Archaeological excavations in ancient Egypt, ancient Rome, ancient Babylon and other archaeological excavations have unearthed a large number of sarcophagi. Some coffins are precious in stone, and some are richly carved, all of which are priceless cultural relics.
A large number of sarcophagi have also been unearthed in China. The sarcophagi excavated in China can be broadly divided into four categories. One type is with a bottom and a top, and the top is often covered by one or several relatively large stones. And the bottom is also paved with such stones. The other type is topless and bottomless. There are also topless and bottomless ones. There is also one that is more common in the Central Plains, and the age is relatively recent. That is, the tomb is divided into two layers, the so-called inner coffin and outer coffin. Inside is a wooden coffin, and on the outside is a stone coffin.
In Chinese prehistoric archaeology. The sarcophagus is relatively concentrated. A large number of sarcophagus cemeteries have been unearthed in the Bortala River basin in Xinjiang. Among them, the ancient tombs of Adun Qiaolu are a form of burial of the steppe people. Cemeteries are concentrated in specific areas. Dig a large square pit more than one meter deep in the ground, and then erect an irregular stone slab as the edge of the coffin inside, and cover it with a roof. This kind of coffin belongs to the bottomless. The size of the grave pits, the higher the status, the larger the person.
The ancient tombs of Adun Cholu date back to about 3800 to 4100 years ago. It can be seen from the tombs that people attached great importance to burial at that time. There was only granite in the area, but the coffin was made of gneiss, which was obviously transported from far away. The cemetery also has **, bronze and other funerary goods.
Judging from the more extensive coffins, the body should be placed at the bottom of the pit first, then put on a wooden plank, and finally covered. Because the planks are irregular, there are relatively large gaps. Therefore, some earth and stones fell into the coffin when the soil was filled. There are no mounds of earth for the graves here, but are filled to the level of the ground. The top of the tomb is then decorated with a specific pattern of locally sourced granite. These patterns are so large that you can only see what they are in the air.
In addition, sarcophagi have also been unearthed in Qinghe County and other places in Xinjiang. In the Central Plains, a large number of sarcophagus tombs since the Western Zhou Dynasty have been unearthed. These tombs are very rich in shape, and some of the carvings are also very beautiful.
In the Huayang National Chronicles, it is also recorded that the founder of the Shu Kingdom, the Zongmu tribe where the silkworm is located, their custom is to use a stone coffin to bury. This custom is more peculiar, because Sichuan is not short of wood, so there is no shortage of materials for wooden coffins**. But in today's Sichuan, it seems that no such sarcophagus has been unearthed. The ancestral home of the Zongmu people is at the junction of today's Shaanxi and Gansu, probably in the area of Qingyang. There also do not appear to have been any sarcophagi excavated in this place.
Taken together, we can draw two conclusions. The first conclusion is that sarcophagi were not confined to a single dynasty, from prehistoric times to the Ming and Qing dynasties. The second conclusion is that sarcophagi are a custom within the confines of a particular population. But there is no information on what exactly is particular about and why the sarcophagus is used. The formation of sarcophagus customs is not necessarily related to the acquisition of raw materials. Search Topic Full Time Challenge in February