The Eastern Zhou Cemetery of Xuyang, Yichuan, Henan is located in the area of Xuyang Village, Minggao Town, Yichuan County, Henan Province. Since 2013, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Luoyang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology has found more than 400 tombs, 15 chema pits, and thousands of kilns, cellars and ash pits in various periods on the terraces on both sides of the Shunyang River and its tributaries centered on Xuyang Village.
Since 2015, a total of 150 tombs in various periods have been excavated and cleaned up (6 Western Zhou tombs and 132 Eastern Zhou tombs), 4 Chema pits, 9 sacrificial remains (Western Zhou 2, Eastern Zhou 7), and 1 Western Zhou housing site. The remains of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty are the main remains of the Xuyang cemetery.
During the Western Zhou Dynasty, all tombs were single coffins, buried on their backs and with straight limbs. The burial pottery is a combination of pottery bristles or bristles and pots, and some are accompanied by copper objects such as copper goblets. Burial relics are placed above the head, and there is a common phenomenon of placing shell coins in the feet, head or mouth of people. The sacrificial pits are all round, with 4 bones and 2 in each. The site is semi-crypt type, and there are pillar holes, stove pits and so on in the house.
The remains of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty include tombs, carriage and horse pits, horse and cattle head hoof pits, and sacrificial pits for horses, pigs, dogs, and sheep. There are 132 tombs in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, including 5 large tombs, 12 medium-sized tombs and 115 small tombs. The tomb direction is mainly east-west, supplemented by north-south direction. There are 12 horse pits or carriage pits. Large and medium-sized tomb tools are all one coffin and one coffin, small tomb tools are single coffins, straight limb burials on the back, and large and medium-sized tombs in the northwest have corresponding funeral carriages and horse pits.
5 large tombs
All are east-west rectangular vertical pits, with an area of 20 to 35 square meters. The burial utensils are all coffins and coffins. The well-preserved tomb owner wears a charm composed of crystal agate beads, rings, jade, gilded bronze medallions, etc. on the chest. The main burial relics are copper ding, beans, mules, pots, plates, daggers, boats, woven cadmiums, chimes, car chimes, gui, stone chimes, pottery, jade, gold, agate ornaments, lacquerware, bone shells and so on.
Large Tomb (Area 17a m10)
Area 15a m6 is a rectangular vertical pit tomb with a direction of 105°. The tomb is 5.4 meters long from east to west and 3.95 meters wide from north to south. The bottom is 5.44 to 5.58 meters long, 4.10 meters wide and 5.6 meters deep. The burial utensils are a coffin and a rafter, the side plates are decayed, and the bottom plates are still alive. The top is 3.45 to 3.52 meters long, 2.52 meters wide and about 1.70 meters high. The bottom plate is made of 10 square logs tiled in a north-south direction, with serious decay, with a residual length of 2.0 to 3.16 meters and a height of 0.11 meters. The wooden coffin is located in the middle of the rafters, 2.54 meters long, 1.10 to 1.18 meters wide, wide in the east and narrow in the west, with a residual height of 0.13 meters, and decay. A human skeleton was found in the coffin, with the head east and feet west, and the burial style was to lean back and straighten the limbs. There are disc-shaped gold earrings on both sides of the human bones, gilded animal-shaped plaques under the jaw, jade coverings, and jade objects, beads, agate crystal rings, etc. on the chest and abdomen, which are suspected to be charms. There are Yu Gui and so on on the legs, and the burial bronzes are placed between the coffins on the south side, and there are copper dings, gui, pots, manes, beans, ge, plates, boats, za, copper chariots and so on. Between the coffins at the western end, many patent leathers were found, which should be lacquerware, the wooden tires have decayed, and the patent leather ornaments are dazzling, mainly including cockroach patterns, checkered patterns, diamond-shaped patterns, etc., and a large number of bone shell coins are found in the lacquer box. The tomb is located 20 meters northwest of the tomb chariot pit.
