Officials of Banma County, Guoluo Prefecture, Qinghai Province announced on July 6 that people in the county dug a bone during construction in the Caimatan Banma Mineral Water Construction Area near the county seat, suspected of being an ancient tomb. After a field visit by relevant experts from the Qinghai Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, it was determined that this is a typical sarcophagus burial.
The staff of the Qinghai Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology said that the sarcophagus is a unique form of burial, mainly distributed in Qinghai and Gansu in the northwest. It first appeared in Hongshan culture, Xiajiadian upper culture and Banshan culture, dating back to 5,000 years ago. The source and ethnicity of sarcophagus burial in academic circles has been pointed to the Diqiang people in the northwest region for a long time. This is also the first sarcophagus burial discovered in Guoluo County so far, and has high archaeological value for studying the trajectory and cultural form of early human activities in the Guoluo area.
A staff member of the Qinghai Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology said that the human tomb lies on the side of the coffin. Both sides of the remains are composed of multiple plates of rock without burial objects. In order to ensure the archaeological value, it is necessary to carry out ground stripping survey on the radius of the sarcophagus nearly 20 meters, but no new sarcophagus was unearthed.
(Source: Banma County TV station reporter Sun Rui editor Zhou Jing)
Editor in charge: [Liu Xian]