The Dantu Two-Weeks Tomb Cluster

The Dantu Two-Weeks Tomb Cluster

These tombs are primarily located across the low mountains, hills, and ridges from Dagang to Jianbi in Dantu County. According to a 1984 survey by the Nanjing Museum, they are distributed at sites including Yandun Mountain, Mapan Dun, Qiaomai Mountain, Beishan Top, Qinglong Mountain, Wangjia Mountain, Liangshan, Huangni Mountain, Shuangdun, and Weijiadun. Since the excavation of the “Marquis Yi” tomb on Yandun Mountain in 1954, the following tombs have also been excavated and studied up to now: Yandun Mountain Tomb No. 2 (1984), Mapan Dun Tomb (1982), Qiaomai Mountain Mother-and-Son Dun Tomb (1982), Beishan Top Tomb (1984), Shuangdun Tomb No. 1 (1984), Wangjia Mountain Tomb (1985), Liangshan Tomb No. 1, Tomb No. 2, and Qinglong West Mountain Tomb (1979).

The tombs are generally built on mountain tops, mostly one tomb per mountain, situated with their backs to the mountains and facing the river, and feature large burial mounds. Their outward appearance is no different from the commonly known “earthen mound tombs” found in the Ningzhen area. Among them, the Mother-and-Son Dun Tomb has a mound 4.6 meters high, the Beishan Top Tomb’s mound reaches 5.5 meters, and the Qinglong West Mountain Tomb’s mound is as high as 6 meters, with the base diameters of all three exceeding 30 meters. However, most of these tombs have tomb pits. For example, the pit of the Yandun Mountain “Marquis Yi” tomb is 0.44 meters deep, the Mapan Dun Tomb pit is 1.36 meters deep, the Beishan Top Tomb pit is 1.45 meters deep, and the Qinglong West Mountain Tomb, Liangshan Tomb No. 2, and Wangjia Mountain Tomb pits are all over 5 meters deep—differing from the typical flat-ground burial mounds of the Ningzhen area that lack distinct tomb chambers. Additionally, these tombs mostly consist of one tomb per mound, except for the Qinglong West Mountain Tomb and the Beishan Top Tomb, where human sacrifices and accompanying burials have been found either in the tomb passages or on the north-south sacrificial platforms, marking a clear difference from the multi-tomb style common in other Ningzhen earthen mound tombs.

In terms of burial objects, apart from Tomb No. 2 on Yandun Mountain and Tomb No. 1 on Shuangdun, the majority are bronze ware. These include ritual and musical instruments, weapons, chariot and horse fittings, tools, and implements, as well as pottery, proto-porcelain, jade artifacts, and stone tools. Tomb No. 2 on Yandun Mountain mainly contains pottery and proto-porcelain, while Tomb No. 1 on Shuangdun, having been looted, only yielded some pottery fragments and stone relics. Among the burial items unearthed, the “Marquis Yi” Gui vessel from the Yandun Mountain “Marquis Yi” Tomb was a major archaeological discovery. Its initial discovery sparked various scholarly interpretations and caused a great sensation. The Mother-and-Son Dun Tomb yielded a double-bird-ear square-base Gui with the inscription “Bai Zuo Bao Dun Yi” (meaning “The lord made this precious ritual vessel”), which also has multiple scholarly interpretations and is highly valuable. Meanwhile, the Beishan Top Tomb produced a rich array of bronze artifacts—including a fu lid, a dove-handled staff, a yu instrument, a set of chime bells—as well as a stone chime set, among others. Not only are the shapes of these artifacts exquisite, but some were also uncovered for the first time, providing important evidence for studying the tomb’s age and the identity of the tomb owner.

Tomb Dating. Tomb No. 1 on Shuangdun dates to the late Shang and early Zhou periods; the Yandun Mountain “Marquis Yi” Tomb, Tomb No. 2, and the Mother-and-Son Dun Tomb belong to the early Western Zhou Dynasty; the Mapan Dun Tomb dates to the transition between the Western and Eastern Zhou Dynasties; and the Beishan Top Tomb, Qinglong West Mountain Tomb, Wangjia Mountain Tomb, and Liangshan Tombs No. 1 and No. 2 are from the Spring and Autumn period of the early Eastern Zhou Dynasty.