Area 17a M15 is a rectangular vertical pit, excavated in 20 years. East-west, 7.85 m long, 5.50 m wide and 6.8 m deep. The bottom of the tomb is 6.87 meters long and 5.18 meters wide. The burial utensils are a coffin and a rafter, the top and side plates are decayed, the bottom plate is still remnant, the length of the rafter is 5.6 to 5.8 meters, the width is 3.85 to 3.90 meters, the coffin is decayed, there is paint on the outside of the coffin, and there are ornaments on the outside. At present, 6 human bones have been found, which are seriously decayed, of which five should be martyrs, and a large number of shell coins are placed around the human bones. The main burial utensils are gluttonous chimes, chimes, copper bone carriages and horses, jade, copper hinges, copper ornaments and so on. There are funerary car horse pits, horse pits, pig pits, dog pits and so on around the tomb.
17a district m10 excavated in 2020, stolen and disturbed, east-west direction. The mouth is 5.40 meters long and 4.2 meters wide. The mouth is large and small, with a bottom length of 4.83 meters and a width of 3.85 meters. The depth is 6.0 meters, the four walls are regular, the burial tools are one coffin and one rafter, and the remaining rafters are 4 pieces, and the coffin is placed. The remaining relics include jade, carriage and horse tools, agate pipes, etc., and the northwestern funeral car and horse pits, which are relocated as a whole.
12 medium-sized tombs
Most of the stolen and disturbed tombs are east-west rectangular vertical pit tombs, with an area of 10 to 20 square meters, burial tools for a coffin, and the excavated relics are mainly bronze. The combination is copper ding, copper grate, clay pot, accompanied by copper gilding, box, ring, axe, spear, trowel, plate, bean, boat, spoon, sword, go, copper cart horse ware, jade, etc., and there are corresponding car and horse pits or horse cattle and sheep's head and hoof sacrifices in the northwest.
Medium Tomb (Area 16c m10)
Area 16c m10 is a rectangular vertical pit tomb, east-west oriented. The mouth is 5.05 meters long, 3.25 wide and 3.93 meters deep. Serious theft, burial utensils one coffin after another, no human bones remain. Only some fragments of bronze artifacts remain with the burial relics.
There are 115 small tombs
All are single coffins. It is 2.3 to 3.4 meters long, 0.9 to 2.5 meters wide, and 1.5 to 4.5 meters deep. All are single coffins, buried on their backs and with straight limbs. There are 50 in the east-west direction and 38 in the north-south direction. The use of dogs or horses, cattle and sheep heads is found in some tombs. Burial relics are either placed in niches or placed in coffins. There are single ear jars, jomon cans, round belly cans, manes, pots, cups, dings, bowls, plates, boats, turns, copper spears, copper belt hooks, copper hammers, orthoping stones, bone hammers and so on. The inside of the single ear jar is sheep bone, and the mane is pig bone. The utensils are mainly composed of pottery single ear jars, round belly pots, pots, bristles, pots and ding, beans, pots, single ear jars are placed in sheep bones, and pig bones are placed in the mane. Pottery single ear jars, round belly jars, pots and bristles, pots, pots and pots are combined with copper goblets, spears, shovels, shovels, spoons, hooks, rings, hammers, carriage and horse ware, orthoping stones, bone tools, jade, etc. The combination of ding, bean, and pot is accompanied by Shi Gui, and occasionally bowls, cups, plates, boats, and turns are accompanied.
Small Tomb (Area 19a m13)
Area 19a m13 Vertical pit tomb, direction 19°. The mouth is small and large, with a length of 2.2 meters, a width of 0.83 meters, a bottom length of 2.25 meters, a width of 0.86 meters, and a depth of 2.2 meters. There is an alcove on the north wall 0.35 to 0.4 meters from the bottom of the tomb, the alcove is 0.5 meters wide, 0.2 to 0.35 meters high, and the depth is 0.25 meters, and the east side of the niche extends to the east wall of the tomb. The burial tool is a single coffin, the coffin marks are 1.84 long, 0.42 to 0.5 wide, and the residual height is 0.2 meters. Burial relics include clay pots, pots, single-eared clay pots, copper pots and so on. 1 human bone, well preserved, burial style for supine straight limbs, female, age about 45-50 years old.
Chema Pit 5 seats
All are companion burials of large and medium-sized tombs in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. 4 cleaned up, 3 were packed as a whole, and the rest have not been cleaned up. The funerary car and horse pits have been cleaned up, all of which are rectangular earth pits, east-west oriented, with 1 to 7 burial carts, 2 to 28 horses, and a large number of horses, cattle and sheep's head hooves.
