A Large Group of Ancient Tombs Discovered in Yanqing County, Beijing

Archaeologists from Beijing Historical Relics Institute and Yanqing Cultural Relics Office have from July 5 to now discovered 72 tombs in the underground cultural relics area at Nan Caiyuan, Yanqing county. They range from the period of the Warring States, the Han and Tang all the way down to the Liao and Jin dynasties.

Among the 72 tombs, 25 are built of bricks and 47 the earthen pits. The brick tombs are mainly those of the Han and Tang dynasties while the earthen pits are of the Han period. Discovered this time from these tombs are three pieces of tricolor glazed ceramics of the Tang Dynasty, pottery wares, bronze mirrors, ironware, and some other 100 pieces of relics of importance. The area has now turned out to be the largest burying area of ancient tombs recently discovered in Beijing, and it has also provided very important archaeological materials for studying the history of the Yanqing County.

In the excavation what merits our attention is the following four points:

First, no matter whether it is Han Tomb or Tang Tomb, the large number of unearthed relics and the burial forms are quite different to that of the central China, nor the same as those found in other counties in Beijing area. This shows that Yanqing, a county lying in between the Central and the north China, has always been the hotspot for the collision and blending of the Central China culture and the north grassland culture.

Secondly, the Nan Caiyuan burial area of cultural relics and its nearby areas are the largest ancient tomb areas recently discovered in Beijing. The excavation of the tomb group shows that a large city had ever been in existence in Yanqing area during the Han and Tang dynasties.

Thirdly, there are few tombs discovered of the Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern dynasties in Beijing area. The tombs of the Eastern and Western Han Dynasties do not have clear period division. So people usually take tombs in the period of Wei and Jin for those in the late period of Eastern Han. Among the Han tombs excavated this time, part of them plausibly belong to the late period of the Eastern Han and bear the distinctive cultural feature of northern grassland. It has therefore provided us with materials for confirming the cultural features of the Wei and Jin period in Beijing area.

Fourthly, three tricolor censers are unearthed this time from the Tang tombs. They are not only very rare in Beijing area, but also in China so far as their shaping is concerned. The discovery of the tricolor censers has very important value for researches. However, the tripod censers are found their legs missing, but no damaged parts are discovered elsewhere in the tombs. It is supposed to have been purportedly cut off before they were buried.

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