Taosi North Cemetery

Taosi North Cemetery

The Taosi North Cemetery is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Taosi North Cemetery

Era: Late Western Zhou to Early Warring States Period

Address: Approximately 50 meters north of Taosi Village, Taosi Township, Xiangfen County, Linfen City, on an east-high-west-low terrace

Taosi Village is located about 7 kilometers northeast of Xiangfen County in Shanxi Province, under the jurisdiction of Taosi Town, west of Mount Tashan. The Taosi North Cemetery of the Spring and Autumn periods is located approximately 800 meters north of Taosi Village and was discovered due to recent tomb robberies.

The scope and distribution of tombs within the Taosi North Cemetery have now been largely clarified. The cemetery is situated on a loess plateau at the transition from the western foothills of Mount Tashan to the Fen River Valley (i.e., the Linfen Basin), which has long been terraced into flat fields that gradually descend from east to west in a step-like pattern. The total area of the cemetery is around 240,000 square meters, with an open terrain. The burial area is generally arranged along a northwest-southeast orientation, stretching approximately 600 meters from east to west and about 400 meters from north to south.

To date, 1,283 tombs and one chariot-and-horse pit have been identified in the Taosi North Cemetery. Judging by the distribution of the tombs, the cemetery appears to have been planned systematically, with small zones differentiated by tomb rank: large tombs are typically aligned along the main northwest-southeast axis, while medium and small-sized tombs are clustered around the larger ones with some spacing in between. The tombs in the northwest part of the site are older, with some dating back to the late Western Zhou period, while those in the southeast extend to the Warring States Period, indicating the cemetery was in use for about 500 years.

By the end of 2014, seven tombs had been excavated, yielding artifacts such as bronze ding (tripod cauldrons), bronze gui (food vessels), bronze pans, and bronze hu (wine vessels), as well as several small jade items including jade funeral masks, jade hand grips, and agate bead necklaces. Among the seven tombs, five contained a single pottery li (tripod cooker) each, all dating from the late Western Zhou to the early Spring and Autumn Period. Based on current findings, this cemetery reflects a hierarchical system in terms of tomb structure, number of coffin layers, and quantity of grave goods, along with corresponding ritual practices—all of which are evident here. These rare physical remains expand research possibilities on burial rituals from the late Western Zhou to the early Spring and Autumn Period. In 2015, the Linfen Municipal People's Government designated it as a municipal-level cultural relics protection unit.

Covering an area of about 240,000 square meters, this is a relatively large cemetery where 1,283 tombs have been found, including more than 120 large tombs. Seven tombs have been excavated, unearthing bronze ding, gui, pans, and hu, as well as jade funeral masks, jade hand grips, agate bead necklaces, and other small jade artifacts. This cemetery is an important burial cluster from the Spring and Autumn Period discovered in the Linfen Basin north of Houma, providing new and significant material for further research into Jin culture.

In 2019, the Taosi North Cemetery was included in the eighth batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Source: Shanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau

Taosi Village: Taosi Village…… More detailed information about Taosi Village++

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of Shanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Eighth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units