The four-character mantra on the coffin of the tomb of the Marquis of Haiyang in the Western Han Dynasty, the underground palace of Famen Temple, the No. 1 tomb of Qin Gong, the Han tomb of Lion Rock, and the tomb of Li Xiaozi
How was every archaeological discovery and excavation in history, and every tomb group rediscovered?
A mysterious cave under a stupa
It is rare to cover up the underground palace
In August 1981, 120 kilometers away from the city of Xi'an, a Ming Dynasty pagoda in Famen Temple, a dilapidated Ming Dynasty, under the impact of a night of violent rain, the northeast part of the pagoda completely collapsed, but the other half of the pagoda is still standing.
The plan to demolish the old pagoda and rebuild the pagoda on the original site was initiated.
In the process of tearing down the old tower and cleaning the base of the tower, a hole directly south of the tower base was blocked by a stone gate less than one meter high and about half a meter wide, and a Tang Dynasty underground palace hidden under the pagoda for thousands of years reappeared in front of the world.
In this underground palace of less than 30 square meters, 2,499 pieces of Tang Dynasty treasures were unearthed, all of which were items offered to the Buddhist family by the Tang Dynasty royal family. Among them, such as the eightfold treasure letter of relics, 14 pieces of secret color porcelain, the fragment of a gold-woven brocade skirt worn by Wu Zetian with a spinning and embroidery process that cannot be achieved by modern technology, and 13 Kaiyuan Tongbao tortoiseshell coins, etc., are all rare national treasures.
Buried deep underground for 2000 years
The lavish tomb of a deposed emperor of the Han Dynasty
On an ordinary day in 2011, in Guanxi Village, Datangping Township, Nanchang Xinjian District, Jiangxi Province, some villagers found that someone was robbing a tomb on Dundun Mountain in the northeast. After receiving a report from the villagers, the Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and other archaeological teams immediately stationed in the tomb of the Marquis of Haidu, Western Han Dynasty, which was almost stolen and excavated. The tomb was closely protected, after which excavation work began in April 2011 and ended in November 2015.
The owner of this tomb, Liu He, was an emperor of the Han Dynasty who was deposed after only 27 days of reign, and he was the "deposed emperor" who did not even have a nickname. Later, he was canonized as a low-ranking Marquis of Haidu. But it is the tomb of such an emperor who has very bad luck in the tomb of the Marquis of Haiding, but a large number of exquisite funeral items have been unearthed, including a large number of gold cakes, horseshoe gold and gold plates and other ** products, which have attracted special attention from the world. The study of the Marquis of Haidun continues.
The excavation took up to ten years
China's largest tomb has been stolen nearly 300 times
There is a necropolis that requires a lot of documentation. That is, the No. 1 tomb of Qin Jinggong, which began in 1976 and ended in 1986, was excavated for 10 years. This tomb is the largest ancient tomb from the pre-Qin period excavated so far.
And its excavation was dramatic. In Fengxiang South Command Village, Baoji, Shaanxi, a villager wanted to repair the wall of his earthen house. However, it was found that the color of the excavated soil was red, which was different from the yellow soil color of the ground.
Coincidentally, some archaeologists were investigating the area and heard the news that the villagers had found different colors of soil, and the experts realized that these different colors of soil were likely to be rammed earth, and the solid rammed earth could protect the tomb from water seepage, indicating that there were tombs underground.
In this way, the "Qin Gong No. 1 Tomb", which has a large area and a depth of about 20 meters and is about 20 meters deep, was discovered.
There are several of the most in the No. 1 tomb of Qin Gong:
There are the most robbed holes, nearly 300 hundred. The earliest robbery caves can even be traced back to the Han Dynasty, and there are robbery caves in the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties.
The number of funerary items is staggering. In addition to the stolen burial goods of previous dynasties, more than 3,000 cultural relics were also cleaned and excavated from the tombs.
Also unearthed China's earliest, the highest level of "yellow intestine inscription" burial utensils, as the princes of Qin Jinggong used the Zhou Dynasty only the son of heaven can enjoy the funeral.
The bones of 186 people who were buried were also found in the tomb, of which 166 were buried alive.
Lion Rock Han Tomb
Restore the face of the rebel king of Chu in the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms".
In the third year of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty (154 BC), the contradiction between the local separatist forces and the imperial power broke out, and the "Seven Kingdoms Rebellion" of the seven vassal states headed by Liu Wu, the king of Chu, was put down. Because of the felony of rebellion, Liu Wu committed suicide in fear of the crime.
In July 1990, in the cellar of a villager's house at the foot of the Lion Mountain in Xuzhou, Jiangsu, archaeological experts discovered the tomb of Liu Wu, the king of Chu. After four years of preparation, excavations of the tomb began in 1994. The tomb has a large number of Han Dynasty soldiers' toilets and exquisite gold-threaded jade clothes, gold, silver and jade.
What makes the Lion Rock Han Tomb different from other tombs is that because the remains of the tomb owner Liu Wu have retained a complete skull, archaeological experts have restored Liu Wu's appearance through modern scientific and technological means, and reproduced the face of Liu Wu, the king of Chu who initiated the "Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms".