Who is the owner of the tomb?
A large number of bronze funerary objects unearthed provide the necessary conditions for exploring the identity of the tomb owner. The bronze ritual vessels in Guo Zhuang Chu Tomb are grand in shape and beautifully decorated, and their luxury is second only to that of Chu Youwang Tomb in Shouxian County, and only the tomb of Si Xia Wuwang in Xichuan and the tomb of Zeng Houyi in Suixian County can be compared with them. Due to the serious theft, only five ding were left in the funerary objects, but other objects were almost complete, indicating that the owner of the tomb was a prominent senior aristocrat in Chu State.
Because of the heavy rust and decoration on bronzes, most inscriptions have not been removed. Judging from the inscriptions on some square pots, bells and baths, the words "Wu Tu", "Zeng Hou", "Chen" and "Xu" appeared, indicating that the owner of the tomb was closely related to Wu, Zeng and Chen.
In the late Spring and Autumn Period, wars among great powers were frequent, and Shangcai was at the junction of several countries, and the society was in turmoil. The sandstone needed to build the mausoleum is not produced locally, and a large amount of accumulated sandstone needs a lot of manpower and material resources to transport at that time, which shows that the owner of the mausoleum must be an important person, otherwise it is difficult to organize and complete such a huge project.
At present, what experts can get is that the owner of the tomb is the highest aristocrat of Chu in the late Spring and Autumn Period and the early Warring States Period. Even if he is not the grandson of King Chu Ping, the owner of the tomb is also very close to the Chu royal family. He must know the painful end of King Chu Ping's "digging graves and whipping corpses", which obviously has an impact on his establishment of his own territory behind him. That's for sure. Based on all kinds of information, it is very likely that the owner of the tomb is a first-class figure of Chu Wang Sun. It is believed that with the deepening of rust removal and restoration of bronzes, the mystery of the owner's identity will soon come to light.
Excellent anti-theft design
Among many ancient tombs excavated in China, the Chu Tomb of Guo Zhuang in Shangcai County is unique for its unique anti-theft technology and anti-theft effect. Ma, an associate researcher at Henan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, told reporters that every time he goes to rob a tomb, he is prepared-stealing a hole is definitely indispensable. Guo Zhuang Chu Tomb is one of the large tombs he participated in the excavation, but different from the past, although there are many stolen holes in this special tomb, many precious cultural relics still lie quietly in the tomb. "The Tao is one foot high, and the magic is ten feet high. It is a miracle that Guo Zhuang Chu Tomb still retains a large number of precious national treasures after thousands of games. "
Such strict anti-theft measures show that the tomb owner had a clear anti-theft consciousness at the beginning of the construction of the tomb. The anti-theft of Guo Zhuang Chu Tomb is not only reflected in the accumulation of sand and gravel, but also in the suspicious coffins such as site selection, soil sealing, filling, tomb structure and wooden boxes. Ma, then the leader of the archaeological team of Chu Tomb in Guo Zhuang, said that the anti-theft moves of the whole tomb were one after another. First of all, from the sealing soil, the remaining sealing soil is 0.7 to 2.5 meters thick, which is rammed soil, mostly composed of black lime soil of the site, and contains rich pottery fragments and clam shells, which is very similar to the rammed foundation of the building. Backfill soil is 6.3m thick, which is also rammed soil. The upper part is 1.5m thick, and it is backfilled by dark gray site, while the lower part is pure yellow flower rammed earth.
"This is very different from the soil composition of ordinary tombs. It gives people the impression that this place is a settlement life site or a building site, which is enough to confuse ordinary grave robbers." Ma said that early surveyors also thought it was just a site and there was no ancient tomb. Later, a larger-scale excavation showed that this was indeed the fishing and hunting settlement site of Cai State, and it was "smart" to build a tomb in such a place, which also reduced the possibility of being stolen to some extent.
