Excavation And Preliminary Analysis Of The Ming Dynasty Family Tomb In Wushan Tujiaba Historic Relics

The relics of Tujiaba are located in Community Ninghe Village Dachang Town, Wushan County of Chongqing. It lies in the entrance of Daning river which is the upstream of the Daning River, 60 kilometers away from Wushan County in the South. In accordance with the construction of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, Chongqing Municipal Cultural Relics Bureau and other units of the organization, Chongqing Normal University and Chongqing Academy of Cultural Heritage made a rescue excavation towards the relics of Tujiaba. In the excavation work the tombs and relics of the Ming Dynasty were unearthed. The burial is characterized with six-room family tombs with pit brick rooms side by side. The shape and contents of the tombs are similar to that of other tombs of that time around the Three Gorges Reservoir area. It’s special for the rare family tombs with six room made of Siamese bricks. The excavation of the tombs there provides mach important information for the the study and understanding of the historical features of the Three Gorges Reservoir on politics, economic and cultural practices.Based on the Archaeological excavations, this paper makes a physical analysis of the burial scene, the characteristics of the construction of tombs, burial ceremony and funerary objects, combined with a number of historical documents. The paper also makes analysis and elaboration of the time, shape and the burial custom of the family tombs, the corrosion process and the nature of the burial.This paper is divided into several parts: Firstly, the paper makes a brief introduction on the family tomb excavations and elaborates the stratigraphic accumulation and unearthed relics of the Tujiaba family tombs. Secondly, the paper makes a classfication and comparison between the brick-room tombs of Tujiaba and the neighboring tombs of the Three Gorges area. It is thought that the shape of Tujiaba family tombs belongs to the comparatively mature Graves of the Ming Dynasty, dividing the Ming Dynasty.Among the funerary objects, porcelain and earthenware are preliminarily analyzed from the age, tombs class and the relationship between different chamber. Due to the poor state of conservation of Tujiaba family tomb(the collapse Muding), there are few unerary objects. The poor state of conservation of human bones leads to many limitations for the analysis. But according to the detailed research of the physical materials, there are also many major research values. For example: in the tomb there is lime painted on the wall, the same to the funerals of the neighboring tombs of the same period. Accoring to the comparative analysis, it showes that the burial custom of the Tujiaba tombs is similar to the burial custom of the surrounding three Gorges reservoir area; Accoring to the analysis of the using phenomenon of anti-corrosion materials of Tujiaba tombs, and the comparison with the corrosion process of the surrounding tombs, combined with the comprehensive study of historical documents, it is found that the Department of Tujiaba family tombs is made of wooden coffin with iron nails. It is also found that there is phenomenon of a lot of lime used on the wall of the graves and it is the same to corrosion process of Ming Dynasty tombs corrosion process of the Three Gorges region. In addition, a preliminary analysis of the nature and the cultural connotation of the Tujiaba tombs. Finally, the paper makes some brief description of the origin of family tombs, the characteristics of joint burial, the burial direction and cemetery system.