Guangzhou found a large tomb during the Nanyue period of the Western Han Dynasty, and the identity of the tomb owner is not low

Guangzhou, October 10 (Reporter Cheng Jingwei) According to a report by the Guangzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology on the 19th, a large-scale Yue tomb of the Western Han and Nanyue period was found at the site of Gaidingling in the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City in Huangpu District, Guangzhou.

From April to July 2023, the institute conducted archaeological investigation and exploration work on the residential plot on the west side of Huafu, Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City, Huangpu District, Guangzhou, and found remains such as ash pits, pillar holes, and gray ditches and geometrically printed hard pottery pieces such as zigzag patterns, hooked cloud thunder patterns, and checkered patterns in the plot, and preliminarily determined that there were cultural relics of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods in the Dingling of Wogai. The original landform is a small nearly circular hill, shaped like a pot lid, with a maximum altitude of 4.7 meters, adjacent to the Chaling site, about 53.5 kilometers away from the Pitou Ridge site in the northwest and about 4 kilometers away from the Shaling site in the southwest.

Aerial view of the M1 tomb in Dingling Ridge. Photo courtesy of Guangzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology

From September to October 2023, with the consent of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Guangzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted archaeological excavations at the site of Dingling in Waogai, revealing a large Yue tomb (number M9) of the Southern Yue period of the Western Han Dynasty with a ditch around the top of the Gangqiu of Waogai Dingling. The tomb occupies a single mound roof, with a ditch 10.700 meters long from east to west, and the bottom of the tomb is paved with small stones to form a stone bed, and wooden rafters are placed on it.

At the same time, there are relatively dense pillar holes in the western and southern parts of the periphery of the Ming Domain, and it is speculated that there may still be a "tomb sacrifice" ground building at that time, which indicates that the identity of the tomb owner is not low.

Panorama of the M1 burial chamber of the Wok Gai Dingling Ridge. Photo courtesy of Guangzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology

Experts from the Guangzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology pointed out that the M1 tomb of Dingling in Lingnan was the first time in Lingnan to find an early tomb with a ring ditch around the periphery of the sealed soil, and the practice of building a mound at the highest part of the hill and then digging a vertical pit with a grave road, building a coffin, and then sealing the soil to bury the tomb obviously inherited the construction method of the mound tomb in the two-week period in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. There is a tall seal on the surface, and there is a rectangular ditch around the periphery to show the practice of the Ming Domain, which is very similar to the Ming Domain Formation of the Yin Shan Yue King Mausoleum in Shaoxing, Zhejiang.

The scale of the M1 tomb in Dingling is only about one-tenth of the tomb of the King of Yinshan Yue, and the sloped tomb road is north-facing, and the age is as late as the Western Han and Nanyue periods, so there should be a relationship between early and late inheritance in terms of tomb shape. The rectangular vertical pit burial chamber is paved with stone beds, which is also inherited from the custom of the two-week mound tomb in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The burial chamber is not rich in burial products, and the characteristics of not accompanying the burial bronze ceremonial vessels are more similar to the tombs of the Yuyue nobles in Zhejiang.

Experts believe that the archaeological discovery of the Yue tomb in Dingling provides clues for the development context and transmission path of the Hanping Nanyue period from the Taihu Lake area through the Pearl River Delta to the Baiyue cultural circle in northern Vietnam during the Warring States to the Han Wudi period, adding archaeological evidence to the research and interpretation of the early Lingnan civilization exploration and the process of sinicization, and further indicating that the Huangpu Jiufo-Luogang line in the northeast of Guangzhou in the northern part of the Pearl River Delta was an important settlement area for the ancestors of South Vietnam from prehistory to the Qin and Han periods. (End)