The tombs of burial mound No. 49 of the Han Dynasty at Shangma Hill in Anji County, Zhejiang Province

Abstract

Abstract In 2008, Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology excavated the burial mound No. 49 (D49) in the Shangma Hill Cemetery located at Liangpeng Town, Anji County. D49 was an earthen mound in oval plan, the major axis of which was in north-south orientation. In this mound, six tombs were recovered, all of which were earthen shaft pit tombs with wooden coffin chambers, one of which had two coffins and the rest all had single coffin. These tombs had two kinds of orientation: the east-west and the north-south. One of them had passage and the rest did not. The grave goods were pottery wares, jades, bronzes, iron objects, stone implements and glass objects; the pottery wares were composed of glazed pottery wares, hard pottery wares and fine clay pottery wares, etc. The grave goods showed that the dates of these six tombs were the mid and late Western Han Dynasty, and their regular arrangement hinted that their occupants had close relationships; referring to the historic literature, the excavators inferred that the D49 was a family cemetery. The excavation of Shangma Hill Cemetery is deeply meaningful for the comprehensive research on the Anji ancient city and the confirmation of its nature.