Recently, five pieces of cat's claw gold ornaments unearthed from the Baie Cemetery in the northwest of Shanxi have attracted everyone's attention.

According to Yang Jiyun, the leader of the archaeological team, these lovely cat's claw gold ornaments were unearthed in Tomb No. 1 and are still in the stage of cultural relic sorting. The cat's claw gold ornaments are flake-shaped and should be a combination of charms worn on the body.

　　Beibai'e Cemetery is located in the east of Beibai'e Village, Yingyan Township, Yuanqu County, Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province, and is part of the Beibai (ge) site.

The entire site is adjacent to the Wangwu in the north and the Yellow River to the south. The terrain is high in the north and low in the south, with a gentle slope.

It is more than 70 kilometers away from Luoyang to the southeast.

　　At the beginning of 2020, field archaeological investigations were conducted on the site, and it was preliminarily determined that this was a tomb group of high-ranking nobles at the time of two weeks.

In February 2020, the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology reported to the State Administration of Cultural Relics to apply for rescue archaeological excavations. In March of the same year, it obtained an archaeological license, and then formed the Beibai Goose jointly participated by the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, Yuncheng Cultural Relics Bureau and Yuanqu Cultural Relics Bureau The cemetery archaeological team carried out rescue excavations on the cemetery.

The field excavation started in April and ended in December. It lasted 8 months. The total area of ​​the excavation was 1,200 square meters. A total of 9 tombs and 17 ash pits were excavated and cleared.

　　Judging from this excavation, the distribution of tombs in the cemetery is relatively sparse, mainly large and medium-sized tombs, with an area of ​​10 to 31 square meters and a depth of 4 to 12 meters.

The tombs are all rectangular vertical cave earth pit tombs, facing north-south.

Large tombs have many mouths and a small bottom, while medium-sized tombs have many mouths and a small bottom.

M6 is a charcoal tomb, with nearly 1 meter thick charcoal piled on the coffin cover and filled with charcoal to make a second-tier platform. The remaining second-tier platforms of the tombs have both raw soil and mature soil.

Among the large tombs, M5 and M6 were stolen, and only one coffin can be identified. The number of coffins is unknown. M1 is two coffins and one coffin, and the 6 medium-sized tombs are all one coffin and one coffin.

The head of the tomb owner's skeleton is facing north, and his body is straight.

Except for M5 and M9, waist pits were found in other tombs. Among them, M6 and M8 were empty pits, and one martyr was cleared out of the remaining pits.

A martyr was found in the M1 fill, leaning over, no lower limbs.

　　Judging by the arrangement, scale and unearthed artifacts of the tombs, M2, M3 and M5, M6 are two groups of married tombs in different caves, with male tombs in the east.

　　The archaeological excavation was very rewarding. More than 500 sets of various cultural relics were unearthed from 9 tombs, including bronze, stone, pottery, jade, lacquered wood, bones, etc.

Among them, the number of bronze wares is the largest. There are more than 140 copper ritual vessels unearthed, including ding, 簋, 鬲 type food utensils, plate, 盉 type water vessels, pots, and noble type wine vessels. In addition, a large number of weapons were also found. Chariots and horses, jade and their assembly, as well as a complete set of bronze bells, stone chimes, etc.

In the process of excavation and indoor cleaning, organic cultural relics such as leather, cloth, hemp rope, and bamboo mats were collected and extracted.

A liquid was found in the M1 copper kettle, which was tested to contain ethanol and was classified as fruit wine.

Animal oils, vegetable essential oils, cinnabar, calcite and aragonite and other mineral ingredients were detected in the copper box found in M4, and it was determined that the cosmetics were placed at that time.

　　The most important harvest of the Beibaige Cemetery this time is the unearthed nearly 50 bronze wares with inscriptions, with a total of 16 articles.

Among the bronze inscriptions unearthed in M3, M5 and M6, contents such as "Zhongshi", "匽ji", "Taibao 匽zhong", "匽prince" and "Hua" were found. These inscriptions convey information and are used to interpret the cemetery. The family of the owner of the cemetery provides an important basis.

According to the content of the inscription, the official position of "Taibao" was one of the three kings of the Zhou royal family in the Western Zhou Dynasty. It began with Zhaogong Jixi, and the fief of Zhaogong was in "匽" (燕), which is now near the Liuli River in Beijing. His eldest son inherited and managed his fief; Shao Gong still stayed in Haojing as Taibao to assist the Zhou royal family, and Zhou Wang also named his fief in Qishan County, Shaanxi, near Haojing, and his official and fief were given to the second son. Inheritance is the "匽中" in the inscription.

Combining with documentary records, with the eastward migration of King Ping, the Zhaogong family's beneficiary was sealed in Yuanqu Zhaoyuan in the south of Taihang Mountain, which belonged to Wangji of Cheng Zhou. Combined with the bronze inscriptions unearthed from the Beibaie cemetery, it can be confirmed that the northern white goose The cemetery is the cemetery of the Zhaogong family in Chengzhou. Combining the shape of the tomb and the analysis of the unearthed relics, the age of the cemetery should be in the early Spring and Autumn Period, which coincides with the important historical event time of Ping Wang's eastward move.

　　The Beibai Site is located at the southernmost end of the Taihang Baxing Temple, which is the only way through the "Zheguanxing". It is an important strategic location, which bears the military function of guarding the Zhou Dynasty. It is also an important channel for cultural exchanges between different regions. Some artifacts with northern grasslands and Jianghan cultural features were unearthed, which is evidence of cultural exchanges, collisions and fusions between different regions.

　　As a large-scale site with rich connotation and relatively complete preservation, Beibai'e Cemetery provides new materials for studying the funeral system, ethnic group, and social life of the southern Shanxi during the two-week period, and is useful for exploring the beneficiary system of the Zhou Dynasty. , The relationship between Southern Jin and Cheng Zhou, and to explore the status of Southern Jin in the civilization process of the entire Central Plains are of great significance. (Headquarters CCTV reporter Tian Yunhua)