Artifacts Unearthed at the Scene
On February 19, Lu Mingheng, a villager from the Xin Village of Huaguo Mountain in Lianyungang, unexpectedly discovered a tomb while digging a well outside his courtyard. With a strong awareness of cultural relics protection, Mr. Lu immediately stopped the excavation and reported it to the police. That evening, the Huaguo Mountain Police Station promptly arranged for police forces to protect the scene. After three consecutive days of excavation and identification by archaeology experts from the Lianyungang Municipal Museum, the tomb was preliminarily identified as dating from the middle period of the Western Han Dynasty. More than 20 artifacts were unearthed, including gray pottery jars, wooden figurines, ear cups, lacquerware, staffs for the elderly, and more.
The Discovery of Neatly Arranged Wooden Planks While Digging a Well
At around 2 PM on February 19, Mr. Lu, a resident of Xin Village, Huaguo Mountain Township, Lianyungang, unexpectedly discovered an ancient tomb while digging a well outside his courtyard.
Mr. Lu's wife, Li Lianyun, introduced that on the 19th, she and her husband were surprised to make an unexpected discovery while digging a well outside their yard wall. After digging about 2 meters deep, they astonishingly found a large area of neatly and orderly arranged wooden planks buried under their courtyard.
It is understood that the Lu family moved from Dasha Reservoir on Huaguo Mountain to the new village in 1962 and built a new house at the foot of Jiming Mountain in 2008. Due to the shallow foundation, no abnormalities were detected underground at the time. "Could this be an ancient tomb?" Mr. Lu immediately stopped the excavation. He first reported the incident of finding a tomb while digging a well to the village committee officials, who took it very seriously and called the police to protect the scene.
Villagers Actively Provided Tools to Help
According to Xiang Jianyun, one of the main excavators of the Han Dynasty wet corpse Lin Heping, at 7:30 AM on February 20, they arrived at the excavation site. Since the tomb was located outside the residents' courtyard, the space was very small, making it impossible for machinery to operate, which brought great difficulty to the archaeological excavation. The staff had to set up warning signs around the area and use manual labor. They erected a steel pipe above the well to lift the soil from the well bottom to the surface. Many elderly villagers in the locality, seeing the hard work of the archaeological personnel, also actively provided tools to help clean up the site. Two hours later, as the cleaning work progressed, the outline of the tomb became clearly visible. The coffin chamber was covered with about 5 to 6 coffin boards, extending in a northeast-southwest direction.
No Thief Hole Found, Artifacts Preserved Intact
Due to the cement slope in front of the courtyard of the Lu family and the adjacent house foundations, the east-west extension of the tomb could not be expanded, slowing down the excavation progress. After half a day of excavation work, no thief hole was found. Combined with over 400 years of peace during the Eastern and Western Han Dynasties, the tomb contained many burial objects. It can be said that the unearthed cultural relics from the tomb were relatively well-preserved.
According to reports, the cultural relics department of Lianyungang City has already reported the excavation situation of the tomb to the National Cultural Heritage Administration. According to regulations, if important cultural relics similar to wet corpses are discovered, the excavation work will stop and be handed over to the provincial-level or higher cultural relics department for further excavation.
More Than 20 Artifacts Excavated
Due to the collapse of the top board of the foot box of the tomb, the excavation progress was slow. After half a day of excavation yesterday morning, it was found that the small tomb room had rotted into mud with no discoveries. In the foot box of the tomb, more than 20 artifacts were successively unearthed, including gray pottery jars, ear cups, staffs for the elderly, fragments of lacquerware, and wooden figurines, among which there were two intact gray pottery jars and four wooden figurines.
Ji Dakai analyzed that the tomb dates back to the middle period of the Western Han Dynasty, approximately 2,200 to 2,300 years ago. Currently, another large coffin has not been opened yet. Whether there are more surprising cultural relics inside the coffin remains to be seen, and our newspaper will continue to follow up on this matter.
By Zhang Pu, Correspondent; Zhang Lingfei, Reporter