The State Administration of Cultural Heritage today released the progress of the major project of "Archaeological China", focusing on the new archaeological discoveries in the tomb of Wuwangdun. The tomb of Wuwangdun is located in Huainan City, Anhui Province. There are some important remains, such as the main tomb (Tomb No. 1), cemetery, chariot and horse pits, companion tombs, sacrificial pits, etc.
At present, the main tomb (Tomb No. 1) has been excavated, which is also the highest level tomb of the State of Chu in archaeological excavation. It is preliminarily inferred that it may be the king level tomb after the capital of the State of Chu was moved to Shouchun City in the late Warring States Period. Bronze ritual vessels, household utensils, wooden figurines, musical instruments, etc. have been unearthed, and a large number of ink characters appear on the cover plate of the outer chamber. These archaeological excavations will help us to further understand the splendid culture of Chu in the Warring States Period.
What is Wuwang Pier?
Wuwangdun Tomb is located in the south of Wuwangdun Natural Village, Sanhe Town, High tech Zone, Huainan City, Anhui Province, about 15 kilometers away from Shouchun City, the capital of Chu State. Before the archaeological excavation, a mound was believed to be a king level tomb of the State of Chu by word of mouth for thousands of years. In 1981, it was listed in the first batch of provincial cultural relics protection units in Anhui Province.
The No.1 tomb of Wuwangdun, which is centered on the main tomb excavated at present, is surrounded by important relics such as accompanying tombs, accompanying burial pits, and sacrificial pits. Close to the west side of the main tomb, a 147 meter long large cart and horse pit was also found.
From 2015 to 2018, the tomb of Wuwangdun was excavated and stolen. Since then, the public security authorities have recovered 77 stolen cultural relics. According to the evaluation of cultural relics experts, there are 26 national first-class cultural relics. With the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the salvage archaeological excavation of Wuwangdun Tomb was officially launched in 2020.
With the 14 meter high earth sealing and 15 meter deep earth filling completed, a large "A" shaped vertical pit tomb with a square opening, a side length of about 50 meters, and a 42 meter long tomb path emerged. There are steps on the four walls of the grave, which are gradually retracted, and the surface of the steps is smeared with green plaster, with regular shape and tight structure.
Zhang Wenjie, head of Archaeological Group I of the archaeological excavation project at Wuwangdun: The number of known steps in Tomb 1 at Wuwangdun is 21, which is the largest known Chu tomb. Generally speaking, the higher the level of the nobility, the more the number of its steps.
Since the archaeological excavation, the structure of the tomb has been clearly shown: the depth of the tomb is 19 meters, and the bottom side length is about 22 meters. In the middle area, nine wooden coffin rooms are built with huge wooden beams. Among them, eight side rooms in the east, south, west and north respectively contain bronze ritual vessels, household utensils, wooden figurines, musical instruments and other cultural relics.
(CCTV Journalism Client Console CCTV reporter Aida Zhang Li Lei Wang Shuai Anhui Terminal Hubei Terminal)
