Project leader Luo Yunbing extracted important Jane Mu cultural relics.
Long text
Phoenix-shaped spoon
DNA testing by Fu Qiaomei's team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Dragon-shaped jade pendant
Funerary painting
Tiger headrest
Hubei Daily all-media reporter Hai Bing correspondent Zhao Jun Zhang Jun
The archaeology of The Zhengjiahu Cemetery in Yunmeng, Hubei Province, has obtained a number of treasures of Chinese civilization, greatly enriched the connotation of Qin culture, and activated the historical scenes of important nodes in the process of the great unification of the Qin and Han Empires. The project was selected as one of the top six new archaeological discoveries in China in 2021 on March 18, and was selected as one of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China in 2021 on March 31.
Why has the project won awards so often? Bai Yunxiang, director of the Qin and Han Archaeology Committee of the Chinese Archaeological Society, commented that the archaeological team of the Zhengjiahu Cemetery excavated and protected at the same time, and cooperated with 12 universities and scientific research institutions to carry out multidisciplinary testing and research at the same time. In this sense, the project is a typical case of multidisciplinary integration and multi-team cooperation of modern field archaeology in the mainland.
Luo Yunbing, the project leader and vice president of the Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said, "Archaeology is not digging treasures, but to explore the appearance of the ancient society. We not only pay attention to the amazing cultural relics such as the 'China's First Long Wen Yao', but also attach importance to the ropes that bind the coffin, the remnants of the container, the water samples inside the coffin, and other seemingly insignificant relics and relics. It is the multidisciplinary cooperation of archaeology that makes history richer and more vivid. ”
A number of water-filled tombs are rare
Archaeological excavations are "clear and clean"
Zhengjiahu Cemetery is located in Chengguan Town, Yunmeng County, and is an organic whole with the surrounding Chuwangcheng city sites, Sleeping Tiger Land Cemetery and Longgang Cemetery. In order to cooperate with the municipal construction of Yunmeng, in 2021, the Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Yunmeng County Museum excavated 116 tombs in area C of the cemetery, unearthing more than 1,000 pieces/sets of burial products, more than 400 pieces/sets of lacquered wood, and many characteristic treasures such as flat pots, tiger head pillows, and phoenix-shaped spoons. At the same time, a number of precious written materials such as "China's First Long Literary Dictionary" were unearthed. A number of rare funerary paintings have been unearthed, which are important discoveries in the history of Chinese art.
Bai Yunxiang said that 14 of the more than 100 tombs in Zhengjiahu lake are well preserved, not only with burial goods and coffins, but also with human bones, martyrdom, grain and other information. The completeness and richness of this batch of materials is very rare, which provides valuable first-hand materials for the study of all aspects of society at that time.
He also said that the project is a cooperative infrastructure archaeological project, with tight time, heavy tasks and poor predictability, but still made many important discoveries. This is not only due to the natural resource advantages, but also the result of the team's adherence to scientific concepts, strict compliance with the "Field Archaeology Work Regulations", strengthening the use of scientific and technological means, and synchronously carrying out multidisciplinary cooperation. He has visited the site and, in the words of the industry, "excavated very clearly and very cleanly.".
Luo Yunbing introduced that the excavation cooperated with universities and scientific research units such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the University of Science and Technology of China, the China Silk Museum, Peking University, And Jingzhou Cultural Protection Center, etc., to carry out three-dimensional modeling, carbon fourteen dating, human bone DNA detection, animal and plant archaeology, isotope analysis, various artifact composition analysis, container residue analysis, water analysis, and pathological research. "It should be said that at present, almost all the means that can be used in scientific and technological archaeology are used, which fully demonstrates the charm and value of scientific and technological archaeology."
Empirical evidence of the migration and integration of people from north to south
Activate the historical scene of important nodes in the process of Qin unification
Although Yunmeng was not at the center of the Qin and Han Dynasties, it was an important area in the eyes of Qin and Han history scholars, because it was once an important stronghold for Qin to unify the south.
According to the dating data, combined with the tomb shape system, coffin structure, combination of burial products and martyrdom customs, the archaeological team believes that the Zhengjiahu cemetery is a small and medium-sized tomb of the Qin culture, with an age span of about 100 years.
The Team at Wuhan University modeled the key tombs in three dimensions, and the team at the University of Science and Technology of China tested the water samples of the tombs. The archaeological team carefully recorded the water level lines in 14 water-filled tombs, ranging from 2 meters to 6 meters. Multidisciplinary research has found that the water environment with weak acidity and less cation content in the tomb plays a protective role in cultural relics. The coffin is wrapped with a layer of sticky green paste mud, which enhances the sealing of the coffin and is also conducive to the protection of cultural relics.
The team of Fu Qiaomei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences successfully extracted the ancient DNA of a batch of human bone samples, and the team of Tang Zihua of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chen Xianglong team of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences basically restored the dietary changes of the tomb owner and the migration route reflected by the tomb owner through a series of tests of 12 cases of human bone samples and stable isotopes, confirming that most of the tomb owners were from Guanzhong and its surrounding areas. This coincides with the inferences made by archaeology, thus clearly revealing the migration and interaction of the north and south people.
The researchers said that in the case of the M276 tomb, according to archaeological typology, the owner of the tomb may have come from a woman in Xijong. With the help of scientific and technological analysis, it was further confirmed that the woman was born in the dryland area of the north, spent her youth in the north, and only went to the south after youth.
