Master Archaeologist

Chapter 203 Tuyuhun and Tubo
Cleaning up the tomb passage is actually a very boring thing.

Constantly digging out the soil and transporting it away is mainly a time-consuming job.

Not only the staff of the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Social Sciences, but also many villagers invited from Reshui Township, are also helping to carry out some work of transporting the excavated soil.

During the process of clearing the tomb passage, Chen Han couldn't help being puzzled, so he asked Professor Li and Kong Jianwen about it.

Why is this tomb different from the previous "nine-story demon tower".

If the nine-story demon pagoda is the burial system used by the Tuyuhun royal family, why is only this one buried in this way.

This is different from the situation in other countries and ethnic groups.

For example.

The emperor's mausoleum system in the Han Dynasty has formed a unified system since Taizu Liu Bang, and everyone is buried like this.

Folk, since the Neolithic age, there have been vertical pit tombs, which have not changed for thousands of years.

In modern times, people are cremated and buried in the cemetery, so everyone does this.

This is the case with the funeral system. Once a system is created, it will continue until it is replaced by a new system.

Because for human beings, death is a very serious matter, something that needs to be taken seriously.

Not only China, but foreign countries as well.

The Egyptian pharaohs did not have only one pyramid, but the pharaohs of all dynasties spent manpower and material resources to build pyramids for themselves as mausoleums.

Tuyuhun is a country that has ruled Qinghai for more than 300 years. How could the royal family not have a unified burial culture?

Facing Chen Han's puzzlement and doubts.

Professor Li and Kong Jianwen couldn't answer for a while.

They did not study the tombs of the Tang Dynasty, and they did not know much about Tuyuhun.

However, the person in charge of the team this time, Professor Ke Weibin Ke, gave an answer.

"As an important node of the Silk Road, the development and prosperity of Qinghai Road is related to Tuyuhun, a branch of Murong Xianbei who moved westward to Qinghai."

"From the establishment of the Tuyuhun Kingdom in the early 5th century AD to the destruction of the country by Tubo in 663 AD, the Tuyuhun Kingdom lasted more than 350 years."

"When the Tuyuhun Kingdom was strong, it was a powerful regional regime with a land area of ​​[-] miles from east to west and [-] miles from north to south. It completely controlled the Qinghai area and contributed to the development and operation of the Qinghai Road on the Silk Road, as well as trade and cultural exchanges between the East and the West. made an outstanding contribution.”

"A large number of important relics have been left along the east-west traffic roads it connects."

"Among them, the hot water tomb group is the most important one."

“从1982年8月开始，一直到1985年11月连续四年，发掘了著名的“血渭一号墓”和其周边50座小墓。”

"That is the tomb of the "nine-story demon tower" you mentioned. Although only the upper three floors of this tomb have been excavated, the archaeological institute has a deep understanding of the special nine-story cypress wood structure of the entire tomb."

"The more I understand, the more I don't understand the tomb, but the fog is getting more and more."

"Thousands of Tubo tombs in and around Dulan have been discovered, and the tombs extend to the upper reaches of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River."

"Some of the tombs were systematically robbed and destroyed by Ma Bufang's engineers in the 40s and [-]s."

"Since the 80s, Qinghai Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology has directed and participated in the excavation of Dulan Tubo tombs for a long time."

"As of now, the total number of tombs discovered in the Dulan Tubo tombs has reached more than [-]!"

"Among them, the Reshui Ancient Tombs where we are located is the most important one. It is the area with the highest concentration of Tubo tombs in the northern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau."

"There are more than 160 on the north bank, with Xuewei No. 3 tomb as the center, distributed along the foothills to the two wings in a long strip, extending about [-] kilometers from west to east."

"The cemetery on the south bank is across the river from Xuewei No. [-] tomb on the north bank. There are more than thirty tombs."

"Since the last century, the School of Archeology and Museology of Peking University and Qinghai Institute of Archaeology have excavated the Shuhui tombs many times, and unearthed a large number of inscriptions, pottery, ancient Tibetan silk scripts, and wooden tablets."

"Through the identification of these cultural relics, as well as the techniques and patterns of the unearthed silk fabrics, the age of the ancient tomb is about the middle of the 8th century."

"In other words, although the most famous tomb of the Shuhui tomb group, the "nine-story demon pagoda" unearthed in 1982, is the tomb of the Tuyuhun royal family."

"However! Most of the more than 200 tombs in the Shuhui tombs are not royal tombs from the heyday of Tuyuhun, but tombs from the later Tubo period."

"The Xuewei No. 6 Tomb is dated around the 8th century AD, and many of the tombs on the Shuhui Tombs are from the mid-[-]th century."

"There is a 200-year gap between them."

"The Tuyuhun Kingdom prospered in the 5th century AD, and then the regime was destroyed by the Tubo people who came down from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the 7th century."

"However, the regime of the Tuyuhun Kingdom has perished, but the Tuyuhun people and the Tuyuhun tribe are still there. They live attached to Tubo and belong to one of the tribes under the Tubo Kingdom."

"And culturally, it quickly moved closer to the Tubo Kingdom."

"In the Shuhui tomb group, ancient Tibetan characters written on wooden tablets were found in many tombs."

"Tuyuhun used to have its own characters in historical records."

"However, in the high-level tombs of these hot water burial groups, all the Tibetan languages ​​used in the Tubo Kingdom were found."

"This also shows that after the fall of Tuyuhun, the Tuyuhun people quickly became Tubo and integrated into the Tubo kingdom."

"Although they are still an independent tribe, they are quickly getting closer to the Tibetans culturally."

"Take this tomb we're excavating right now."

"This tomb can be seen from the sealing soil on the ground. It is a trapezoidal double bucket-shaped sealing soil, which is superimposed on the trapezoidal platform formed by the natural mountain below."

"From the buildings on the ground, it can be seen that the tomb is composed of concrete rammed walls, stone circle walls, foundations outside the walls, animal tombs, and cross-shaped tombs."

"On the ground of the Nanping tomb, there are also relics of sacrificial sacrifices composed of a horse ditch, a cow pit, and a ditch pit."

"These shapes, structures, ancillary relics, and spatial distribution are all consistent with the funeral rituals of Tubo recorded in ancient Tibetan documents and Chinese historical materials."

"So, although the Shuhui burial group is said to have existed in the Tuyuhun period, and the main tomb is the tomb of a Tuyuhun emperor from the sixth century."

"However, most of the attached tombs buried here are the noble tombs of the Tuyuhun tribe that remained after the Tuyuhun kingdom was destroyed."

"The nobles of the Tuyuhun tribe, under the rule of the Tubo Kingdom, have already fully transformed into Tubo, including the burial system and fully learned the Tubo burial system."

"Only the only tomb of the "Nine-story Demon Pagoda" is a creation of the Tuyuhun people's own burial system."

"It's a pity that this special nine-story cypress tomb may only be used by the Tuyuhun monarch, and before the system was formed, the Tuyuhun regime was destroyed by Tubo!"

"That's why it's left behind. This is the only special tomb made of nine-story cypress wood with bottomless depths!"

(End of this chapter)