甘肃灵台白草坡西周墓

THE WESTERN CHOU TOMBS AT PAI-TS’AO-P’O IN LING-T’AI COUNTY, KANSU PROVINCE

白草坡在甘肃灵台县城西北三十里。1967年9月,西屯公社白草坡大队在平田整地时,发现一座崩塌了的西周墓(M1),我馆接到报告后前往清理,简报见《文物》1972年第12期。1972年10月,我们在平凉地区、灵台县革命委员会领导下,由地区展览馆、县文化馆协同,在M1附近继续发掘西周墓八座(M2—M9),车马坑一座(G1)。现将前后两次工作结果合并发表。

Located at a distance of 30 li to the northwest of the seat of Ling-t'ai County, the ancient cemetery of Pai-ts'ao-p'o was excavated in 1967 and 1972, yielding a total of nine Western Chou tombs and a chariot pit. Apart from Tombs No. 2 and No. 9 which were rather well preserved, the rest had either been looted or destroyed by the elements. However, they still contain a considerable amount of tomb furniture. The tombs are all oblong earthen shafts, of which seven are midium-sized while tombs No. 6 and No. 9 are both small ones. The former are provided with a waist pit at the bottom, which sometimes contains dog skeletons. Though the wooden structures have disintegrated, their vestiges indicate that some of the tombs are provided with outer and inner coffins while others have only a single coffin. The tombs are all single burials, but the skeletons have long since disintegrated. The chariot pit, situated between Tombs No. 1 and No. 2, contains a single chariot with four horses. Judging by the fact of its orientation towards Tomb No. 2, and the similarity between the decoration of its chariot fittings and those unearthed from Tomb No. 2, it probably belonged to that tomb. The bulk of the tomb furniture are found in Tombs No. 1 and No. 2. They consist mostly of bronzes, including such ritual vessels as the ting, kuei, hsien, tsun, chih, chüeh, yü etc, and weapons like the ko halberd, chi halberd, sword, arrowhead and helmet, and such tools as the axe, chisel and knife. In addition, there are all sorts of jade ornnaments as well as cowries. Among the bronzes unearthed from Tombs No. 1 and No. 2 twentyfour are inscribed. The inscriptions are of fourteen different varieties. They reveal that Tomb No. 1 belonged to the Count of Hê (潶伯) who lived about the reign of King K'ang while Tomb No. 2 belonged to the Count of Luan ((?)伯) who lived at a time not later than the reign of King Chao. Hê and Luan were both located on the strategic route leading from the various feudatory states of the Chin River valley to the Western Chou capital and the establishment of these fiefs were probably designed to facilitate the pacification and suppression of the descendants of the Yin people and other tribes. The other seven tombs have yielded only a small amount of tomb furniture, which typologically points to a middle Western Chou date posterior to the reign of King Mu.