47 Tombs Discovered in Yongzhou dating from the Han to Tang

 In Hunan's Yongzhou city, archaeologists discovered 47 ancient tombs, 20 of which were brick-chambered tombs, while 27 were vertical pit tombs. Seven of the brick-chambered tombs were excavated: one dated to the Eastern Han, one to the Six Dynasties, one to the Sui, and four to the Tang. An important feature of these tombs is that they had bricks with dates on them. The grave goods of the single-chamber Eastern Han tomb (M485) include pottery and coffin nails. The tomb has three bricks inscribed with the date of 146 CE. The inscription reads, “本初元年（公元146年）合宜子.” Tomb (M484) is also a single-chamber tomb, which is comparatively small and has been looted. Its grave goods include largely fragmented porcelain vessels, wuzhu coins and silver vessels. Two of its bricks are inscribed with the date of 604 “大业四年大." So it dates to the Sui. Since these tombs are small and their grave goods few, they probably belonged to commoners.

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