Gui: an ancient food container. In ancient books, it was written as Gui, also called "Mu" and "rail". "Zhou Li? Magistrate? Scheeren: "Where sacrifices are made, they will be * * *". Reed is a container for millet, millet, rice and sorghum, which is equivalent to the current big bowl. It is generally round-bellied, full-mouthed, with or without ears, two ears, three ears or even four ears. In Shang and Zhou dynasties, the reed, like the tripod and other utensils, marked the status of slave owners. After the Warring States Period, Gui was rarely seen. The discovery of this reed reminds archaeologists of the long-lost Western Zhou Dynasty.
in p>1964, in order to solve the water supply problem in Pingdingshan city, the government built a river dam in the middle reaches of Shahe River and the famous Baiguishan Reservoir. The bustling town of Mengyang has become a reservoir flooded area. This one sank in Baiguishan Reservoir? Yang Town, originally called Guyingcheng, was a vassal state of Zhou Wuwang, the founder of the Western Zhou Dynasty. For more than 3, years, although the ancient Yingguo has experienced the baptism of countless wars and the changes of the times, it has already declined and fallen, but the people there still stubbornly thrive and continue to this day.
It is said that the surrounding walls of Mengyang Town before flooding are high, like a castle. There is also a stone inscription on the forehead of the gate of Sibianzhai, which records the glorious history of Yingguo. The east gate of Zhaizhai Wall is titled "Yingxu", the south gate is "Wangchu", the west gate is "Guying" and the north gate is "Tongbao". A few years ago, Pingdingshan city cultural management department was in the west? The village collected a piece from? The stone tablet moved from Yangzhen reads "The monument of Jiacheng is close to Yingguo, and the trees are ablaze with splendor". And? Yangling is a high platform surrounded by mountains and rivers, which is an ideal place for ancient human life to gather. From this, Sun Qingyuan and others concluded that? Yangzhen is probably the capital of Guyingguo, because these splendid ancient cultural relics are the best proof. Yingguo was originally a vassal of Ji in the early Western Zhou Dynasty. According to historical records, after Zhou Wuwang destroyed the Shang Dynasty, the Dafeng brothers and their sons ruled and supervised the Shang adherents in their hometown. According to Zuozhuan? Twenty-four years of Xi Gong said that the first monarch of Yingguo was Zhou Wuwang's son and Zhou Chengwang's brother. Hanshu? Geography "has" hometown, old country, sealed by Wu Wangdi. " That is to say, Yingguo is a vassal of the King Wu brothers. Whether the country should be the vassal of Wu Wangdi or Prince Wu, or neither, is still a major topic for historians to discuss. But it is certain that Yingguo existed in the early Western Zhou Dynasty and played an important role.
After p>1986, the archaeological team of Yingguo Cemetery, on the basis of cooperating with the production of brick yard, intensively drilled Yingguo Cemetery on Mengyangling, and * * * found that there were thousands of ancient tombs, which were densely packed and stacked on top of each other, indicating that this cemetery had been used by ancestors in different periods. Through drilling, it is known that the history of this cemetery is quite long, from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty, which is closely linked.
The whole cemetery has obvious characteristics, that is, the closer it is to the southern end of Mengyangling, the earlier it is, and the later it is to the north. That is to say, these tombs are gradually buried from south to north in chronological order. And large and medium-sized tombs are buried in turn? On the middle line of Yangling Ridge, small and medium-sized tombs are arranged on the east and west sides, and often centered on one or two big tombs, surrounded by several small and medium-sized tombs, forming a group of family tombs, showing the characteristics of "gathering together and burying". On the evening of July 23, Wang Longzheng, an associate researcher at the Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that since the excavation of Yingguo Cemetery in the 198s, the funerary objects unearthed were very precious. Among them, in November 1987, archaeologists unearthed an exquisite duck-shaped copper cup in a small vertical hole grave. This copper cup looks like a swimming duck, but it has four strong feet. The mouth and neck of the utensil are decorated with bird patterns, and the inscription cast in the lid is clear and legible, with ***5 lines and 43 characters, and the line spacing is neat, the font is beautiful, and the strokes are symmetrical. Judging from the bronze cup shape and casting technology, this tomb belongs to the mid-Western Zhou Dynasty.
