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On the morning of Apr. 23rd, with the last piece of cultural relic in Tomb 27 extracted, the archaeological excavation of Han Tombs on Mount Zifang finished. Since last October, when the archaeological excavation started, archaeologists have excavated and cleared 26 ancient tombs in total, where valuable cultural relics such as jade pillow, jade mask, copper seal, copper mirror, and colored drawing potteries have been unearthed.
The Han Tombs are located on the western and southern slopes of Mount Zifang on the east of East Jinpu Road. As rocks needed to be exploded in constructing East Square Station along Metro Line 1, these Han tombs were discovered. In order to coordinate the construction, Xuzhou Museum conducted a salvage archaeological excavation on Han Tombs on Mount Zifang. Since the archaeological excavation started in last October, 25 vertical stone tomb pits and one later period tomb in the Han Dynasty have been sorted out in total, covering all periods of Western Han Dynasty. Both single tombs and multi-burial tombs were found, but the latter account for a larger part. As in middle 1970s, three Han tombs were discovered on Mount Zifang, where many important cultural relics were unearthed, the tomb numbers in this archaeological excavation range from Mount Zifang M4 to M29.
Tomb M27 is located on the south slope of Mount Zifang. It is a multi-burial tomb, with two paralleling stone pits from south to north dug from natural rocks
Two exquisite copper mirrors were unearthed from Tomb M27
Yesterday morning, archaeologists began to extract the cultural relics unearthed from M27, the last tomb sorted out among these tombs. M27, located on the south slope of Mount Zifang, is a vertical multi-burial stone pit. It is a typical tomb in Xuzhou in early Western Han Dynasty. The opening of M27 vertical tomb is nearly a square, 3.4m long from north to south, and 3.1m wide from east to west. The depth from the opening to the bottom is more than 6m, and it becomes a little narrower from top to bottom. The backfill inside the tomb passage was solidified, with a solid layer about 20cm thick. After clearing up the backfill, archaeologists found two stone pits from north to south dug from natural rocks in the bottom. Between them, there is a beam about half a meter wide. The two stone pits are higher in the north than the south, with about 1m difference of height on the bottom.
Pottery Fang with animal head carrouches unearthed from Tomb M27
Over the past more than 2000 years, the owners' coffins and skeletons have decayed. According to the remains, archaeologists found that each of the two stone pits buried one dead, with the head eastwards and feet westwards. The buried objects were mainly laid outside the coffins on the owners' feet side. Most of them are potteries, some of which have exquisite colored patterns painted in red and white. Under the west wall of the northern stone pit, archaeologists sorted out two pottery Fang and one pottery Ting, but all of them were broken. Additionally, four coins in half Liang, one copper mirror, and a cluster of thin iron sticks in pencil-like shape were found. Among them, the copper mirror is very thin. It has a knob with three bow string patterns and a diameter of about more than 10cm. It is well preserved except for a small hole close to the edge. The mirror surface has a layer of patina over the whole body, and the back near the earth has merely some thin rust. The surface glows offwhite bronze. The transformative dragon pattern forged in the mirror back is in first-class design, clear and exquisite.
Pottery Fang with animal head carrouches unearthed from Tomb M27
Under the west wall of the southern stone pit, archaeologists sorted out a copper mirror, five or six coins in half Liang, and several potteries, most of which had been broken and few were intact. Color paintings can be seen on part of them. The potteries mainly include Ting, boxes, kettles, Fang, cocoon-shaped kettles, and basins, two pieces in each type; potteries such as circular pottery barns, ovens, pottery Jiao pots (vessels for warming wine), Yi (vessels for washing up), mills, and spoons are also found. On the two sides of the pottery Fang, there are two symmetric relief animal head appliques with ancient artistic conception. In the center of the square pottery mill, there is a circular millstone, and on the bottom, there are two brackets in ladderlike shape, which look very unique. The copper mirror unearthed from the south side has heavier rust, and is well preserved except for the broken knob. On its back, another transformative dragon pattern is forged, which is as exquisite. Additionally, archaeologists found three small pieces of jade for putting into the mouth in the position of the owner's head.
