Tomb from the First Year of the Jianchu Era at Mayinggang

Tomb from the First Year of the Jianchu Era at Mayinggang

The Tomb from the First Year of the Jianchu Era at Mayinggang is a cultural tourism attraction.

The Tomb from the First Year of the Jianchu Era at Mayinggang is located on Mayinggang in the zoo. It was excavated in 1956. This is a brick-chambered tomb with a conical pointed roof. It is about 5 meters deep. The tomb entrance faces west and is connected to a sloping ramp-style passage. The tomb chamber has double corner walls and a floor plan in the shape of a Chinese character “中” (meaning “middle”), divided into three sections: a passageway, an antechamber, and a coffin chamber, with a total length of 9 meters. The antechamber is square, 2.8 meters in both length and width, and 3.26 meters in height, with a conical roof. On the left side of the room is an attached side chamber, which connects to the rear coffin chamber. The coffin chamber is 4.78 meters long, with a vaulted ceiling, and features a niche in the back wall. At the center of the arched ceiling at the rear end of the coffin chamber, there is an inscribed brick bearing 13 characters in clerical script: “建初元年七月十四日甲寅治砖” (meaning “Bricks made on the 14th day of the 7th month, the first year of the Jianchu era, day of Jia-Yin”). The tomb had been looted early on, but still retains a considerable number of artifacts. Unearthed items include pottery models of a castle, a stove, a pot, attendant figurines, a table, a tripod, a three-legged cauldron, small boxes, a goblet, bottles, and an incense burner, as well as bronze wu-zhu coins. Inside the coffin chamber, the coffin and human remains are no longer present, but a pottery house remains undisturbed in the rear niche. In the middle section, near both sides, there are three bead ornaments, along with a bronze belt hook, a bronze knife, an iron knife, a gold earring ornament, a jade eye cover, a jade nose plug, and a jade cylindrical object—each one item, placed in disarray. At the front end, there is a stone inkstone for eyebrow makeup, likely a relic from inside the coffin. This tomb is believed to be a joint burial. The pottery castle measures 40 cm in length, 41.2 cm in width, and 29.6 cm in height. Its surrounding walls are high, with watchtowers built above the large front and rear gates. Inside the city, there are two houses, both with overhanging gable roofs—one L-shaped and the other rectangular in floor plan. Aside from a figurine at the city gate acting as a guard, there are 12 figurines inside the houses. Three are seated cross-legged on low beds, while the others are figurines representing servants, guards, and officials. This is a model castle with an absolute date inscribed, unearthed from a Han tomb in Guangzhou.