"Most of the bronzes unearthed from Ying Guo's tomb bear inscriptions, which are extremely valuable for the study of ancient history and ancient rituals." Wang Longzheng told the author that in November, 1992, archaeologists excavated six tombs of the Western Zhou Dynasty in Mengyangling at the same time, and the bronzes unearthed in four of them all had inscriptions, especially the shock brought by the excavation of Tomb 84 was even more unforgettable.
Due to the age, the coffin of Tomb No.84 has decayed and collapsed, and a large amount of silt and ashes have fallen into the tomb, burying all the utensils, which makes it difficult to start.
As the silt in the tomb is cleared away bit by bit, the funerary objects are gradually exposed, and one large bronze ware after another is crowded with the tomb, and the shape of the vessels is very strange and exquisite. Tomb 84 is the most glorious one in this cemetery, and the cultural relics contained in it far exceed other tombs in terms of quantity and value.
besides a human skeleton, there are also large bronzes placed between coffins in Tomb No.84, which is particularly eye-catching. The unearthed bronzes can be divided into ritual vessels, musical instruments, weapons and chariots and horses, etc. In addition, many Yu Pei, necklaces and red agate ornaments are placed on the head, neck and abdomen of the tomb owner, which fully shows the noble and prominent position of the tomb owner before his death. What is particularly precious is that there are inscriptions cast on both bronzes. The words "Ying Hou Zuo Lu Yi" are cast on the inner wall of a bronze ware, and it can be determined that this is another tomb of Ying Hou. In April, 1986, during the excavation of Tomb No.1, * * * unearthed more than a thousand funerary objects. The Jade Eagle unearthed in this tomb later became the city emblem of Pingdingshan City.
According to the records of Pingdingshan City, in 1986, Henan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the cultural relics department of our city jointly conducted a survey. Yangling carries out cultural relics investigation and excavation. An exquisite stone eagle was unearthed in Tomb No.1.. The eagle is white, moist, clean and slightly transparent. There are brown spots on the top of the eagle's head and right wing, which are carved by craftsmen intentionally using the "pretty color" technique. The eagle spreads its wings and flies, twisting its head to the right and holding its right wing with its mouth, forming a perforation. Eagle's eyes, eagle's back and feather wings are carved in lines, and two claws are curled in long strips under them. Vivid image, lifelike. Eagle is the totem of Yingguo, which was placed on the chest of the deceased to show its worship when unearthed. The excavation of the tomb confirmed that this is the cemetery of Yingguo nobles. In ancient Chinese, Yingguo's "Ying" and "Eagle" are the same word, so Yingcheng, the capital of Yingguo, can naturally be called Eagle City.
At that time, Mr. Hao Ziri, an expert in ancient Chinese characters, suggested to the Pingdingshan Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government that Yingcheng should be used as another name of Pingdingshan City to commemorate the splendid ancient Yingguo civilization that once appeared in this area. Later, the municipal party committee and municipal government adopted this opinion, and the image of the jade eagle unearthed from the No.1 tomb of Yingguo Cemetery was embedded in the sculpture of Pingdingshan City as the city emblem, which is the origin of Pingdingshan City called Eagle City. Sun Qingyuan said that according to the time, the cemetery of Yingguo is getting later and later from south to north. The tombs of Yingguo period are all in the southern section of Yingbin Avenue, while the northern section is the tombs of the Han Dynasty after the Warring States Period. At present, almost all the cemeteries in Yingguo have been excavated. The preciousness and age of unearthed cultural relics make it a national key cultural relics protection unit.
From p>1986 to 1997, Henan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Pingdingshan Cultural Relics Office jointly conducted archaeological excavations in Yingguo Cemetery for eleven years. * * * More than 3 tombs were excavated, and more than 1, pieces of various cultural relics such as copper, iron, lead, tin, gold, pottery, bone, jade, shellfish and wood were unearthed. Especially bronze and jade are the bulk. Among them, there are 14 tombs in the early and middle Western Zhou Dynasty and 25 tombs from the late Western Zhou Dynasty to the early Spring and Autumn Period. In 1996, it was rated as one of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China. In 2, it was rated as one of the ten important archaeological discoveries in Henan Province in the 2th century.