Copper mirror unearthed from the south side of Tomb M27
Coins in half Liang unearthed from Tomb M27
"As to this type of tombs, there are usually stone covers on stone pits. But M27 hasn't. So those potteries were crashed into pieces when earth was filled for punning the tomb passage." Archaeologists indicated that the coins unearthed are Sizhu coins in half Liang, which were used in early Western Han Dynasty, before Emperor Wu began to forge Wuzhu coins. The copper mirror unearthed is very thin, with patterns on the back, representing the characteristics of copper mirrors in early Western Han Dynasty. The color painting potteries like cocoon-shaped kettles also represent the characteristics of early Western Han Dynasty. Therefore, it is determined that M27 is a tomb in early Western Han Dynasty, though the tomb owner cannot be determined. Besides, according to the burial objects, the male owner lies on the south side and the female owner the north.
Many exquisite cultural relics were unearthed from Han Tombs
Apart from M27, many important exquisite cultural relics were unearthed from several Han Tombs which were sorted out before it. For example, copper mirrors and a very exquisite copper seal of "Zhou Shang" were unearthed from M5; many intact and very exquisite color painting potteries such as pots and Yi were unearthed from M10.
Exquisite color painting pottery pot unearthed from Tomb M10
Exquisite color painting pottery Yi unearthed from Tomb M10
Exquisite copper seal unearthed from Tomb M5
Among the 26 Han tombs excavated and cleared in half a year, M17 gave archeologists the biggest unexpected gain. M17 is a vertical hole tomb in a stone pit. The husband and wife are buried together here. The tomb entrance was damaged due to engineering construction, and the path remains. In this tomb, in addition to a number of burial pottery, archeologists also found jade pillows and jade masks on the head of the tomb, and trapezoidal jade grips were found. Although the wooden frame of the jade pillow has decayed, the jade pieces and the gold foil on the jade pillow have been preserved. Different from the jade masks unearthed elsewhere, those in M17 are linked by a set of rectangular jade pieces, which are similar to jade clothing pieces, polished smooth, drilled at four corners, and connected with wires to form a face shape, covering on the face of the tomb owner. At the time of discovery, the connecting lines had decayed, but the shape of the jade mask remained roughly the shape of a face. The ancients believed that when they died, they could not leave empty-handed, but to hold wealth and power. The jade grip was a jade that was held in the hands of the owner of the tomb. Xuzhou archeology has also found in previous Han tombs. Unearthed are two trapezoidal jade grips with shape of jade pig. "Similar jade pillows with gold foil have been found in Liu He's tomb unearthed with silver thread jade clothing. This shaped jade mask and trapezoidal jade grip have not been found before. From these points, we can see that the tomb owner has a higher social status. "Archeologists said.
Jade pillow and jade mask unearthed from tomb M17
In order to facilitate the restoration of the original appearance of the jade mask and jade pillow in the future, the method of extracting cultural relics was adopted on the spot. Professional cultural security team members covered the jade masks and pillows on the tomb with natural liquid menthol. The menthol quickly solidified and fixed the position of the jade pieces. Then use a thin iron sheet to shovel from under the jade piece and lift it back to the museum as a whole.
Among the tombs, archeologists also encountered a late tomb, number M25, which is also a joint tomb. On the head of the tomb owner of M25, archeologists cleared a pair of Erdang, which are the ornaments on the ears of ancient women and are equivalent to today's earrings. Thus the owner of the tomb is a female. In the hands and shoulders of the female tomb master, archeologists also cleared out four coins of the Song Dynasty, and also found two "Hunping".
Since it is a joint burial tomb, is the other tomb owner her husband? The Song Dynasty coins were unearthed, is it a Song Dynasty tomb? Archeologists say that is not necessarily the case. "From the perspective of the bones of another tomb owner, it is very short and is likely to be a child. The characteristics of the Hunping is closer to the style of utensils of the Ming Dynasty, and the coins of the dynasty before the excavation in the later tombs are also normal. Therefore, M25 may be a tomb of Ming. "
After half a year, the archeological excavation of the Han Tomb Group in Zifangshan finally came to an end, and a number of exquisite precious cultural relics were excavated and protected. Archaeologists said that from the excavation situation, the Zifangshan Han tombs are likely to be a family cemetery throughout the Western Han Dynasty. M17 is roughly in the middle, which may be the more distinguished owner. This excavation has added new material information to the study of the history and customs of the Han Dynasty in our city, which is of great value. (Originally published in "Pengcheng Evening News" April 25, 2016 A03 edition)
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