By Datong Municipal Institute of Archaeology

Compiler – chief   Liu Junxi

 

  In April 2004, in coordination with the expansion construction of Yanbei Teachers College (Datong University since 1st July 2006) outside its eastern enclosure, the Datong Municipal Institute of Archaeology carried out there archaeological drillings, and discovered eleven tombs of the Northern Wei period, including six cave – type burials (numbered M7, M12, M18, M19 and M24) and five brick – chambered pits (M1, M2, M3, M5 and M52). The cemetery lies one km northeast of Caofulou Village in the southern suburbs of Datong City, and 3.5km east of Datong City proper, not far away from the tomb of Sima Jinlong, Prince Kangwang of Langya, Northern Wei Dynasty, and that of Yuan Shu, Commander of the Garrison in Pingcheng City. In June to September of the same year, these graves were jointly excavated by the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology and the Datong Municipal Institute of Archaeology.

  The cave – type tombs are humble in form, each consisting only of a narrow passage and a cave, with the gate blocked by piled up adobe or lumps of immature soil, and containing one or two coffins, with the skeleton’s head pointing to the south in all cases. The funeral objects are not only small in quantity but also poor in craftsmanship, which suggests that the tomb – owners must have belonged to the common people. The brick – chambered tombs each have a passage, a gate, a corridor and a chamber as the main parts. The chamber looks like a curvy – sided square in plan and has a pyramidal ceiling. The overall tomb length measures 13.58 – 37.57m, and the chamber depth, 4 – 7.35m from the ground surface. M52 is furnished with an eastern side – room, which also has a square plan with curvy sides and a pyramidal ceiling, and lends to the main room through a corridor. M2 contains four coffins: two smaller and two larger. The former are placed in the north of the chamber and arranged side by side with the central axis pointing to the east and west and the skeleton’s head to the west. The latter lie in the east of the chamber, being placed one behind the other, central axis pointing to the north and south and the skeleton’s head to the south. The human bones are scattered inside and outside the coffins but still can be identified as the remains of two adults and two children. It is the first time that this burial manner has been discovered among the tombs of Pingcheng of the Northern Wei period at Datong City.

  Tomb M5 is the joint burial of Song Shaozu and his wife. It is the only grave with the dating inscription “first year of Taihe reign” (AD 477) and the tomb – owner’s name. The chamber is furnished with a fine sarcophagus in imitation of a timber hall. Between the chamber walls and the sarcophagus ones are pottery tomb – figurines varied in form, and on the sarcophagus inner wall are murals composed with smooth lines.

  The Song Shaozu grave faces to the south with an azimuth of 198°. The overall length measures 37.57m, the depth is 7.53m from the ground surface, and the tomb consists of a ramping passage, two tunnel – type corridors, two small yards, a vaulted corridor and a pyramidal ceiling. The form of long ramping passage with yard and tunnel – corridor was brought about in the Pingcheng (present – day Datong) area before the Northern Wei Dynasty moved its capital to Luoyang, which has definite dating evidence. The Song tomb is so far the earliest among the dated Northern Wei graves. In the earth filling of the northern tunnel – corridor, excavators discovered a 30×15×5cm epitaph brick. It is laid o.6 and 0.4m apart from the tomb bottom and the western wall respectively, with the epitaph engraved in intaglio on the upward surface. The epitaph is a 25 – character inscription arranged in three rows and painted in red, reading “Da Dai Taihe yuannian suici dingsi Youzhou Cishi Dunhuang Gong Dunhuang – jun Song Shaozu Zhi Jiu 大代太和元年岁次丁巳幽州刺史敦煌公敦煌郡宋绍祖之柩” (Coffin of Dunhuang Duke Song Shaozu, Youzhou District Magistrate of Dunhuang Prefecture, Great Dai, i. e. Northern Wei, first year of Taihe reign, or the dingsi year in the sexagenary circle system). Obviously, the burial furniture follows the architectural form of its counterpart of wooden structure in the Central Plains and at the same time embodies the unique artistic style characteristic of its own age, including the meticulousness of carving. The sarcophagus stands in the center of the chamber, looks roughly like a square in plan and, resembling wooden structures, has three bays in width, representing a hall – type building with a single – eave overhung gable - end roof at the top and a corridor in front of the rooms. It consists of about one hundred meticulously carved stone structural members, the mains parts including top slabs, beam frames, wall panels, corner columns, ground beams, and the front corridor. On the top slabs, scattered human bones were found to belong to two incomplete skeletons, which must have been abandoned in the early robbery of the tomb and can be identified as the remains of the tomb – owners Song Shaozu and his wife. In an imitation tile row of the top slabs is a 15 – character inscription in intaglio in a line, reading “Taihe yuannian wushi ren yong gong sanqian yan chi sa hu 太和元年五十人用公三千盐豉卅斛”, which discloses invaluable information about the labor volume, time duration and other aspects of tomb works in the Northern Wei period.

