On April 16, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage released the progress of the major project of "Archaeological China" in Huainan, Anhui Province, focusing on the new archaeological discoveries of the Wuwangdun tomb.
At present, in addition to extracting the largest known area of bamboo mats, the Wuwang dun tomb has also unearthed plum kernels and chestnuts. These fruits, both berries and dried fruits, may in some way reflect the fruits and vegetables that the tomb owner liked to eat during his lifetime.
Recently, when the archaeological team extracted all the coffin covers located on the easternmost side of the tomb, a number of floating objects were revealed in the water of the tomb, and the archaeological team divided them into 36 groups to extract them to the laboratory, and the plant remains were found after preliminary cleaning.
Zhang Zhiguo, the person in charge of cultural relics protection of the Wuwangdun archaeological excavation project: It was found that most of this was found to be some leaves, and then there were fruit pits, and there may be some traces of straw weaving.
According to experts, the fruits that have been found in the tomb of Wuwang are mainly berries and dried fruits, and due to corruption, carbonization and other reasons, the berries only remain plum kernels, melon seeds, etc. And dried fruits have chestnuts. Under the microscope, the chestnuts are basically intact, with one side straight and one side round bulge, and the surface is smooth, and when the archaeological team members change the observation position and gently flick it, the chestnuts still appear to be elastic. From the professional perspective of botanical archaeology, archaeological experts usually locate the fruit to the "genus" level in plant classification, and as for the chestnuts found in the tomb of Wuwangdun, whether they are chestnuts or other subdivided species, they are generally not further distinguished.
It is understood that other Chu tombs have also unearthed more chestnuts. Plum kernels are also more common in Chu tombs, Hunan Linli Jiuli No. 1 Chu Tomb, it has been found that the appearance of the preservation of basically intact chestnuts, jujube pits, melon seeds, etc. Among the fruit relics found in the tomb of King Wu, melon seeds are also included.
Zhang Zhiguo, the person in charge of the cultural relics protection of the Wuwangdun archaeological excavation project: The East I. coffin room, that is, the coffin closest to the tomb road, is found in the coffin, and the other coffins are not available for the time being, because different coffins may have different functions and different cultural relics.
Because the coffin chamber of the Wuwangdun tomb is soaked with stagnant water, some fruit relics float on the surface of the water and can be fished out directly. When the stagnant water is removed, the relics such as the fruit pits are attached to other artifacts, and they are extracted one by one according to the progress of the excavation. It is precisely because of the disturbance of stagnant water that these fruits deviate from their original position, which makes it more difficult for archaeologists to study their functions in the future, especially what kind of containers they are used to hold them, and the fruit preferences of the tomb owners during their lifetimes, or the food culture of the time.
Source: CCTV news client