Footprints of a Golden Camel Near Qin Shihuangdi’s Mausoleum

Abstract

The article presents materials of the excavations of Qin burials near the area of the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang. To the west of its outer wall, a burial ground of nine large tombs has been excavated, which are dated to the age of the empire's formation, however the possibility of an earlier date is not excluded. The most interesting finds were reportedly from grave M1, which included bronze bells and ritual vessels, iron armament, jade scepters and disks, gold buckles, numerous metal figurines of people and animals, including gold and silver camels. This discovery made it possible to raise the question of the formation of a stable trade “highway”, later determined as the Great Silk Road, already in the late period of the Qin Dynasty (the last quarter of 3 rd century BC), but not under the rule of Han Emperor Wu-di (156–87 BC), as previously thought. Perhaps a high-ranking dignitary buried in grave M1 was chief administrator of this project, therefore he can be denoted as “Qin Zhang Qian”. One more golden trail leading from the depths of Asia to the Yellow River’s valley can be found in the nine golden buttons from grave M5, excavated at Taerpo, in the area of Xianyang, the ancient capital of the state of Qin. Some of the buttons were decorated by granulation, and it is highly likely that such technology could have penetrated into China from Western Asia. The materials obtained from these excavations once again illustrate how the Qin Empire, despite its short life and inglorious death, managed to lay many important pillars of future development.