5,000-year-old elite tomb found in central China

A 5,000-year-old tomb so richly furnished that its owner may have been a high-ranking member of the societal elite has been unearthed at the Wangzhuang site in Yongcheng, Henan Province, central China. The tomb from the Neolithic Dawenkou culture contained more than 350 grave goods.

The Wangzhuang site was a large settlement from the middle and late Dawenkou periods (ca. 3500 – 2600 B.C.). This is the second season of excavations and archaeologists have discovered 45 new tombs and fully excavated 27 of them. The newly-discovered tomb, dubbed M27, covers more than 180 square feet. It is a single chamber tomb with an outer coffin and an inner coffin.

According to Zhu Guanghua, associate professor at Capital Normal University and one of the lead archaeologists involved in the excavation, “The latest discovery indicates that the Wangzhuang ruins are not an ordinary settlement, but rather the capital of a prehistoric kingdom.” The tomb was filled with over 100 pieces of pottery, nearly 200 jade ornaments, bone tools, and animal remains, including pig mandibles, symbolizing wealth in that era.

Archaeologists were particularly excited by the evidence of cultural fusion uncovered at the site. Li Xinwei, deputy director of the Institute of Ancient History at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said: “Its discoveries testify to the initial exchanges of early Chinese civilization, providing evidence for the nature of diversity within Chinese civilization. This site offers important examples for studying cultural fusion across different prehistoric regions.” Artifacts found at the site suggest influences from both the eastern and central regions of ancient China, as well as from the Yangtze River basin, indicating that the Wangzhuang inhabitants engaged in a wide array of cultural exchanges.

The remains of chickens, dogs, cattle and pigs have been found at Dawenkou sites, but pig bones constitute the overwhelming majority, about 85%, of the total. The importance of the pig in Dawenkou culture is underscored by the presence of pig bones in burials. Pig mandibles in particular have been found in tombs with the richest artifacts.

M27 was not left intact for long. Shortly after it was built, it was intentionally damaged, grave goods looted and the remains of the deceased destroyed or removed so that only a few toe bones remained. Jade artifacts were scattered and many stone blades deliberately broken. Archaeologists are studying the possible motivations for this act, perhaps a political or military rival desecrating the deceased’s tomb and his memory in one fell swoop?

Early Dawenkou burials are comparatively egalitarian, about the same size with the same range and number of grave goods. By the time M27 was built, the culture had begun to stratify and it showed in the diversity of the tombs. The larger tombs had more burial objects of higher quality, some imported, indicating an established social hierarchy.

Previously, it was thought that Chinese civilization primarily emerged from the Yellow River valley. However, as recent findings from sites like Wangzhuang demonstrate, many autonomous cultures across different regions interacted and influenced one another, creating a more complex picture of ancient China’s development.

* This article was originally published here