Today, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage released the progress of the major project "Archaeological China" in Huainan, Anhui Province, focusing on the new archaeological discoveries of the Wuwangdun tomb. Experts say the tomb may have belonged to King Chukaoli.
Wuwangdun Cemetery is located in Huainan City, Anhui Province, and there are important relics such as the main tomb (No. 1 tomb), cemetery, carriage and horse pit, burial tomb, sacrificial pit and so on.
△Schematic diagram of the distribution of the remains of Wuwangdun cemetery
After archaeological investigation and exploration, the Wuwangdun tomb now preserves the main tomb (No. 1 tomb), cemetery, carriage and horse pit, burial tomb, sacrificial pit and other important relics, the whole cemetery covers an area of more than 2,100 acres. Since 2020, archaeologists have focused on the excavation of the main tomb (Tomb No. 1) and confirmed that the main tomb (Tomb No. 1) is a large "A"-shaped vertical pit tomb. The grave pit is nearly square, with a side length of about 50 meters, and there is a slope on the east side of the tomb that is about 42 meters long.
In the center of the tomb, there is a coffin chamber in the shape of "Asia", and there are 8 side chambers around it, and there is a coffin chamber in the middle of the coffin chamber, all of which are constructed of long strips of fir, and the top is covered with multiple layers of covers.
△ Tomb Chamber Cloth Bureau
Nearly 1,000 words were found on the coffin cover
More than 100 sentences and nearly 1,000 characters have been found and collected on the cover plate of the coffin chamber, marking the location of the cover plate and the function of each side chamber. More than 1,000 numbered cultural relics such as lacquered wood and bronze have been extracted, including precious cultural relics such as bronze ritual vessels, household utensils, lacquered wood ware, musical instruments, and figurines. Among them, the number and variety of lacquered wood ware are unprecedented. The coarse diameter of the large tripod placed at the south end of the east I. room is more than 88 centimeters, which is larger than the Chu Dading (Casting Ke Dading) unearthed from the largest known Li San Gudui.
△ Cultural relics of the east side room
△ Lacquer woodware
△ Text on the coffin cover
△ Wooden Chamber Cloth Bureau
△Qinglingding
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage instructed the research team to do a good job in the on-site protection and multidisciplinary research of unearthed cultural relics, completed the reinforcement and extraction of fragile cultural relics such as coffin covers, bamboo mats, lacquered woodware, etc., and carried out fine cleaning and stability protection in the laboratory, and simultaneously carried out multidisciplinary research work such as carbon 14 dating of tombs, identification of wood species, infrared identification of coffin cover plates and ink books, testing and process research of lacquerware and textile materials, and analysis of tomb burial environment.
The main tomb of Wuwangdun (No. 1 tomb) is the largest, highest level and most complex large-scale Chu king-level tomb that has been scientifically excavated so far. The archaeological research of Wuwangdun Tomb, a major project of "Archaeological China", will implement the concept of "big archaeology", adhere to fine excavation, multidisciplinary collaborative research, strengthen the protection of cultural relics and ruins in situ, plan the construction of archaeological site parks, promote the creative transformation and innovative expression of archaeological achievements, and show the outstanding characteristics and brilliant achievements of Chinese civilization.
(CCTV reporter Tian Yunhua, Zhang Lilei, Wang Ning)