The Tombs of Western Han dynasty at Zhengwangcun village, northern suburbs of Xi’an city, Shaanxi Province

Compiled by Shaanxi Provincial institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relic

Abstract:
 In the year of 2002 and 2003, Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology excavated more than 100 medium and small – sized tombs of western Han dynasty at Zhengwangcun village, northern suburbs of Xi’an city. The cemetery, situated between eastern gates of Xuanping and Qingming, is 3.5 kilometers due east to the city wall.
 This book covers on the excavation data and the research on it.
 According to the theory that the excavation report should possibly provide with the objective materials and distinguish the subjective research from it for the future study, so the book is mainly consisted of four parts. Chapter I, the introduction to the whole research, focuses on the cemetery location, excavation period, relics restoration and data collection. Chapter II, the main part of the book, presents all excavation data, including all the illustrations and pictures taken from the selected 80 tombs in detail. The size, direction, components and the relics unearthed of every tomb are offered. Chapter III, the related research, covers six aspects: 1. Typological study on the pottery and glazed – pottery. 2. Classification of tombs according to the development of pottery and glazed pottery unearthed. 3. Set of the pottery and the glazed pottery vessels and shape development. 4. Study on the unearthed bronze mirrors and coins of each classification. 5. The size of tomb and it’s components of each group in different period. 6. The phases of the tombs and their dates; discussion on the construction method of the tomb No. 4 with hollow bricks and the surface pattern of the hollow bricks. Chapter IV, the conclusion, discusses on the three aspects: 1. The tomb scale and tomb owners of the cemetery. 2. The unearthed objects style of Han dynasty and the cultural ingredients analysis. 3. The relationship of the pottery and glazed pottery vessels.
 The materials of selected 80 tombs are revealed at the second chapter, so the tomb size, components and relics unearthed of the rest tombs of the graveyard are attached to the book in a form of tabulation to provide a complete portrait of the cemetery. The statistics of bronze mirrors, the essays on the sex objects and the sexual concepts of the Western Han people are attached too.
 Although three excavation books and some articles on the western Han tombs around the capital city of Chang’an have been published in the recent years, the main problem related to the dates and development of the tombs remains unsolved. Owing to the limited excavation materials, the analysis and dating on the first half of the early phase of western Han tombs is still missing in this book. The break point is that, the author firstly puts forth the question of the relationship between the pottery and glazed pottery vessels unearthed and does research on it. To achieve the aim, the pottery and the glazed pottery vessels are divided into two groups, and then the typological contrast and comparison on the each group are made to see the date and the period of the vessels being used. At the end the author arrives at: most glazed pottery vessels are not a completely copy of the pottery one; the relationship between them is not as simple as just putting a glazed coat on the pottery vessels before the firing; after it had come into being, it has a different development. To the Wang Mang and shortly later period, the glazed one reached its peak and almost replaced the pottery.