Gansu found the only well-preserved Tuguhun royal family tomb Murong Zhi's epitaph first appeared "Great Khan Mausoleum"

Beijing, December 15 (Reporter Song Xue) A few days ago, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage held a work meeting on the important progress of the "Archaeological China" major project in Beijing, which focused on important archaeological discoveries and research progress in the Han and Tang Dynasties, and reported three important archaeological achievements, such as the Jiangcun Tomb in Xi'an, Shaanxi, the Zhengpingfang Site in Luoyang, Henan, and the Tuguhun Tomb Group in Wuwei, Gansu. The reporter learned that the tomb of Murong Zhi, the king of Tuguhun Xi, is the only well-preserved tomb of the Tuguhun royal family found so far, and the excavated tomb of Murong Zhi mentioned the existence of the "Great Khan Mausoleum" of Tuguhun for the first time.

Layout of the Tuguhun royal family tomb group (Courtesy of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, issued by the Central Broadcasting Network)

The reporter learned from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage that the Tuguhun tomb group in wuwei area is located in the northern foothills of Qilian Mountain in the southwest of Wuwei City, Gansu Province, and is a tomb group of Tuguhun royal families in the Tang Dynasty. With the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, from 2019 to 2021, the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology carried out systematic archaeological work on the Tuguhun tomb group in Wuwei area, excavated the tomb of Murong Zhi, the tuguhun king near Chashan Village, and 3 tombs near Machangtan Village, and carried out laboratory archaeological work on the wooden coffin of Murong Zhi's tomb.

The tomb of Murong Zhi of Xiwang is the only well-preserved Tomb of the Tuguhun Royal Family found at present, with more than 800 pieces of burial items such as laboratory archaeological cleaning, protection textiles, painted pottery figurines, lacquered wood, etc., including wooden beds, large beds, six-curved screens, models of liejaya houses, complete sets of armaments based on iron armor, pen and ink paper and other stationery supplies, and various types of silk fabrics, all of which are the first or rare discoveries of similar cultural relics in the same period in China. The excavation of Murong Zhi's epitaph is clear and rich in content, and the existence of the "Great Khan's Mausoleum" in the Southern Mountains of Wuwei is mentioned for the first time. Machangtan M1, M2 and Changling M1 are all single-room brick chamber tombs of the long slope tombs, and the burial customs of the whole horse were found in the tombs, and more than 290 pieces of painted wooden ware, harnesses and other various utensils were unearthed, of which the M2 of The Horse Farm Beach unearthed the "Tomb of Mrs. Dang of Feng Yi County", which recorded that the tomb group was the Tugu Hun Pengzi family cemetery.

Based on the results of archaeological investigation and documentary records, at present, the tomb group of the Wuwei Tuguhun royal family can be preliminarily divided into three major mausoleum areas, such as the "Great Khan Mausoleum" area represented by Murong Zhi's tomb, the "Yanghui Valley" mausoleum area represented by the tombs of Princess Honghua and Murong Zhong, and the "Poplar Mountain" mausoleum area represented by the Dang's tomb. The tombs all have the basic characteristics of the tombs of high-ranking nobles in the Central Plains in the early and middle Tang Dynasty, and at the same time have the characteristics of Tuguhun culture, Tubo culture and northern grassland culture, which shows the historical process of exchanges, exchanges and integration of various ethnic groups along the ancient Silk Road in China, and is an important empirical evidence of the pattern of pluralism and integration of the Chinese nation.