Yuejiahe Tomb Cluster

Yuejiahe Tomb Cluster

The Yuejiahe Tomb Cluster is a cultural tourism attraction.

The Yuejiahe Tomb Cluster is a cultural tourism site from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Located at the northwest corner of Yuejiahe Village, Nan'ao Township, Changle County, it is adjacent to the village. Excavated in 1977, the site spans about 3,000 square meters. It contains 57 medium and small-sized tombs, with over 400 artifacts unearthed. The burial pits are all rectangular earthen shafts, some featuring stone accumulations to protect the coffins and outer coffins. Tombs without stone coverings have built-in second-level platforms. Many tomb bases include waist pits, each containing one buried dog. Medium-sized tombs all consist of one coffin and one outer coffin, while small ones are mostly simple earth pits. All burials are single-person graves, oriented either east–west or north–south. Most medium-sized tombs feature supine burials with straight limbs, some with crossed hands resting on the abdomen, whereas small tombs often contain flexed-limb burials. The number of grave goods varies, ranging from as many as 20–30 items to as few as 2–3. Among the finds are bronze items such as ding (tripods), basins, ewers, swords, halberds, spears, and arrowheads; pottery items including cord-marked li (tripod cauldrons) from the Spring and Autumn period, various plain ding and guan (jars), as well as late-period painted ritual vessels like ding, dou (stemmed bowls), hu (jugs), dun (oval boxes), ewers, boxes, and basins; bone items such as hairpins, combs, and boxes. The excavation of the Yuejiahe Tomb Cluster provides valuable physical evidence for studying the social customs and class relations of the Eastern Zhou period.