The setting of suspected coffins in Guo Zhuang Chu Tomb is also unique. There are two wooden boxes or fake coffins directly above and on the side of the coffin room, surrounded by some funerary objects, and there is a cornerstone below, which will make the grave robbers have the illusion that they have reached the bottom of the tomb and will not dig deeper. In fact, the main coffin is less than one meter under the paving stone. The design of the direction of the tomb is also very unique. Different from the usual tomb, the pyramid-shaped mound goes straight to the bottom of the tomb, but it changes its direction. The grave robbers went down the pyramid-shaped mound and couldn't see the real tomb at all.
The grave digger has taken such strict anti-theft measures, which shows his good intentions, but these still have not resisted the footsteps of a group of grave robbers. Grave robbers seem to want to see this, so they have the most distinctive anti-theft means of Guo Zhuang Chu Tomb-sand accumulation and stone accumulation.
There is accumulated sand with a thickness of nearly 1 1m under the filling layer of Guo Zhuang Chu Tomb. It is estimated that the original accumulated sand is more than 3000m3. The accumulated sand is yellow fine sand with strong fluidity. Archaeologists found more than 1 1,000 piled stones in the piled sand layer, weighing from 3 kg to 1.65 kg. These stones have different shapes, but the corners are very sharp. They should be deliberately mined and deliberately selected, which is lethal. The placement of stones is also carefully designed, which can be roughly divided into disorderly stone layer, coping stone layer, coping stone layer, middle stone layer and undercover stone layer, which can prevent thieves from entering tombs from different parts and play the role of "hidden weapons" in Leng Shi. Grave robbers dig into the sand layer, and the sand will flow into the stolen hole, driving stones to cause landslides, thus cracking down on grave robbers. So grave robbers don't have enough time to stay in the tomb, and it is impossible to steal on a large scale.
The strict anti-theft measures of the tomb show that the owner of the tomb had a clear anti-theft consciousness at the beginning of the construction of the tomb. Archaeologists speculate that due to the late Spring and Autumn Period, great powers merged and wars were frequent. Shangcai is also the junction of several countries, with social unrest, rampant grave robbery and political revenge. At that time, Cai was defeated by the Chu army and forced to move the capital, and the people left their homes. When he left, Cai Guoren went to the ancestral grave and wept bitterly, thinking that he was sorry for his ancestors and had a deep hatred for the Chu people. Moreover, there was a scene in history in which Wu Zixu dug a grave and whipped a corpse, and the victim was King Chu Ping. Recent archaeological discoveries show that the owner of the tomb may have some connection with King Chu Ping. Looking at the ancestral grave being stolen, I must be worried about being buried after death, so I tried my best to design anti-theft measures. Archaeologists even affirmed that some grave robbers joined the design team of the tomb.
Where does the sand come from?
There is accumulated sand nearly 1 1 meter thick under the fill of this tomb. It is estimated that the original accumulated sand is more than 3,000 cubic meters, and more than 1000 pieces of angular accumulated stones with different sizes and shapes have been found in the accumulated sand layer, which should be deliberately selected and lethal. It is an obvious fact that there is no fine sand around the cemetery and no stone in Shangcai County. So one question is, where did a lot of sand and gravel in the tomb come from?
According to the investigation, the nearest mountain is located in Yushan Mountain and Chaya Mountain in suiping county, hundreds of miles away, and the farther mountain is in the south of Queshan County, from which the stones in the tomb are most likely transported. But in ancient times, when traffic was underdeveloped, how did a large amount of sand and gravel arrive? How can stones remain intact without bumping?
Subsequent excavations show that it may be the remains of a fishing and hunting settlement in Cai State, which is related to ancient shipping, site selection of Chu tombs, and sand and stone water transportation. "This gives us a possible explanation," said Ma Cai Jun. "At that time, because the settlement was close to the bend of the old road of Beiruhe River, it might be a busy land and water wharf, which created a wealth of local aquatic relics. During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, only sea transportation was the economic and safe means of transportation, and it may also be the reason why the grave owners and couples with high power at that time chose this place as their permanent residence! "