Up to now, hundreds of bronzes have been found in the archaeology of Wuwangdun No. 1 Tomb in Huainan, Anhui Province, covering ding, 簠 (fǔ), 缶 (fǒu), jian, pot, francium (fāng), etc., with a complete range of types and most of them are well preserved. In particular, the three bronze 甗 (yǎn) found are different models of the same kind, and the "folding leg" 甗 (yǎn) is even rarer.
King Chu's "steamer" has three types of "folding legs", and the shape is particularly special
These are the three 甗 (yǎn). The upper and lower parts form a combination, is this shape familiar? That's right, it's it, the essential steamer for every family, and it's a variant formed in the long historical evolution. When we put them together, we suddenly find that history and culture have long been integrated into our daily lives, nourishing hundreds of millions of people in a silent place.
Since the launch of the rescue archaeological excavation of the Wuwangdun Tomb in 2020, with the gradual clarification of the scale of the tomb and the burial cultural relics, it has become the only Chu king-level tomb that has been scientifically excavated in the mainland so far. The three bronze rings that have been extracted and unearthed have not only refreshed the previous cognition in terms of quantity, but also surprised archaeological experts by their shapes.
The three bronze rings of the Wuwang dun tomb were extracted and unearthed on the same day, but they are of different types. The most special and rare thing in terms of shape is this "folded leg" ring, which is tall and slender on three legs, and the archaeological team is especially careful when cleaning it. It has a folding mechanism at its "knee" and is hidden behind the animal face pattern. The three-legged fold can reach 90 degrees.
Due to the different styles of the bronze rings of the "folded legs", archaeologists even speculate that it may also be a funeral gift from a nobleman from other places.
The bronze indoor clay pot is wrapped in straw and the function of the set is to be solved
In addition to the bronze 甗 (yǎn) with "folded legs", that is, the "steaming pot" of the Chu State style is extremely rare, the two clay pots recently unearthed from the main tomb of Wuwangdun are mediocre at first glance, but in the eyes of archaeological experts, its particularity and preciousness are not inferior.
The main tomb of Wuwangdun, its tomb chamber is built with huge fir wood to build 9 coffins. This clay pot comes from the easternmost chamber, which is the coffin numbered Higashi I. The east I. coffin room is mainly buried bronze tripod, bronze gui and other ritual vessels, in the coffin where heavy weapons are gathered, daily necessities clay pots are found, this contrast, has attracted the special attention of archaeological experts.
According to the preliminary analysis of experts, this clay pot is unlikely to be used to hold wine, because some bronze pots, bronze reeds and other containers unearthed from the tomb of Wuwangdun are usually considered to be wine vessels.
When cleaning up the wrapped silt and other attachments, the archaeological team members used a brush dipped in water, and tried to preserve the "straw coat" wrapped in the clay pot with the least amount of force as much as possible, because the "straw coat" is also one of the key clues to decode the specific use of the clay pot.
The "lunch box" still has a "packing rope" and the recipe is hidden in the bronze bowl
Bronze 簠 (fǔ) is a vessel used by ancient ancestors to hold rice such as millet (shǔ), millet and liang during sacrifices and feasts, which appeared in the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty and disappeared after the late Warring States period. In terms of shape, they are all square vessels, which are similar to some current lunch boxes. Several bronze pieces have recently been unearthed from the tomb of Wuwangdun, and some of the remaining "packing ropes" remain.
According to archaeological experts, the main tomb of Wuwangdun is full of stagnant water, which forms a low-oxygen environment, thanks to which some organic cultural relics have been preserved. Therefore, there is usually a saying in archaeology that "dry for a thousand years, wet for 10,000 years, not dry or wet for only half a year".
According to experts, in the last century, in the tombs of Shanxi, Henan and other places on the mainland, some bronze tripods were also unearthed, which contained animal bones. It is precisely because the lid of the copper tripod has been displaced or fallen off that experts and scholars are unable to distinguish which food is in which place, which brings challenges to historical research.
Source: Guanhai News Editor: Gao Qi Responsible Editor: Zhang Zhizhi