The 15c area mk1 horse pit is located about 20 meters northwest of the 15c area m1. Seven cars and 18 horses were buried in the pit, of which four horses drove 2, three horses drove 2, two horses drove 2, and one car had no horses in front. The northern part of the pit is neatly arranged from east to west with 12 groups of horse's head hooves, 19 groups of bull's head hooves (due to partial theft, the actual number should be more), 37 groups of sheep's head hooves, and some cattle and sheep's heads are scattered in the northwest corner.
In addition, 7 remains of horses, horses, cattle and sheep's heads and hooves, dogs, pigs, and sheep pits have been excavated.
Horse pit 1. It is a rectangular vertical pit, east-west oriented, and 1 horse is buried. It is 1.78 meters long and 0.75 meters wide.
Dog pit 2. Appears round or rectangular. Area 19a h22, slightly rectangular, with 20 copper rings on both sides of the neck, should be a collar. It is about 1.70 meters long, about 0.32 to 0.40 meters wide and about 0.08 to 0.14 meters deep.
There are 2 horses, cattle and sheep's head hoof pits. It is shaped in the shape of a square or horse-drawn carriage, and the heads and hooves of horses, cattle and sheep are placed. Area 19a k1, the plane is irregular horse-drawn carriage shape. The front is nearly round, about 0.8 meters in diameter and 0.4 meters in depth, and there are 2 groups of horse's head hooves; the connection part is long, 1.82 long, 0.4 to 0.5 meters wide, and 0.38 meters deep; the tail is rectangular, 1.82 long, 0.72 wide, and 0.54 meters deep, and 6 groups of sheep's head hooves are found.
Significance
The main remains of xuyang cemetery are tombs and funerary chariot horse pits in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and the characteristics and combinations of burial pottery, as well as the martyrdom customs of placing horses, cattle and sheep's heads and hooves in chema pits or tombs, are the same as the cultural appearance and burial customs of the Rong people in northwest China in the Spring and Autumn Period, and are quite different from the cultural features of the surrounding and even central plains in the same period. The combination, shape and ornamental characteristics of the excavated bronze ceremonial vessels are basically the same as the bronze tombs of the middle and late Spring and Autumn period in Luoyang Zhongzhou Road, the tombs of the Chu Peng family in Nanyang Spring and Autumn, and the tombs of Ji Wanggu in Spring and Autumn, and the age is similar.
The remains of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in Xuyang Cemetery are highly consistent with the Lu Hun Rong of the Spring and Autumn Period when "Qin and Jin moved Lu Hun Zhi Rong in Yichuan" and should be the remains of Lu Hun Rong. According to the literature, there have been Rong tribes in the Iloilo River Basin for a long time. According to research, the general range of Luhunrong distribution was in the area south of present-day Yique and Luhun Mountains, north of Funiu Mountain, and east of Bears Ears Mountain, with the Juanshui (present-day Shunyang River) basin as its central area. The central area of Lu Hunrong's activities coincided with the geographical location of Juanshui (present-day Shunyang River), where the Xuyang cemetery was located. From 638 BC, Lu Hunrong moved into Yichuan, the land of the Jin dynasty's "Southern Contempt", until the fall of the Luhun state in 525 BC, and the state of Yichuanfan was established in 114 years. The time of Lu Hunrong's activities in the Yi River Basin is basically consistent with the era of the remnants of the middle and late Spring and Autumn periods of Xuyang Cemetery. Among the Zhurong in the Yiluo River Valley, Lu Hun was called "Zi", although his status was not too high, but he was also a small princely state with a certain economic strength, and the size of the chariot and horse pits that accompanied the funeral was consistent with his identity.
In summary, the main remains of the Xuyang cemetery can form a unique correspondence with Lu Hunrong who was active in this area during the Spring and Autumn Period, regardless of time, region, scale, and customs. Therefore, the Xuyang cemetery should be the burial place of Lu Hunrong nobles, and the chema pit should be the burial of the tomb of Lu Hunrong monarch or senior nobles. The discovery of the Xuyang cemetery confirms the historical event of the "internal migration of the Rong people" contained in the literature, and is an important material for studying the migration and integration of ethnic groups, cultural exchanges and interactions during the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. The cultural integration and transmutation he showed is an important embodiment of the advanced and inclusive Chinese civilization in the Central Plains, and an empirical evidence of the five-thousand-year tolerant and eclectic national integration of Chinese culture.