Chenzhou Excavation Reveals 11 Han to Tang-era Tombs

In Chenzhou 郴州, Hubei, archaeologists excavated 11 tombs that date from  the Han to the Tang, as well as an Eastern Han house foundation.  Three of the  tombs date to the Eastern Han, six to the Eastern Jin or Southern  Dynasties, and two to the Tang. Two of the Eastern Han tombs (M1 &  M10) had brick chambers, while the other was a vertical  earthen pit tomb.  M10 was relatively well preserved.  Both of these  tombs were relatively large, shaped like the character 中, and had a  front and rear chamber.  As for grave goods, M10 had an iron knife, iron  nails, a bronze mirror, bronze coins, and bronze  belt hooks, as well as pottery vessels and model mingqi 明器, such as a  pig pen, stove, and house. Since M1 had been heavily looted most of the  grave goods were badly damaged, but the pottery vessels and models had a  thin layer of green glaze on them.  The six  Eastern Jin or Southern Dynasties tombs are relatively small  single-chamber tombs, which were either much looted or heavily damaged.   M11 has a brick coffin bed, while M8 and M9 have dated materials in  them.  One has an inscription that reads 永和三年 (347), while  the other has the following inscription: 义熙十年 (414).  M9 had a couple  of celadon vessels.  The two Tang tombs are also smallish single-chamber  tombs.  Those tombs primarily had porcelain vessels.  M2's grave goods  were in relatively good shape.  It had six  porcelain vessels, two of which were probably Changsha-ware.

For more information, check out the article on Kaogu Zhongguo here.

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