The reporter learned from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage that the final evaluation of the "Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries in China in 2021" will begin on March 28, and the final results are expected to be announced on March 30.
White Goose Cemetery in Yuanqubei, Shanxi: Archaeological Confirmation of the Newest "Wangqing Fief" in the Zhou Dynasty
20 archaeological projects participated in the competition, covering from prehistory to Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties. Among them, Xia, Shang and Zhou archaeology included 6 entries, including the Baie cemetery in Qubei, Shanxi, where women's cosmetic boxes of the Zhou Dynasty were unearthed. The bronze jug of "fruit wine" and gold ornaments shaped like cat's feet once aroused an upsurge in attention.
The Beibai'e Cemetery is located in Beibai'e Village, Yuanqu County, Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province. Since April 2020, the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology and other units have carried out comprehensive archaeological work on the cemetery.
It has now been determined that the area of the cemetery is 200,000 square meters, and the main body of the cemetery is the remains of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.
Archaeological excavations in the past two years have revealed 39 tombs, 42 ash pits, 2 chariot and horse pits, 1 horse pit and 2 pottery kilns, all of which are concentrated in the early Spring and Autumn Period.
A total of about 3,500 pieces of various cultural relics were unearthed in 550 groups, including the earliest remains of fruit wine and cosmetics in East Asia, as well as gold ornaments shaped like cat feet.
Bronze tiger-patterned pots, bronze bells, etc., reflect the cultural exchanges between the Central Plains and the Rong people in the northwest and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
Among the unearthed cultural relics, more than 140 bronze ritual vessels especially attracted the attention of archaeologists. Among them, the combination of 7 Dings and 6 Gui and 6 Dings and 6 Gui shows that the owner of the tomb has reached the rank of princes; 59 pieces have 17 inscriptions. The content involves official names, people's names, national names, etc. The number and richness of unearthed inscriptions are relatively rare in the same period, and it is also the most important discovery of this archaeology.
Yang Jiyun, the project leader of the White Goose Cemetery in Yuanqubei, Shanxi Province: According to the inscriptions on the bronze ware, it is inferred that it is the family cemetery of the "Taibao Luzhong clan" in the Chengzhou feudal estate. Besides Guo and Rui, this is another cemetery discovered in Wangji. At "Wangqing's fief".
A fief is a hereditary territory that the ruler of the Zhou Dynasty gave to the minister as a salary reward.
As a large-scale cemetery with rich connotations and relatively complete preservation, the archaeological excavation of the Baie cemetery in the north of Yuanqu has provided precious historical data for the study of the feudal system, cultural exchanges and the evolution of the political structure during the two-week period.
Archaeological discoveries of several Zhou Dynasty "city" and "site" at the Zhouyuan site in Baoji, Shaanxi
Dating back to the Xianzhou and Western Zhou periods, the Zhouyuan site in Baoji, Shaanxi, which is competing for the "Top Ten National Archaeology in 2021", has finally been discovered and confirmed through archaeological excavations in the past two years.
According to reports, the Zhouyuan site is the largest site in the pre-Zhou and Western Zhou dynasties. However, for a long time, no high-level buildings of the pre-Zhou culture have been found, and it has not been determined whether there is a city site in the Western Zhou period, so the nature of the site cannot be finally determined.
From 2020 to 2021, the archaeological team jointly formed by the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, the School of Archaeology and Museology of Peking University, and the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, after two years of excavation, discovered for the first time the foundation of a large-scale rammed earth building in the pre-Zhou period, which is wide from east to west. It is 38 meters long, about 58 meters long from north to south, with a total area of more than 2,200 square meters.
This discovery provides important information for finding the ruling center of the pre-Zhou period to find the ancient Gongshufu to Zhou Wenwang before the destruction of the Shang Dynasty.
Archaeological excavations in the past two years have also discovered a small city in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, as well as a large city and a city gate in the late Western Zhou Dynasty. The large city covers an area of about 5.2 million square meters and is the largest known city site in the Western Zhou Dynasty.
It is recorded in the literature that the father of the ancient prince migrated to "Qi" and changed the country's name to Zhou, and to King Wen of Zhou, three generations of Zhou people lived here.
Archaeology shows that Zhouyuan may be the most important capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and it is expected to change the traditional view that Zhou people have "scattered" here for two thousand years.
According to reports, the first large-scale archaeological excavation began at the Zhouyuan site as early as 1976. Since then, thousands of bronze wares have been unearthed, which is considered to be an important birthplace of Chinese ritual and music civilization.
Zhou high-grade mound tombs in Qujiang, Zhejiang
Entering the final evaluation of the "Top Ten Archaeology", the high-grade mound tombs of the Zhou Dynasty in Qujiang, Zhejiang Province, through excavations and investigations in recent years, gradually revealed that there are only sporadic records of "Gumiaoguo" in the history books, which are very likely to be true. exist.
According to reports, there are 10 large-scale mound tombs in the area of Qujiang Xizhou high-grade mound tombs in Zhejiang Province.
Approved by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, from 2018 to 2021, the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology will excavate four of them.
The tombs have been robbed to varying degrees, and a large number of cultural relics have still been unearthed, and the shape of the tombs has gradually become clear.
The relatively complete mounds are all tombs with A-shaped wooden coffins. The tomb is about 12.7-14.3 meters long and 6.2-8 meters wide.
In particular, the wooden coffin has a "herringbone" slope on both sides, which has become the earliest example in China.
Experts said that the Qujiangxi Zhou high-grade mound tombs, with complex construction techniques and distinctive local colors, were the largest and highest-level mound tombs in the Western Zhou Dynasty in the Jiangnan area, indicating that there should be an ancient political entity in this area.
At the same time as the cultural relics were excavated, archaeologists also conducted surveys and explorations around the tombs, and discovered a city site and 13 ruins in the Western Zhou Dynasty.
According to experts, during the Shang and Zhou dynasties more than 3,000 years ago, a mysterious ancient country, the Gumian Kingdom, was born in the central and western Zhejiang, but there are only sporadic records in the historical documents.
Based on the signs of the large site, the unearthed cultural relics and the documentary records, the experts preliminarily judged that the Gumian state is very likely to exist, and the high-grade mound tombs of the Zhou Dynasty in Qujiangxi are very likely to be the royal mausoleum of the Gumian state.
These archaeological discoveries provide new historical clues for the study of the formation of a unified multi-ethnic state in the Shang and Zhou dynasties.