  The front corridor covers all the three bays of the sarcophagus width and occupies a bay in depth. There are four corridor columns octagonal in cross section and 1.03m in height. The plinths are round in the upper part and square in lower one and are carved with coiled dragon and inverted lotus – flower designs. Atop the columns are efang (decorated tie - beams), with bear column – top bracket sets (each consisting of a ludou large – block fulcrum and three sheng smaller fulcrums) and inverted – V – shaped intermediate ones. Behind the corridor, the central room has a two – leave stone – slab door, which is carved with door – knockers, decorative nails and lotus – flower design. The lintel is roughly rectangular and bears five carved lotus flowers. The outer walls are carved with 26 doorknocker and 239 button – shaped bulges that are various in form and elegant in appearance. Inside the sarcophagus is a stone coffin – bed carved with doorknockers, flowers and animals. The eastern, western and northern inner walls are decorated with painted scenes of dancing and music playing, with the human figures represented vividly in smooth lines, but most of them have become illegible or badly peeled.

  The unearthed objects total more than 400, mostly occurring in Tombs M52, M2 and M5. They fall into four categories: 1) Pottery tomb – guarding figurines in the shape of warrior and animal. 2) Pottery human figurines varied in form and rich in type, representing armored cavalrymen on barded horses, mounted warriors in cockscomb hats, armored infantrymen, horse leaders, processional attendants, domestic servants, acrobats, music players, dancers, maids, minority tribesmen, etc. 3) Pottery poultry and livestock, including mainly horses and then cattle, donkeys, sheep, pigs and dogs. 4) Pottery models of domestic facilities and houses, such as those of treadle – operated tilt hammers for hulling rice, wells, mills, cooking ranges, tents and ox carts. The raw materials are mainly pottery clay and also silver, bronze, iron, stone, amber and lacquer. The tomb – guarding warriors are in armor and with ferocious features. The tomb – guarding animals have peculiar but vivid human faces and animal bodies. The armored cavalrymen on barded horses wear helmets and armor with cylindrical arms, and their horses are in bards made of rectangular plates. The mounted warriors in cockscomb hats have black hoods topped with cockscomb – shaped ornaments. The minority tribesmen (numbering 11) are different from the other human figurines of these tombs in features and dress, and must be representations of members of ethnic minorities in the Western Regions. The pottery horses (totaling 78, including 58 mounts of warriors) account for about 1/4 of the funeral models, which indicates that horse riding was a very popular fashion in the then Toda Xianbei Tribes. The pottery camels (3 pieces) depict the carrying and riding animal indispensable for northern minority nationalities after they entered the Central Plains. The model tents number three: two square and one round in plan; all of them represent truly their practical counterparts, which suggests that such mobile yurts were still used at that time, and that the Toba Xianbei Tribes of the Northern Wei Period did not thoroughly change their nomadic inhabits by the time the Emperor Xiaowendi moved his capital. The model vehicles (10) are excellent in workmanship and clear in structure and greatly enrich the material data for studying the structure of carts and carriages in the earlier Northern Wei period.

  The Northern Wei tombs in Yanbei Teachers College reflect, both in tomb form and in grave goods, that the Pingcheng area had accepted a good many elements of the Han and Jin burial customs by the early Taihe reign, and at the same time demonstrate features of the Xianbei Nationality’s nomadic economy and northern ethnic groups’ armies. The unearthed data undoubtedly have extremely important value to researching into culture, economy, architecture, art and different aspects of social life in the Northern Wei period.