One of the Greatest Finds of 2021: The water-filled tombs of Yunmeng's Zheng Jiahu cemetery site

In the Zheng Jiahu cemetery 郑家湖墓地 in Hubei's Yunmeng County, archaeologists have made some terrific finds, which has earned the site a place as one of China's 2021 ten great archaeological discoveries.  In the C Area of the cemetery, they excavated 116 tombs, which included over 400 lacquer goods, a number of which are quite rare, such as a tiger head pillow, a flat pot in human form? (人物扁壶), a phoenix-shaped spoon, as well as China's longest inscribed prism. 14 of the tombs were submerged under water, which not only perfectly preserved their grave goods, but also coffins, skeletons, sacrifices, and grain.  Through an analysis of the skeletons, researchers have discovered that the tomb lord of M276 was a Xirong 西戎 woman who only moved south after spending her youth in the dry northern areas.  The tomb occupant of M257 also was born in the north, but spent his youth in the JiangHan area.  He was a warrior who was buried with three swords that had traces of being used.  He died about the same time the Qin unified the Central Plains.

For more details, check out this post on Kaogu Zhongguo.

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