple as before, at most better than the 46 groups of coffins.
There is an obvious coffin bed next to the main coffin, but there is no coffin on it. What's going on here? Why is it placed here? Is this a special kind of funeral rite?" I don't believe it. On top of that, it is the main coffin, not in the middle of the cemetery. All kinds of mysteries, Xu Changqing and others were puzzled.
After cleaning up the mud from the tomb, they found a 30-centimeter-diameter gold leaf with a fine pattern engraved on it, a symbol of power during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, which led Xu Changqing to confirm that the 47th coffin was indeed the main coffin.
It wasn't until later, when all the coffins were open for study, that he was surprised again.
When the main coffin was opened, there was a lot of silt inside. None of the burial objects, such as fine bronzes, should have. Archaeologists have found only a half-moon-shaped jade pendant carved in the exact opposite direction to the cloud thunder pattern. This is a Western Han tomb owned by a nobleman named Liu Sheng. Judging by the contents of the excavated artifacts and epitaphs, he died between 138 BC and 111 BC, more than 200 years ago. Unsurprisingly, there were no funeral supplies in the main coffin, because the funerary items were stolen.
In addition, the archaeological team also found 144 artifacts in the tomb, including 144 bamboo and wood ware, 12 lacquerware, 13 jade objects and 30 bronze objects.
There are almost no gold and silverware there, but things like bamboo and wood are difficult to preserve, and in a way they are as precious as gold and silverware. The Sanxingdui site, located about 20 kilometers southeast of Jiangyou County in Sichuan's Guang'an region, is a world-famous remnant of an ancient bronze civilization. A large number of precious artifacts and bronzes have been excavated here. Some of them are extremely exquisite jade objects. Just from the size of the tomb, these things seem to be unsuitable as funerary items.
Xu Changqing didn't know if he was mistaken, in fact, this tomb was not the tomb of the nobles of the Chu Kingdom. According to archaeological discoveries and documentary records, the Chu people built a large and complex group of burial chambers between 475 BC and 376 BC, and unearthed more than 40 pieces of various exquisite lacquerware. These include many rare treasures. But that doesn't explain the 46 clumps.
The answer must be found in these coffins.
"The tomb of King Xu in his last years?"
After opening the 46 coffins, Xu Changqing and his family were stunned by the sight in front of them, and green crystals appeared on the wreckage of the coffin.
Rao is a senior archaeologist with more than 20 years of archaeological work experience, and Xu Changqing is a little restless.
Most of the 46 groups of coffins were buried from east to west, roughly the same size, with simple log construction.
The remains of 28 of these coffins are fairly well preserved. Surprisingly, none of the remains were dressed, the remains were black, and most were born with a grotesque green crystal that looked like green "cauliflower."
The crystals are mainly diamond-shaped, with different shades of color and uneven distribution. A large number of animal carcasses and plant specimens appear in the picture. There are also some characters interspersed in the middle of the picture, they are all made in a special way, which is called the "coloring" method. The combination of black bones and green crystals makes the whole scene weird.
After testing, these crystals are crystals of iron nitrate salts, and experts theorize that these crystals were formed over time by the food structure characteristics of the deceased's food, coupled with groundwater and mineral components.
Before opening the coffin, Xu Changqing speculated that the main coffin might be that of a general, and that the coffin was also the soldier who died with him, but when the coffin was opened to identify, Xu Changqing learned that the 46 coffins were all young girls with flourishing style.
The young girl was buried without clothes, were they all concubines of the owner of the tomb? In ancient Chinese literature, there are records of "female corpses", the most important of which is the "female corpse burial", that is, after a woman dies, she is buried underground without clothes. This is a very old question. This seemed like a reasonable guess, but it was quickly debunked.
Although the bodies appeared to be "naked," they were all tightly wrapped in silk fabric and almost glued to the remains, and experts had to carefully separate them.
Using sophisticated instruments, the experts were surprised to find 240 threads per square centimeter, each less than 0.1 millimeters in diameter.
There is also a piece of two-tone brocade dyed with cinnabar, which is still clearly textured and vividly colored, which proves the unimaginable textile and printing and dyeing standards that were popular at that time.
Xu Changqing thought the discovery would prove that the two girls were concubines of the tomb owner, but silk fabric conservation experts offered a different view. It turned out that a precious brocade cultural relic was unearthed in this tomb, and this women's costume called "Golden Cloud Dress" was based on the clothes worn by ancient women collected by the China Silk Museum according to archaeological excavations. What's going on? She found that although the girls were well wrapped in brocade, there were no ornaments on them, and some were even buried in bamboo mats.
According to the silk fabric conservation expert, these young women came from humble origins.
Archaeologists also found ancient textile tools near the girl, which led them to believe that they were court textile production workers, and that the brocade was woven by themselves so that they could be wrapped up and buried.
Knowing this, Xu Changqing began to guess again. He speculated that the tomb might be a burial place for female corpses; or a burial pit for female corpses, but it was not the place where the owner of the tomb had lived before he died... Xu Changqing's judgment was not wrong! In this burial chamber there is a female corpse. If the maids were weavers, it meant that the deceased in the main coffin was the person in charge of the weavers, and the gold artifact may not represent the identity of the owner of the tomb, but another symbol.
In fact, just across the bank from the tomb of Li Zhou'ao, three bronzes have been unearthed in 70, and the text on them indicates that they belong to a kingdom called Xu.
During the State of Xu, xu was once the overlord of the State of Chu, but was later destroyed by the State of Wu, and the last king, King Xu, fled to the State of Chu with his princes and nobles, and disappeared from it.
Xu Changqing compared the bronzes excavated from Lijia Village with the bronze bronzes excavated by Li Zhou'ao and found that the two were excavated almost at the same time, most likely xu Wang took his men to Jing'an Lizhou'ao for recuperation.
Later, the last King Xu died here, and although he was only the king of the fallen country, he still enjoyed the funeral specifications of the king.
The forty-six female workers and administrators who had woven for him at the court were brutally poisoned and martyred after his death. These people were all female eunuchs in the court. They worked as spinning and weaving at the court. The labor of court women caused them to produce a chemical in their bodies, which caused poisoning in the human body. When they die, the poison component in the body is affected by the local soil and climatic environment, and gradually forms green crystals.
This also means that this huge tomb covers an area that is likely to be the funerary tomb of the late last Xu Wang, and the real tomb is nearby, and one can only imagine how large it is.
It may have been hidden in the mountains near Li Zhou'ao, but until now, it remains to be seen whether the tomb of King Xu really exists, and on which mountain it is hidden.