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Mawangdui (馬王堆) is an archaeological site located in Changsha, China. The site consists of two saddle-shaped hills and contained the tombs of three people from the western Han Dynasty. The tombs belonged to the first Marquis of Dai, his wife, and a male who is believed to be their son. The site was excavated from 1972 to 1974. Most of the artifacts from Mawangdui are displayed at the Hunan Provincial Museum.
The tombs and occupants
The tombs followed a mixture of Chu and western Han Dynasty burial practices. The tombs were made of large cypress planks. The outside of the tombs were layered with white clay and charcoal; white clay layering was a practice that originated with Chu burials, while charcoal layering was a practice that was followed during the early western Han Dynasty in the Changsha area. The tombs contained nested lacquered coffins, a Chu burial custom. The tombs also followed the burial practices dictated by Emperor Wen of Han, containing no jade or precious metals.
The eastern tomb, Tomb no. 1, contained the remains of a woman in her fifties. Her mummified body was so well-preserved that researchers were able to perform an autopsy on her body, which showed that she probably died of a heart attack. She outlived the occupants of the other two tombs. Her personal name was Xinzhui (辛追).
The western tomb, Tomb no. 2, was the burial site of the first Marquis of Dai, Li Cang (利蒼). He died in 186 BC. The Han Dynasty had appointed Li Cang as the chancellor of the Kingdom of Changsha. This tomb had been plundered several times by grave robbers.
Tomb no. 3 was directly south of Tomb no. 1, and contained the tomb of a man in his thirties who died in 168 BC. The occupant is believed to be a relative of Li Cang and his wife. This tomb contained a rich trove of military, medical, and astronomical manuscripts written on silk.
Artifacts
Tombs 1 and 2
One famous artifact type were the lacquered wine-bowls with handles, which showcased the craftsmanship of the regional lacquerware industry.One of the most famous artifacts from Mawangdui were the silk funeral banners; the T-shaped banners were draped on the coffins of Tomb no. 1 and no. 2. The banners depicted the Chinese abstraction of the cosmos and the afterlife at the time of the western Han Dynasty.
The T-shaped silk funeral banner in the tomb of the Marquise (tomb no. 1) is called the "flying garment". We know the name because the tomb's original inventory is still intact, and this is what it is called on the inventory. The Marquise, Lady Dai, was buried in three coffins, the flying garment drapes the innermost of the three coffins.
On the T-shaped flying garment, the uppermost horizontal section of the T represents heaven. The bottom of the vertical section of the T represents the underworld. The middle (the top of the vertical) represents earth. In heaven we can see Chinese deities such as Nuwa and Chang'e, as well as Daoist symbols such as cranes (representing immortality). Between heaven and earth we can see heavenly messengers sent to bring Lady Dai to heaven. Underneath this are Lady Dai's family offering sacrifices to help her journey to heaven. Underneath them is the underworld - two giant sea serpents intertwined.
Tombs 3
Tomb no. 3 contained three maps drawn on silk: a topographic map, a military map and a prefecture map. The maps display the Hunan, Guangdong and Guanxi region and depict the political boundary between the Han Dynasty and Nanyue. The maps are among the oldest maps discovered in China. At the time of its discovery, the maps were the oldest maps yet discovered in China.Tomb no. 3 contained a wealth of texts. The tomb contained texts on astronomy, which accurately depicted the planetary orbits for Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars and Saturn and described various comets. The tomb also contained a rich collection of Huang-lao Taoist texts, as well a copy of the Zhan Guo Ce. The tomb also contained various medical texts, including depictions of qigong exercises.
See also
Notes
- , Lee, A History of Far Eastern Art, p. 61-62
References
Books
- Lee, Sherman E., 1994, A History of Far Eastern Art, Fifth edition, Prentice Hall
Journals
- Buck, David D., 1975, Three Han Dynasty Tombs at Ma-Wang-Tui. World Archaeology, 7(1): 30-45.
- Hsu, Mei-Ling, 1978, The Han Maps and Early Chinese Cartography. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 68(1): 45-60.
Archaeological sites in China | Han Dynasty | History of Changsha
"Mawangdui"