The excavation of Yelü Hongli’s tomb in Beizhen City, Liaoning

Abstract

Abstract In September through November 2015, Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and other institutions excavated Yelü Hongli’s tomb of the Liao Dynasty. This was a large-scale brick-chamber tomb consisting of the passage, ventilation shafts, entrance, corridor and tomb chamber; albeit having been looted in early years, many grave goods including silver wares, bronzes, iron objects, porcelains, wooden objects, jades, stone implements were unearthed, as well as architectural components and stone epitaph, and wooden coffin and bier were also preserved. This tomb located in Han Derang’s family cemetery, which was a part of the attendant burials of the Xianling and Qianling Mausoleums of the Liao Dynasty, was a tomb with exact date and yielding rich artifacts, and this was rare in the elite burials of the late Liao Dynasty, so it is significantly meaningful for the study on the burial system of the Liao Dynasty.