In the year 2006, some cliff burials of the Tang Dynasty were found along the banks of Han River 5 km from Qianfang Site at Yunxian County, Hubei Province in our investigations. The situation shows that these cliff bu...In the year 2006, some cliff burials of the Tang Dynasty were found along the banks of Han River 5 km from Qianfang Site at Yunxian County, Hubei Province in our investigations. The situation shows that these cliff burials were arranged in groups distributed in several loci. We selected some typical ones from Loci Hou Fangkou, Houzitou and Liuwan and excavated. All of these cliff burials were cut out of steep cliffs, a complete case of which consisted of terrace, passage, entrance, side-chambers, corridor and tomb chamber, and so on. The grave goods found in these tombs were bronze mirrors, bronze ornaments, porcelain pots with dish-shaped rim, porcelain ink stone, and so on. The cliff burials at Locus Hou Fangkou, which are dated in the early Tang Dynasty, are preserved in good condition and yielded intact grave good assemblages. The cliff burials at Locus Houzitou were formed at the same time to those at Hou Fangkou; the cliff burials at Locus Liuwan slightly differed from the ones at the two former loci, but the dates of Locus Liuwan could not be too far away from the former two. The discovery of these cliff burials provides valuable materials for the researches on the burial customs, social statuses and spiritual believing of this area during the Tang Dynasty.展开更多
文摘In the year 2006, some cliff burials of the Tang Dynasty were found along the banks of Han River 5 km from Qianfang Site at Yunxian County, Hubei Province in our investigations. The situation shows that these cliff burials were arranged in groups distributed in several loci. We selected some typical ones from Loci Hou Fangkou, Houzitou and Liuwan and excavated. All of these cliff burials were cut out of steep cliffs, a complete case of which consisted of terrace, passage, entrance, side-chambers, corridor and tomb chamber, and so on. The grave goods found in these tombs were bronze mirrors, bronze ornaments, porcelain pots with dish-shaped rim, porcelain ink stone, and so on. The cliff burials at Locus Hou Fangkou, which are dated in the early Tang Dynasty, are preserved in good condition and yielded intact grave good assemblages. The cliff burials at Locus Houzitou were formed at the same time to those at Hou Fangkou; the cliff burials at Locus Liuwan slightly differed from the ones at the two former loci, but the dates of Locus Liuwan could not be too far away from the former two. The discovery of these cliff burials provides valuable materials for the researches on the burial customs, social statuses and spiritual believing of this area during the Tang Dynasty.
