Another "Bronze Kingdom" in Sichuan: Yanyuan Bronze Civilization is a product of the intersection of North and South cultures
The burial method of the Yanyuan Laolongtou Cemetery, except for the urn coffin, is a vertical hole earth pit tomb, all facing east west, with the head mainly facing west; The preservation of human bones is relatively good, with primary burial and a small amount of secondary burial; The burial style is commonly used with a straight body and a small number of bent or amputated limbs; Large and medium-sized tombs have coffins, small tombs only have coffins, and some tombs do not have coffins; The vast majority have burial items, varying in size.
According to Pengpai News, over 5000 pieces (sets) of relics were excavated from 2020 to 2022, including nearly 2000 pottery, over 1700 bronze ware, over 100 iron ware, over 20 gold and silver ware, nearly 700 stone ware, over 180 jade ware, over 120 glass ware, and over 100 bone artifacts (including shells). Pottery mainly consists of various types of double ear jars, as well as a small number of single ear jars, high collar jars, flow jars, breast nail jars, and circular foot jars.
The types of bronze ware are more diverse, mainly including weapons such as knives, swords, axes, spears, arms, and armor, tools such as knives, shavings, and chisels, horse harnesses such as horse titles, donkeys, spears, bells, horn shaped ornaments, and plaques, decorative ceremonial tools such as stick heads, branch shaped ornaments, bird shaped ornaments, and circular ribbons, as well as a small number of textile tools such as weft knives and warp rolling rods. Weapons, harness, and tools are more common.
Based on the unearthed artifacts and existing dating data, the tombs at the Laolongtou Site can be preliminarily divided into three stages.
The first period was from the Shang to the Western Zhou period, with the main body being the Western Zhou period. The forms of tombs include narrow rectangular earth pit vertical tomb and urn coffin tomb. Wooden burial tools are mostly not found in earth pit vertical tomb, and copper artifacts are extremely rare in accompanying burial objects, with only a small number of arrowheads. The unearthed pottery mainly consists of milk nail jars, Gui style beans, flowing pots, high collar jars, and small double ear circular foot jars. The types of unearthed artifacts are relatively single. In addition, stone tools such as knives, arrowheads, and needle needles are also common.
The second period is the Spring and Autumn period. The tombs are mainly rectangular earth pits and vertical tombs, mostly with wooden burial tools. The burial objects are mainly bronze, pottery, and stone tools. Bronze vessels mainly consist of swords and swords, with the most distinctive feature being the sword with a hole. Pottery mainly consists of small double ear jars and high collar jars, with the appearance of large double ear jars with ears running vertically from the mouth to the middle of the abdomen, and a small number of flowing jars. Perforated strip stones and stone models are more popular in stone tools.
The third period was from the Warring States period to the early Western Han Dynasty. Tombs include narrow rectangular vertical pit tombs and wide rectangular vertical pit tombs with covered headstones. The scale of tombs shows significant differentiation, with wooden burial tools and a few large tombs with outer coffins. The burial objects are mainly bronze, pottery, stone, glass, and gold, with a very rich variety. There is a significant difference in the size of tombs and the number of accompanying items, reflecting a clear hierarchical differentiation, which is a major feature of this period of tombs.
The M13 in the middle and late Warring States period is one of the largest and highest ranked tombs excavated in this excavation. The burial mound is 5.16 long, 3.69-4.01 wide, and 0.8 meters deep. The tomb should have two layers of top stones, with one coffin and one outer coffin. 41 artifacts of various types were unearthed from the tomb, most of which were placed on the coffin cover. Among them, there was a set of bronze textile tools, including a tool, a beater, a warp roll, a cloth roll, a warp stick, and a waist guard. The tomb also unearthed painted large double ear jars. The combination of bronze textile tools and painted large double ear jars is only found in the highest level tombs of the Old Dragon Head Cemetery, and the same combination is also found in M135. The tomb owners of these two tombs are very prominent in the Old Dragon Head Cemetery and may belong to the ruling class of the Old Dragon Head ethnic group.
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