China News Service, Zhengzhou, January 5th (Kan Li) The reporter learned from the 2022 Henan Archaeological Work Achievement Exchange Conference on the 5th that from June 2021 to December 2022, the Zhengzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology will cooperate with the Zhengzhou Shangdu Historical and Cultural District During the construction of the second phase project of the two institutes, various rich relics and relics were unearthed. The era covered the Shang Dynasty, Warring States Qin and Han Dynasties, Tang, Song, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, etc. The major archaeological harvest was the discovery of the Zhengzhou Shangdu Site Shuyuan Street Cemetery, which is Zhengzhou Commercial City At present, it is the noble tomb with the most burial objects, the richest variety and the highest level unearthed.
The picture shows the artifacts unearthed by archaeology.
(Data map) Photo courtesy of Zhengzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology
The Shuyuan Street cemetery is located in the southeast of the inner city wall, south of Dongda Street, and north of Shuyuan Street in Zhengzhou Mall, about 200 meters away from the south city wall and about 450 meters away from the east city wall.
The cemetery consists of two ditches roughly parallel to the east-west direction, passages for entering and exiting the cemetery, auxiliary rammed earth buildings, Group A tombs with bronze tombs as the core, and sacrificial pits, etc. to form a funeral system with clear structure and function. This is Zhengzhou Mall. It is the first cemetery with systematic structure function found in the city wall.
The existing area of the cemetery is more than 10,000 square meters, and it was in the Baijiazhuang period of Zhengzhou Shangcheng.
More than 200 funerary objects including 20 bronze wares, 11 jade wares, 6 gold wares, 50 arrowheads, and 120 shell coins were unearthed from M2, the main tomb of the cemetery.
According to Huang Fucheng, a researcher at the Zhengzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, it is the first time that the gold cultural phenomenon unearthed from M2, such as gold cladding, gold bubbles, and gold foil turquoise plaques, was discovered in the early and middle merchant cultures in the country. The source of mask culture offers a new approach.
Gold bubbles appeared for the first time in Shang culture as a kind of clothing.
The animal-shaped plaque inlaid with turquoise on a gold leaf background highlights the extraordinary identity and status of the owner of the tomb.
The picture shows the unearthed gold cladding.
(Data map) Photo courtesy of Zhengzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology
Remarkably, a 75-centimeter-long jade Ge was also unearthed from M2, which is the largest jade Ge found so far in Zhengzhou Mall.
In addition, the bronze assemblage unearthed from M2 fills the gap in academic research on Chinese bronze culture.
The six dog-sacrificing pits at the bottom of M2 are respectively located at the head, waist and limbs. This rare cultural phenomenon of sacrificial burial provides direct evidence for the origin of the dog-sacrificing culture in the tombs of high-ranking nobles in the late Shang Dynasty.
Archaeologists believe that the cemetery on Shuyuan Street is a special area with organization, planning, design, and management. The two trenches probably have the earliest prototype of the "Zhaoyu" in the Shang Dynasty or have an overall system such as boundary trenches. It provides a new cultural perspective for the formation and development of the royal tomb funeral ritual system in the Shang Dynasty.
Huang Fucheng said that the Shuyuan Street cemetery has greatly expanded the spatial and temporal layout of the settlement structure of Zhengzhou Shangcheng, enriched the academic circle's understanding of Chinese merchant culture, and provided a further understanding of the development and evolution of Zhengzhou Shangcheng and its relationship with the Xiaoshuangqiao site in Zhengzhou, etc. Many issues provide new space for discussion.
(use up)