Regarding the Shang Dynasty, there has always been a legend that a Fang State called "Ghost Fang" invaded the Shang Dynasty on a large scale. At a critical moment when the country is in danger, a female general repels the invaders and preserves the country. This female general is a good woman.
So, did the legendary woman really exist in real history?What kind of person is she?It wasn't until the seventies of the 20th century that a major archaeological discovery unveiled her mystery.
In the winter of 1975, in Xiaotun Village, Xijiao Township, Yindu District, Anyang City, Henan Province, people were leveling fields. There is a small dirt slope among them, because the ruins of the palace and temple of Yin Ruins have been found not far from it, so everyone agrees: we must first explore clearly, otherwise it is possible to destroy the precious cultural relics.
At that time, it was Zheng Zhenxiang, then head of the Anyang Workstation of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who received this exploration task.
As soon as he received the task, Zheng Zhenxiang immediately convened a meeting of the staff of the workstation and decided to drill at an important site of this land. After drilling, the results were soon obtained: under the cultivated soil layer, the Yin Dynasty cultural layer was indeed discovered.
In the spring of 1976, after the application and approval of relevant procedures, Zheng Zhenxiang and her husband Chen Zhida formed an archaeological team to excavate Xiaotugang.
When everyone was cleaning up the excavated soil, a sharp-eyed archaeologist suddenly found something in the soil, and after washing it, he found that it turned out to be a jade pendant. This makes it even more certain that there must be a large tomb below.
In this way, Zheng Zhenxiang's excavation focus was on this tomb. However, what no one expected was that when the tomb was excavated, the relics in the tomb continued to appear in front of the archaeologists. Owl Zun, Simu copper square pot, circle foot teapot, triple ring, even square Yi, large copper Yue ......One after another, large bronzes and new and unique objects were taken out one after another.
Judging from the structure of the tomb pit and the large number of burial goods, especially from the unearthed Dafang Ding, the owner of the tomb must be a heavyweight, so who is this mysterious tomb owner?
In order to determine the identity of the owner of the tomb, it is first necessary to determine the age of the tomb.
The pottery and stone beans of the tomb ** soil, from the perspective of shape, can rule out the possibility of the late Yin Shang period. After the staff combined and matched the unearthed fragments and ritual vessels, they found that the shapes of the flat-bottomed jue and the round statue were the same as those of the second phase of the Yinxu culture.
Therefore, the approximate age of this tomb has been narrowed down to the era from Wuding to Zujia.
Knowing the approximate age, it is not enough to determine the identity of the owner of the tomb. With the sorting of the burial goods, Zheng Zhenxiang found that the 190 pieces of copper ritual vessels unearthed were engraved with inscriptions, and several of these inscriptions appeared with the highest frequency.
By comparing the results of the oracle bone inscriptions, these inscriptions were quickly deciphered: a kneeling woman with a broom on the upper left or upper right indicates that the person who sweeps the floor with a broom in her hand is the so-called "woman";And next to a kneeling woman, there is a child, whether the child is on the left or the right, which means "good."
After identifying all the inscriptions, Zheng Zhenxiang and the others found that there were 109 bronze ritual vessels with the inscription "good women", accounting for more than half of the inscription bronzes. There are other inscriptions in the tomb, so who is the owner of the tomb?
Zheng Zhenxiang
At that time, he was the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Director of Anyang Workstation
Later, because a large number of things came out for women's good, and some others were relatively few, we thought that they were tributes from courtiers.
Since the owner of the tomb is locked in the woman, who is the woman and what is her identity?
According to the oracle bone inscription, Nuhao is one of the most favored queens of Wu Ding. As the wife of the Shang king Wu Ding, Nuhao is not only dignified, but also very brave and good at fighting. She often wears armor, holds a bronze axe, and rushes to kill on horseback, which is majestic. Every time she went out on an expedition, she commanded thousands of men and horses.
In addition to a large number of weapons, ritual weapons, and ornaments unearthed in the tomb of the woman, why was a large number of bronze vessels used for sacrifices unearthed?Combined with some tortoise shells engraved with "women's good rectification and delivery" found in the past archaeological excavations of Yinxu, it is not difficult to find that women's good also personally divined. At that time, she was not only a female general who conquered the battlefield, but also had a high level of education.
A large number of artifacts unearthed from the tomb of the woman prove the identity of the owner of the tomb. Since no bones were found, the cause and age of her death are unknown. However, the tomb of Nuhao is the first royal tomb of the Yin Dynasty that can be linked to the oracle bone inscription in the archaeological history of Yinxu and can determine the age of the tomb and the identity of the tomb owner, which is of great significance in the study of Yinxu culture
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