Archaeological Excavation of Han Tomb, Mount Dou, Suining on Feb. 1st, 2016

Mount Dou Tomb is located on the slope at the southwestern foot of Mount Dou in Zhangshan Village, Guanshan Town, Suining County. The geographical coordinates in the tomb center are 33.7836°N, 117.8569°E. The excavated area is 2,500 square meters. In total, 51 tombs in the Han Dynasty were excavated, and more than 160 pieces (groups) of various implements were unearthed.

The tomb furniture unearthed includes 10 vertical tomb pits, 39 stone pits, 1 brick pit, and 1 brick-chambered tomb. All the vertical tomb pits are rectangular, which are 2.2-3m long, 1.2-2.2m wide, and 1-2.8m deep, in north-south direction. Most of the tombs are singly buried; some of them are graveled on the bottom. All the buried objects are in single cabins without lacquering. Most of the buried objects are put in the outer side of the owner's cabins, and some are put in the side of the owner's feet. Most of the outer coffins with implements are laid with slates or stones on the tomb walls or wooden coffins.

Stone pits account for a large part in this excavation, most of which have been robbed. Most of these tombs are in east-west direction. They are divided into single stone pit, double stone pits and trinary stone pits, in which lay wooden coffins, and lacquering remains can be found on some of them. Most of the graves of double stone pits and trinary stone pits were formed by secondary expanding excavation. The surfaces of graves look like trisquares due to dislocation in expanding excavation. It means they used to be single stone pits. Afterwards, a second grave was expanded on one side, and a chamber was built depending on the side plate of the original stone pit. Then a multi-burial tomb was built, with a side plate shared between two (three) stone pits. In these tombs, foot boxes or side boxes are commonly laid, with potteries in them; implements like copper mirrors and coins are often found in the coffins.

Only one brick pit was found, say M45, a multi-burial tomb. It is 2.55m long from east to west, 1.25m wide, 0.9m deep remained, and 105° in direction. In the grave, a pit chamber was built with single bricks along the tomb walls in flemish garden wall bond, the pit top is covered with four stone plates, and the pit bottom is paved with single bricks. Due to grave robbing, only one copper mirror was unearthed from the side of the owner's head in the southern grave.

Only one brick-chambered tomb was found, say M47, which has a slope tomb passage and a vault roof. The tomb is 5.2m long, 1.96m wide, 1.2m deep remained, and 345° in direction. It is composed of a tomb passage, a sealing door, and a tomb chamber. The tomb passage, which is located in the north, is 1.2m wide and 2.3m long. The door, as wide as the tomb passage, is sealed with narrow bricks and arch bricks laid flat. The tomb walls are built with single bricks in flemish garden wall bond. Its top does not exist, and its bottom is paved with single bricks in herring bone pattern.

In total, more than 160 pieces (groups) of implements in various materials were unearthed from these tombs, including pottery, copper, steel, proto-porcelain, and talc. Among them, a large amount are potteries, with types such as Ding (cooking vessel), box, kettle, Fang (bronze drinking vessel), bin, oven, well, grinder, ring, etc. The copper wares include Zhi (drinking vessel), seal, mirror, eyebrow brush, coin, etc. Most talc wares are Han (jade in the dead's mouth) and plug. According to the rules of composition of potteries, characteristics of copper mirrors and money, the tombs date from early Western Han Dynasty to early Eastern Han Dynasty, and mainly middle and late Western Han Dynasty. The tombs are orderly arranged and densely distributed, though part of the tomb furniture are overlaid or broken. It is a family cemetery which has extended for a long time.