Tomb Complex of the Six Dynasties at Crane View Hill

Tomb Complex of the Six Dynasties at Crane View Hill

The Tomb Complex of the Six Dynasties at Crane View Hill is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Era: Three Kingdoms, Jin, Northern and Southern

The Tomb Complex of the Six Dynasties at Crane View Hill is located beneath the eastern peak of Crane View Hill (where the Crane View Taoist Temple once stood at the summit), outside Crane View Gate in the eastern suburbs of Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, China. It is situated to the west of the Bamboo Garden Restaurant on the Xianlin Campus of Nanjing Normal University in Nanjing’s Xianlin University Town, Qixia District. These tombs belonged to the family of Gao Song, a prominent official of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. There are three tombs in total, all built as brick-chambered structures, consisting of sealed door walls, passageways, and burial chambers. The ceilings come in two types: “convex”-shaped domed roofs and “convex”-shaped vaulted roofs. Among them, Tomb M2 is the burial site of Gao Song and his wife Lady Xie, who were interred in the first year of the Taihe era (366) and the twelfth year of the Yonghe era (356), respectively.

The tombs were excavated from June to August and September to December 1998 by the archaeological team of the Nanjing Museum. The unearthed artifacts mainly consist of jade and gold-silver ware. As of 2013, these are the most structurally intact Eastern Jin noble tombs discovered in China, with the largest number of jade and gold-silver relics. The site was also selected as one of the Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries in China in 1998.

In May 2013, it was included in the seventh batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further reading:

· Fifth Batch of Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units