The male of tomb M257 was also born in the north, and came to the Jianghan Plain as a teenager, where he grew up to become a warrior. Three bronze swords with obvious traces of use were found in the funerary, and judging by the age of his death, it is speculated that he may have participated in the Qin unification war.
Another Qin Dynasty tomb, chu-style bronze ceremonial vessels and Qin-style daily pottery were unearthed at the same time. The pottery is mostly stamped with "Anlu City Pavilion", indicating that it is locally produced. Judging from the typical Chu culture pottery with burial, the circular bottom pot, the tomb owner may be a descendant of the Chu people who married the Qin people, and accepted the Qin culture while retaining a little Chu cultural tradition.
"This coexistence has appeared in many tombs in the Zhengjiahu cemetery, which is an intuitive witness to the integration of Qin and Chu cultures." Luo Yunbing said that the age span of the Zhengjiahu cemetery is from the late Warring States period to the beginning of the Han Dynasty, and the main body of the tomb should be related to the Qin people and their descendants after the Qin army occupied Anlu in 278 BC. These archaeological materials have activated the historical scenes of important nodes in the process of the great unification of the Qin and Han Empires, and vividly demonstrated the historical process of the gradual integration of Qin culture and Chu culture, unification with Han culture and integration into Chinese civilization.
Grow rice, drink fruit wine, and eat freshwater snails
Multidisciplinary research reveals the diet and health of the ancients
Archaeologists not only hope to find out the origin of the research group, ethnic affiliations, etc., but also want to further understand the ancient social conditions and the details of the lives of the ancients.
More plant remains have been excavated from the Zhengjiahu cemetery, and Dr. Yao Ling, who is engaged in plant archaeology research in the Department of Science and Technology archaeology of the Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, introduced that M225, M274 and M277 tombs have found rice all over the bottom of the coffin. "The number is at least 100 catties," Yao Ling said, adding that the phenomenon of laying grain in the coffin is not the first time, and the Yunmeng Sleeping Tiger Cemetery, which is about 3,000 meters away from the cemetery, has also found that the coffin is covered with a layer of millet about 3 centimeters thick. He said that these rice are unthrearned and may be the main food of the tomb owner during his lifetime, and the burial after death reflects the concept of ancient people dying as if they were alive; it may also be a specific burial custom to prevent moisture and odor.
The Zhengjiahu cemetery also found a rich variety of nuts, fruits and other fruits and seeds, a large number of chestnuts, and melons, peaches, apples and so on. When a lacquer is opened, you will be greeted by a box full of dates, full of particles. Yao Ling said that these remains reflect the tomb owner's preferences on the one hand, and on the other hand, they can also reflect the surrounding plant ecology at that time.
When the team of Professor Yang Yuzhang of the University of Science and Technology of China tested the organic residues of two garlic pots excavated from the M276 tomb, they found that the container may have contained some kind of fruit wine, and interestingly, the tomb did indeed have apple plant remains unearthed. This provided new materials for the study of winemaking technology and types in the pre-Qin period.
In addition, water sample analysis, parasite detection, isotope analysis, etc., provide important information for understanding the health status and eating habits of the ancients. The researchers studied 11 tombs, extracting parasitic eggs from the human sacral bone site in 8 tombs, and the infection rate reached 81.8%. The project leader said this may be related to the fact that locals eat more freshwater snails containing parasites.
The archaeology also found the earliest individual case of mandibular malignancy in Asia (M346), filling the gap in the discovery of paleopathology in Asia.
Fragile cultural relics focus on care
Silk, lacquered wood, etc. are protected in time
The archaeological team focused on the protection of fragile cultural relics such as lacquered wood and textiles, and after the special samples were extracted as a whole, they were transferred to the laboratory for protection and research. The extraction of organic matter cultural relics from the water-filled tomb was guided by the Scene and The whole process of the Jingzhou Cultural Security Center, and the wooden treasures and dispatch books were transported to the Cultural Security Center for timely dehydration protection, and the precious text materials were able to see the light of day.
In order to effectively protect more than 400 pieces/sets of lacquered wood, Li Lan, a researcher at the Hubei Provincial Museum, together with the archaeological team, made a timely plan to urgently carry out a series of work such as dehydration, cleaning, replenishment, polishing, and painting. Due to the large number and value of this batch of lacquered wood, the Yunmeng Workstation, a key scientific research base of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage for the Protection of Unearthed Wood Lacquerware, has been unveiled locally.
Researcher Zhou Yang of the China Silk Museum found that the tomb unearthed a variety of silks; the research team of the University of Science and Technology of China found that the woven materials in the coffin contained bamboo mats, reed mats, grass mats and other kinds; Professor Tang Liya's team of Northwest University identified and found that different levels of tombs, coffins are selected in different materials.
According to reports, the M274 tomb of "China's first long Wen Yao" was unearthed, and the coffin was selected as a more valuable catalpa wood, indicating from the side that the identity of the tomb owner is more special. At the same time as the wooden yao, there is also a stone stone, which speculates that the tomb owner may be a low-level official with a certain culture, and the content of the text may reflect his ideological tendencies.
"Archaeological work is to sort out the development of the entire Chinese civilization behind the cultural relics and sites, multidisciplinary cooperation, so that we can understand the stories of what has happened in the land of China more diverse, more meticulous and more vivid." Luo Yunbing said.
(Courtesy of Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology)
Source: Hubei Daily
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