In order to build the Beijing-Kowloon Railway, Jiangxi exploded a mountain, and unexpectedly blew up the "first tomb in Jiangnan".
When the archaeologists entered the tomb, they could not help but be stunned by the structure of the tomb, and the archaeologists were almost disoriented as if they were in a maze.
Speaking of the identity of the owner of the tomb, it is even more surprising to the archaeologists, to know that even Sun Quan in the Three Kingdoms period had to call him a brother-in-law!
When the archaeologists excavated this tomb, they could not help but regret it, and painfully said that they really should not dig it!
So who is the owner of the tomb?
Why do archaeologists say they shouldn't dig?
"The First Tomb in Gangnam"
In August 1990, workers prepared to collect soil from a nearby hill for construction in the Jishui section of the Beijing-Kowloon Railway in Jiangxi Province.
The construction personnel found that the soil of this small hill bag seems to be particularly hard, it is not easy to excavate, and they can only use blasting methods in desperation, who knows that after a loud noise, the construction personnel found that the soil contained a lot of bluestone bricks.
How can there be bricks under the mountain bag? A daring worker climbed up the hill and looked at it, and the blast site was full of green bricks, so it was no wonder that they couldn't dig it!
Experienced construction personnel suddenly realized that they were likely to have blown up the ancient tomb, so hurry up and report it!
The local archaeologists received the notice and immediately rushed to the site for exploration, and gradually made a preliminary judgment that this should be an ordinary single-chamber tomb.
Because the tomb had collapsed, archaeologists immediately launched a rescue excavation of the tomb.
At this time, no one expected that it was precisely because of this ancient tomb that the construction of the Beijing-Kowloon Railway was almost changed.
With the cleaning of the tomb, archaeologists found that the tomb was not as simple as imagined, and the burial chamber was more than 20 square meters.
Immediately to the west of the burial chamber, archaeologists also found a corridor with no end in sight, which was obviously a large tomb.
Archaeologists re-explored the tomb and found that the tomb had an area of 200 square meters, which can be called an underground mansion.
From this point of view, the identity status of the owner of the tomb must be unusual.
After the news of the discovery of the tomb came out, it immediately attracted the onlookers of the surrounding people, who said that there must be many treasures buried in the tomb.
Archaeologists are also very excited, in the southern region, this is the first time to find such a large tomb, so this large tomb is also known as "the first tomb in Jiangnan".
So which dynasty is this "first tomb in Jiangnan"? Who would the owner of the tomb be?
The Beijing-Kowloon Railway almost changed its course
Jiangxi built the Beijing-Kowloon Railway, unexpectedly found the "first tomb in Jiangnan", and it was even more tortuous and bizarre when excavating.
When cleaning up the tomb, archaeologists first noticed the tomb bricks, which had clear ornaments called net money patterns.
Archaeologists have seen this kind of ornament in tombs during the Two Han Dynasties, and the net money pattern was once very popular in the late Eastern Wu Dynasty.
So is this tomb in the Two Han, Three Kingdoms or Two Jin Dynasties?
As excavations continued downwards, archaeologists found that the tomb seemed unusual when it was built.
The tomb is not completely deep underground, most of the building is above the surface, and the thick sealing soil outside protects the tomb.
This is completely different from the ancient tombs that go deep into the ground, which has aroused great interest from archaeologists.
At the same time, however, archaeologists face a difficult choice.
Archaeologists wanted to protect the tomb on the spot, but the Construction of the Beijing-Kowloon Railway was imminent, and the railway bridge above the Enjiang River had been completed.
If the tomb is protected in situ, it will inevitably affect the construction of the railway, so the cost will be high.
If it is a general tomb, it can be protected by backfilling, but the Jishui Tomb is not feasible because it is above the surface.
In order not to delay the construction of the Beijing-Kowloon Railway, archaeologists decided to relocate the tomb.
After the plan was determined, archaeologists began to excavate the tomb, which was made of bricks, and the tomb consisted of a tomb door, a corridor, an anterior chamber, an ear chamber, a back chamber, and a square cloister, which was blown open just in part of the right ear chamber.
Soon, archaeologists dug up the tomb door, and when they saw the wide corridor behind the door, archaeologists could not help but marvel at the size of the tomb.
