01
Preface
The Baojing Youshui Pearl Project Road Network Construction Project is located in Qianling Town, Baojing County, and the line connects the old town of Baojing County and the Zhongling Mountain Industrial Park. The Dongting Road in the construction project is related to the site of Sifangcheng, the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units, and the K1+220-K2+087.64 section of the line is located within the Dongting Tomb Group of the Sifangcheng Ruins. In order to cooperate with the construction of the project, in 2019, the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology excavated the tomb archaeology in the northeast area of Dongting Road (line K1+650-K2+087.6), and excavated 30 tombs of the two Han Dynasties. In 2020 and 2021, archaeological excavations of tombs in the southern area of Dongting Road (route K1+220-K1+650) excavated 45 tombs of the two Han Dynasties. (Figure 1)
Figure 1 Schematic map of the excavation location of Dongting Road from 2019 to 2021
02
Archaeological excavations
With the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage [Kao Zhi Zi (2021) No. 475], from June to August 2021, the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology organized the Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture Archaeological Institute, Baojing County Bureau of Culture, Tourism, Radio, Film and Television and other units to excavate the archaeological excavation of the area south of Dongting Road. A total of 22 exploration parties were laid out in this excavation, with an excavation area of about 550 square meters, 8 tombs from the Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty (numbered M146-M153) were excavated, and 5 tombs such as M83, M90, M91, M92 and M101, which could not be excavated in 2020, were cleared. (Figure 2)
Figure 2 Excavation of the Baojing Dongting Tomb Group in 2021 (M146-M153)
03
Tomb excavations
The 8 tombs excavated this time extend from the late Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the era is later than the tomb age excavated in the previous Dongting, which further supplements the tomb data of the Dongting Tomb Group of the Sifang City Site from xinmang to the Eastern Han Dynasty. Here's an example.
The tombs of the late Western Han Dynasty are represented by M152, which is a vertical pit wide pit tomb with a tomb passage, and the tomb production is exquisite, and there are traces of plate construction on the south wall of the tomb. The tomb is located on the west side of the burial chamber, which is a deep pit shape of a vertical pit, 3.2 meters long, 2.7 wide and 2.5 meters deep. The entrance to the tomb is 4.8 meters long and 4 wide, and the bottom is 4.1 long and 4.15 wide, 3.6 meters deep and 101 degrees in direction. There are traces of coffins inside the tomb, and two coffins are juxtaposed inside the tombs. Funerary utensils are abundant. There are 9 pieces of pottery in the tomb, including 2 pieces of hard pottery pots, 1 piece of clay pots, 2 pieces of round pots, 2 pieces of boxes, 1 piece of wells, and 1 set of stoves. There are 35 pieces of talc, bronze, metal, pottery, stone tools, etc. in the tomb, of which talc has 1 seal, 2 bi, 2 ding, 2 round pots, 2 square pots, 5 ear cups, 1 spoon, 1 cup, 2 bottles, 1 bowl, 2 schemes, 2 lamps, 2 buckets, 1 set of stoves; bronze has 1 mirror, several bubble nails, five baht coins, etc.; metal tools have 1 ring; pottery has 1 round pot; and stone tools have 4 stones. (Figures 3-5)
Fig. 3 Aerial photography of Dongting M152 (north south)
Figure 4 Dongting M152 excavated to the end (East and West)
Figure 5 Talc round pot excavated from Dongting M152
The tombs from the late Western Han Dynasty to Xinmang are represented by M147 as a vertical pit tomb. The entrance to the tomb is 2.9 meters long and 1.9 meters wide, with a bottom length of 2.88 and a width of 1.88 meters, a depth of 1.2 meters, and a direction of 271 degrees. There is a single coffin in the tomb, and there are few burial utensils, and only 1 piece of ceramic round pot is produced. (Figure 6)
Fig. 6 Excavation of Dongting M147 to the end (West-East)
