Eastern Han Tombs at Changli Reservoir

Eastern Han Tombs at Changli Reservoir

The Eastern Han Tombs at Changli Reservoir are located in the northwest of Donghai County. In 1957, to accommodate the construction of a dam for the reservoir, the Nanjing Museum excavated six tombs. The tombs are aligned in a straight line from north to south. The tomb mound measures 45 meters in length, 12 meters in width, and stands at an elevation of 42–43 meters.

Tomb No. 1 is a stone relief tomb built with limestone blocks. It measures 4.93 meters in length from north to south and 3.91 meters in width from east to west. The tomb consists of three parts: the front chamber, rear chamber, and side chamber. The front chamber has a tomb entrance composed of three pillars and a horizontal lintel on the southern side. There are floor bricks laid in front of the tomb entrance, with retaining walls on both sides. An octagonal stone pillar is placed in the middle of the front chamber, which connects to the side chamber on the west. Both the eastern facade of the front chamber and the western side of the side chamber feature niches. The rear chamber is divided into eastern and western sections along its central axis by partition walls. The pillars and horizontal lintels inside the tomb bear carved images, including trees, figures, chariots, the Heavenly King of the East (Dongwanggong), mythical beasts, as well as decorative patterns such as diamond grids, swirling cloud motifs, and feather patterns. The walls of the rear chamber feature bas-reliefs depicting the male and female tomb owners, attendants, dancers, as well as standing screens and tableware. At the upper part of the northern pillar on the partition wall of the rear chamber and the middle bracket pillar on the niche of the side chamber, there are carvings of a crouching bear and a mother holding a child supporting a capital block. The ceilings (caissons) of the front, middle, and rear chambers are decorated with carvings of coiled dragons centered with eight-petal hanging blooms, as well as depictions of Fuxi and Nüwa holding the sun and moon respectively. This tomb was looted in ancient times, but still yielded pottery wine cups, plates, cosmetic boxes, jars, glazed pottery pots, bronze mirrors, iron knives, and coins such as ban liang, bu quan, and wu zhu.

Tombs No. 2 through No. 6 are all brick-chambered tombs, consisting of front and rear chambers. Among them, Tomb No. 3 is the largest in scale, with its rear chamber divided into eastern, central, and western sections, forming a triple-coffin burial tomb. The tomb chambers were constructed using arched brick vaults, with only the doorposts and lintels featuring carved stone reliefs. This tomb was also looted, and only pottery wine cups, plates, cosmetic boxes, glazed pottery jars, pots, bronze belt buckles, and wu zhu coins were found.

Based on the characteristics of the stone reliefs and unearthed artifacts, these tombs date to the late Eastern Han period. This group of Han tombs provides important information for the study of stone relief tombs. The carvings on the bracket pillars, such as the mother-and-child and crouching bear themes, hold certain artistic value.