Eastern Zhou Grave Pit Unearthed In Luoyang

China View/Xinhuanet ^ | 10-26-2005

[blam]

Eastern Zhou grave pit unearthed in Luoyang

www.chinaview.cn 2005-10-26 13:51:52

Two worker clear up the relics in the newly unearthed pit. [newsphoto]

The horse-and-vehicle pit excavated in this cultural relics discovery [newsphoto]

Archaeologists and workers excavate cultural relics from an Eastern Zhou Dynasty grave that was found in Luoyang of Central China's Henan Province on October 25, 2005. Bronzeware, jade, and horse pit unearthed from the burial site are in good shape, which is peculiar in this ancient city of Luoyang, as usually 90 percent of the graves are empty upon discovery. [newsphoto]

According to the experts, it is a a scholar-bureaucrat's grave in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-256BC) judging from the funerary objects. All the relics have been sent to a safe place and further excavation is being carried out around the site.

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[Fee]

This is before China was unified under their first Imperial Dynasty (Chin) who built the Great Wall. This stuff is real old.

[blam]

The Zhou Dynasty 1027-221BC

[ApplegateRanch]

Those look like the SUVs of the chariot world.

Is that a terra cotta figure in the center one?

[blam]

"Is that a terra cotta figure in the center one?"

Looks like it, huh.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[Dustbunny]

Ping

[afraidfortherepublic]

It's not as finely modeled as the terra cotta figures from Xian.

[ApplegateRanch]

It's not as finely modeled as the terra cotta figures from Xian.

That is an understatement, and that was why I wasn't sure. A second posibility was a log carved in the round, or even crude stone sculpting.

[JimSEA]

From what I have read most recently, these amazing chariots most likely came from your Terim folks or their relatives just to the northwest. In some of the Shang burials, the skeletons associated with the chariots are likely Caucasian.

[blam]

"From what I have read most recently, these amazing chariots most likely came from your Tarim folks or their relatives just to the northwest. In some of the Shang burials, the skeletons associated with the chariots are likely Caucasian."

I was wondering about that. You mean these folks The Curse Of The Red-Headed Mummy in the Tarim Basin.

[JimSEA]

Yes, they or their northwestern neighbors. The chariots appeared suddenly in China with spoked wheels and a light frame but no evidence of a solid wheeled predecessor like there had been in India. The people of the Steppes were far ahead of the curve on mounted and wheeled warfare. The Chinese on the other hand, were rich in material and culture, making an exchange or even the hiring of mercenaries likely. The idea is presented in the Cambridge Histories.

[blam]

"The people of the Steppes were far ahead of the curve on mounted and wheeled warfare. "

Yup I've read that they couldn't penetrate the deep steppes without the wheeled wagons...also, when the horse was domesticated, pants were invented too.