Lijiang discovers ancient tombs in the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period

Why do the remains in the multi-layer sarcophagus not rot for thousands of years

  Recently, in Weidu Village, Dagu Township, Yulong County, about 3 kilometers northwest of Lijiang, Yunnan, about 3 kilometers away from the Jinsha River, people made amazing discoveries when they rebuilt the stadium of Weidu Middle School.

  As the site was leveled, people successively dug some sarcophagi. After on-site investigation and exploration by the Yulong County Cultural Relics Management Institute, the Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology also sent personnel to conduct on-site inspections, and found that there were tombs exposed under the surface of different depths, and single-eared clay pots, sea shells, and small pieces were unearthed The age of the cemetery is preliminarily judged to be the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period.

  The most peculiar thing is that the tombs in this tomb complex have multiple burial features. Take Pit 12 as an example. It is divided into 4 floors, and there are as many as 19 skulls in the tomb. And after more than two thousand years, these remains are preserved intact. What secrets does this tomb shape reveal? What information can be deciphered from the details of the remains and burial objects? A reporter from Science and Technology Daily interviewed the leader of the archaeological excavation and researcher Min Rui from the Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.

A relatively complete remains on each floor of the tomb complex

  According to Min Rui, the Yunnan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology launched the archaeological excavation of the cemetery for the capital in early July to extract various historical and cultural information within the cemetery to the maximum. As of August 15, a total of 62 tombs have been cleaned up and are in the process of being cleaned up. There are four types of tombs: rectangular, round, irregular pit pit and sarcophagus.

  "The hierarchical burial in a tomb is a characteristic of this cemetery. Each layer of this tomb group has a relatively complete remains, and there are some human bones from the second burial around it; the other layer is also one or two. The complete remains, and there are several or more human skulls or remains. This burial custom was first discovered in Yunnan.” Min Rui told reporters that the relationship between the owner of each layer of the tomb and the surrounding remains is still To be further confirmed. "It is preliminarily speculated that it is not a simultaneous burial of multiple layers, but that each layer mainly buries one person; several years after the burial, another person is buried and backfilled. The time interval between different layers will not be too long. At that time, the local funeral customs were related."

The remains are well preserved or related to soil acidity

  According to Min Rui, the form of sarcophagus burial is common in the Jinsha River and Lancang River basins in my country, including the Minjiang River, Anning River and Qingyi River in Sichuan Province opposite the Jinsha River, as well as North China and Northeast my country.

  It has been discovered that sarcophagus burials should first appeared in the Neolithic Age, and the earliest in Yunnan to the Eastern Han Dynasty. Sarcophagus burials have been found around Erhai Lake in Dali, Yunnan. At the same time, vertical earth pit tombs and wooden coffins were also found. "Even in the Weidu Tombs, not all tombs use sarcophagus." Min Rui explained.

  In this tomb complex, the remains or skulls are kept intact, thanks to the local sandy soil layer and the lower acidity of the soil. The bones that have survived thousands of years have left behind ancient DNA information of the people, which can be left to be interpreted by professionals later.

  "If the soil is acidic, the body's bones may have been eroded in just a few decades, and only clay pots are left. Maybe the local soil is relatively acidic and the remains will be preserved so well." Min Rui said. The research on the remains has not yet been fully developed, and they will invite experts in human bone research and ancient DNA to participate in the later work.

Scientific dating will provide new materials for sarcophagus burial research

  The Weidu ancient tomb complex covers an area of ​​about 2500 square meters, and it is also the largest tomb discovered in the Jinsha River Valley in recent years, filling the gap in the archaeological excavation of large-scale tombs in this area. "Through the ground pressure to break the relationship and comprehensive research and judgment, we preliminarily determined that this is a tomb from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period." Researcher Min Rui said that as early as the 1980s, archaeologists made human bones at the Kexiang Cemetery in Shangri-La. According to the dating of specimens, relatively mature bronze wares and many remains have been unearthed in Daju Township and the upper reaches of Yulong County.

  In this archeology, not many burial objects were unearthed, including single and double-eared clay pots, pottery spinning wheels, sea shells, stone beads, copper necklaces, small bronze bracelets and other ornaments. "But judging from the processing and production of these jewelry, it has reached a considerable level of craftsmanship at that time." Min Rui said, for example, the processing of small stone beads is more delicate, not only small, but also thinner, and the drilling is even. It shows that the technology at that time was still good. In addition, some shellfish were unearthed. Judging from the position of the neck of the remains and the drill holes on the shell, it may be the charm that the owner hung on the chest instead of being used as a coin.

  This time, one rectangular and one square house site was also discovered, which was preliminarily judged to be a fence-style house site. There are also ash pits in the ruins. Among them, the No. 4 ash pit is a bag-shaped pit. The maximum diameter of the mouth is about 2.3 meters, and the maximum diameter of the bottom is about 4 meters. A large number of pottery pieces, stone tools, large red-burned clay blocks, Animal bones and a human skull.

  Currently, the excavation work is still in progress. As the excavation area continues to expand, more relics and cultural relics may be discovered in the later period, and the cultural face of the Weidu Cemetery will gradually become clear.

  Our reporter Zhao Hanbin