Immediately after, however, a basin of cold water was poured down, as archaeologists found that both doors were damaged to varying degrees.
That is to say, this tomb has been harassed by stolen tomb thieves, and the funerary goods inside are likely to have been stolen and excavated long ago.
After entering the Yongdao, archaeologists found several scattered funerary items, which were most likely left by tomb robbers.
However, at the end, the archaeologists were surprised to find that there was even a stone gate, and the stone door could not be pushed.
Obviously, there must be a mechanism behind the stone door, so since the archaeologists can't push it, will the tomb robbers not succeed in entering it?
Just as the archaeologists managed to open the tomb door, someone let out an exclamation in the nearby ear chamber.
It turned out that in the ear chamber, archaeologists found many exquisite cultural relics, including bronzes, celadons, and many ancient coins.
For example, this extremely precious bronze figure divine beast lamp is exquisite and smooth.
Through the artifacts excavated from the ear chamber, archaeologists found that the left ear chamber was actually the warehouse of the tomb owner, and the number and variety of cultural relics inside were very large, while the right ear chamber was a kitchen, which was full of celadon tableware and stoves.
What is even more surprising is that the ear chambers also have a passage that can be connected to form a square tomb circle, enclosing the main burial chamber in the middle, and the strange shape is unprecedented.
However, if you want to know the identity of the owner of the tomb, you still need to open the tomb door and enter the main tomb room.
When archaeologists were studying how to open the tomb door, someone found a robbery hole above the main burial chamber, leading to the main burial chamber.
There is no way, archaeologists can only enter the main burial chamber from the robbery cave, the main burial chamber is very large, divided into nine layers, all made of bluestone strips, the top is decreasing layer by layer, and finally closing, very spectacular.
However, there is no cultural relics left in the tomb, and even the remains of the owner of the tomb have not been found, which has disappointed the archaeologists.
Who knew that while clearing the dirt, in a dark corner, archaeologists made a special discovery.
A pair of bronze Suzaku was forgotten in the dirt, and after cleaning, the ornamentation on Suzaku's body was clearly visible.
Experts speculate that the tomb should be placed with four square divine beasts, but after being swept by the tomb robbers, only the pair of bronze suzaku was left behind.
So who is this illustrious tomb owner?
Sun Quan's brother-in-law?
Jiangxi found "the first largest tomb in Jiangnan", the tomb shape is peculiar, it is really rare.
Although the tomb was looted by tomb robbers, the artifacts unearthed in the tomb still surprised archaeologists.
After the identification of the excavated cultural relics, archaeologists determined that the tomb should be built in the late Eastern Wu period of the Three Kingdoms, and the owner of the tomb should be a Eastern Wu heavy minister.
So will he appear in romance of the Three Kingdoms? Will he be one of Lu Su, Lu Xun and others?
Since the remains of the owner of the tomb can no longer be found in the tomb, no text information such as epitaphs has been found.
In order to find the identity of the owner of the tomb, archaeologists went through the historical materials, hoping to find clues from the search.
According to historical records, in the Eastern Wu period, there was really a person with a special identity in the Jishui area.
His name was Tan Shao, and he was also an important general of Eastern Wu, who was responsible for protecting the safety of the imperial family.
More importantly, he was also an imperial relative and had a relationship with Sun Quan, tan Shao's wife, who was the sister of Sun Quan's empress dowager Lady Pan, so Sun Quan had to call Tan Shao a brother-in-law.
Tan Shao lost power due to the struggle for authority in the court, so he deposed the official and led his family back to his hometown of Jishui, where he was buried until his death.
According to the observations of archaeologists, Tan Shao's tomb was built very defensively, a bit like an underground manor.
What surprised the archaeologists even more was that when the tomb was built, it was like building blocks, layer by layer.
The tomb uses the dry masonry method, and no attachment is used between the bricks and bricks, and this tomb form is also called the "Eastern Han Dynasty Large Zaojing Brick Chamber Mound Tomb".
After the excavation was completed, archaeologists began to relocate the tomb, but when it was rebuilt, archaeologists tried their best to do anything, but they still could not do it.
For technical reasons, in the end, archaeologists could only replace cement with yellow mud and re-build masonry at the Jishui County Museum.
The archaeologists regretted this and repeatedly said that the tomb should not be excavated.