The Tombs of the Eastern Han Dynasty, represented by M148, are vertical pit tombs with tomb passages, which are composed of three parts: tomb passage, Yongdao and burial chamber. The tomb is located on the west side of the burial chamber, which is a vertical pit shape, 2.7 meters long, 1.55 wide, 1.75-1.95 meters deep, and the bottom is a slope of high in the west and low in the east. The corridor is short, 0.9 meters long, 1.1 wide and 1.95-2.0 meters deep. The entrance to the tomb is 3.5 meters long and 2.5 wide, and the bottom is 3.5 meters long and 2.48 wide, 2.05 meters deep and 290 degrees in the direction. The burial items are located in the west of the tomb, and there are 10 utensils such as talc, bronze and pottery, of which 1 talc has 1 bi, 1 ding, 1 cup, 1 plate, 1 set of stoves; 1 piece of bronze washing, 2 pieces of ornaments; and 2 pieces of pottery have pots. (Figures 7-8)
Figure 7 Aerial photography of Dongting M148 (north and south)
Figure 8 Excavation of Dongting M148 to the end (West-East)
04
Excavation of the cemetery
The excavation of M83, M90, M91, M92, M101 and other 5 tombs and tombs also supplemented the lack of tomb data in Dongting. The M90 tomb is located on the south-west side of the burial chamber, slope-like, and the tomb is 2.3 meters long, 1.4 wide, and 1.3 meters deep. (Fig. 9) The M91 tomb is located on the south-west side of the burial chamber, slope-like, and the length of the tomb passage is 2.65, the width is 1.7, and the deepest point is 0.7 meters. The M92 tomb is located on the north-western side of the burial chamber, with a slope-like approach, with a length of 3.8, a width of 1.7 and a maximum depth of 2.05 meters. (Fig. 10) The M101 tomb is located on the west side of the burial chamber, with a deep pit-like vertical pit, the tomb is 2.5 meters long, 1.75 wide, 2.55 meters deep, and flat bottom. (Figure 11)
Figure 9 M90 Cemetery Road (North South)
Figure 10 M91 and M92 Cemetery Road (North South)
Figure 11 M101 Cemetery (North South)
Judging from the shape of the tombs of the Dongting Tomb Group excavated so far, it can be divided into two categories. One type is the common slope-like tomb passage, represented by M83, M87, M90, M91, M92, the tomb passage is located on the west side of the burial chamber, its position is on the side or center of the west wall, and its plane is knife handle or convex shape. The other type is a vertical pit tomb, represented by M101, M148, M152, the tomb passage is located in the west of the burial chamber, mostly on the side of the west wall, the bottom of the tomb is either flat bottom, or inclined to the tomb, this shape is unique to the Baojing Sifang City Cave Tomb Group, other areas of Hunan have not been found, the reason for the formation is unknown.
05
Discover the harvest
1. Judging from the excavations over the years, the main age of the Dongting Tomb Group at the site of Sifang City is from the Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty. Early Western Han Tombs began to enter this area, mostly distributed in the area north of the Dongting Tomb Group facing the bank of the Youshui River. The tombs of the middle to late Western Han Dynasty are the main body of the Dongting tomb group, occupying most of the area of the cemetery, the tombs are arranged in an orderly manner, and the excavated artifacts are abundant, reflecting the prosperity of the Western Han Dynasty Sifang City site. The tombs from Xinmang to the Eastern Han Dynasty are mainly distributed in the south and east of the Dongting tomb group, the distribution of tombs is slightly chaotic, and the scale of tombs and excavated artifacts are far less than those of the Western Han Dynasty, which is manifested in the decline of the status of the city site.
2. Excavation of the Dongting Tomb Group of the Sifang City Site is mostly seen with a flat opening of nearly circular or oval tombs, and a rectangular tomb opening is seen after digging down, such as M90, M98, M99, M100, M101, etc. Such tombs are generally larger in scale, with more abundant burial utensils, the tomb owner has a certain identity and rank, and its special tomb shape system may reflect the philosophical concept of the ancients "heavenly round place".
3. The tombs with tomb passages in the Dongting tomb group account for about 15% of the total, and their tomb passages are mostly located on the west side or center of the burial chamber, and the plane is knife handle or convex shape. Knife-shaped tombs are not common in Hunan, but are found in Chongqing and Sichuan. At the same time, the M92 and M143 excavated in Dongting are multi-person joint burial tombs, and the tradition of multi-person burial is also mostly found in Chongqing and Sichuan. The burial culture of the Sifangcheng site is also widely related to the Sichuan-Chongqing region.
Reprinted from Hunan Archaeology