The eastern boundary wall of the Imperial City Terrace Cemetery. Photo courtesy of Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau
Xi'an, January 12 (Reporter Alina) The reporter learned from a press conference held by the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau on the 12th that archaeologists found the current Shiji city site and the highest-level cemetery of Shiji culture in the Huangchengtai. According to reports, the high-level cemetery of Huangchengtai further highlights the degree of civilization of Shiji society, which is an important empirical evidence that Shiji has entered the early state form, and is an important gain in the work of exploring the source of Chinese civilization in recent years.
The picture shows the unearthed jade gong. Photo courtesy of Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau
In 2022, the excavation of the Shiji site focused on the Imperial City Terrace, revealing the tip of the iceberg of the high-level cemetery of the Imperial City Terrace discovered in 2018. At the same time, in order to promote the overall protection plan of the southern parapet wall of the large platform as soon as possible, the southwest corner of the large base was exposed.
The southwest corner of the large base is consistent with the southeast corner of the earliest discovered large platform, which is an arc-shaped corner. The excavation also found more than a dozen exquisite stone carvings, of which the one at the southwest corner is the most characteristic. The stone carvings are made of turquoise sandstone and are built at the southwest corner of the large base, which is designed to be circular in shape. Due to the phenomenon of weathering, inversion, and scattered arrangement of stone carvings found in the past, the understanding of the use of stone carvings has been blurred, and the discovery of stone carvings in the southwest corner of the large platform base has confirmed that a large number of stone carvings built on the parapet wall of the large platform base are specially made for the large platform.
The site of the cemetery was selected on a slope high in the east and low in the west on the west side of the large platform, and the eastern and western boundaries of the cemetery have been confirmed, and the southern and northern boundaries need further excavation. A doorway to the cemetery was found on the eastern wall. Combined with the similar-shaped, similar-location doorways previously found on the large Taijixi wall parallel to the eastern boundary wall, experts believe that the two doorways connect the palace area and the burial area.
The picture shows the tomb of the Imperial City Tai Cemetery. Photo courtesy of Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau
In 2022, a total of 20 tombs were discovered, including 5 sarcophagi tombs, 3 small pit tombs, and 12 large pit tombs. According to the trend of the stone walls in the cemetery and the arrangement of the large vertical pit tombs, the currently exposed cemetery is divided into two areas: north and south. The southern area has a large number of tombs, which are divided into rows by the stone wall and arranged in a regular manner.
The picture shows the tomb of the Imperial City Tai Cemetery. Photo courtesy of Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau
The shape and artifacts of the large vertical pit tombs in the Huangchengtai cemetery are basically the same as those at the site of Hanjiazudan, the site of Shenwu Fengliang and the site of Zhaishan. It is inferred that the high-level cemetery of Huangchengtai is dated no earlier than the middle period of the Shiji culture, and the absolute age is from 2100 BC to 1800 BC.
According to reports, the Huangchengtai cemetery is the highest-level cemetery found in the current Shiji city site and Shiji culture, and together with the "big platform" to build the basic pattern of "front palace-back cemetery" on the imperial city platform. Combined with previous findings, the high degree of similarity of tombs in Shiji culture, clear grading standards, and obvious grade differences are important data for discussing the complexity of Shiyan society. (End)