Research On Pre-modern Tomb-building Technology In Inner Mongolia

Inner Mongolia is located in the northern borderland of China which culture is unique due to its special climatic environment and geographical location,tomb construction technology is an important part of the culture.Archaeology pays more attention to the study of tomb relics,and ancient architecture focuses on the study of ground architecture,therefore,the research on tomb construction technology is lacking,there are some problems around the research such as incomplete description of building structure details,irregular specialized terms,and serious imbalance in the attention of different types of tombs.Insufficient research has been placed on tombs with complex types and structures in the Central Plains of China,and less attention has been paid to relatively simple tombs in the northern borderland.The northern ethnic groups have fewer ground dwelling sites because of their pastoral model,and environmental factors such as desertification and soil erosion lead to tombs being one of the most discovered and best-preserved remains.Inner Mongolia is located in the middle of the pastoral civilization and the central plains farming civilization,which is not only the birthplace of the northern pastoral population and the forefront of many important northern ethnic groups in history to dominate the Central Plains,and it is also an important area for the migration and stability of the Central Plains civilization.A large number of tombs have witnessed the history of communication between the pastoral civilization in the north and the farming civilization in the Central Plains in Inner Mongolia.This dissertation is divided into 9 chapters,the first chapter is the preface which strives to solve the current confusion of tomb research,not only to standardize many terms,but also to propose a new method of dividing the tomb shape system on the basis of the research results of various scholars.Tomb forming is one of the most important parts of tomb construction technology and is the basis for further general research on different types of tombs.Chapters 2 to 8 sort out the history of the development of the local tomb construction technology in stages according to the order of dynastic succession.The more important ethnic establishment regime and relatively clear ethnic tombs are specially studied,in order to highlight the development characteristics of tomb construction technology of local pastoral groups.This part is studied in two directions,which are tomb forming and construction technology.The Inner Mongolia region is placed in a large-scale field of view in northern China for comparative study,and the communication of tomb construction technology in Inner Mongolia and northern China is observed from a macroscopic perspective.The chapter 9 is the conclusion,which summarizes and sorts out the history of tomb construction technology development in northern China at first,then the history of tomb construction technology development in Inner Mongolia,and finally compares the above two,in order to better reveal the characteristics of tomb construction technology development in Inner Mongolia.After systematic research,this dissertation mainly has the following research results:First,combined with the achievements of the previous scholars on the division of the tomb shape system and according to the most core difference of tombs,which are divided into the "class tomb" series and the "room-like tomb" series.The "Coffin-like Tombs" series includes coffinless tombs,wooden coffins,stone coffins,adobe brick coffins,etc.The "Chamber Tombs" series includes tudong tombs,brick chamber tombs,and stone chamber tombs.The development of "class tombs" mainly lies in the change of burial tools,while the development of "class chamber tombs" lies in the change of tomb structure.The changes in "class tombs" burial tools are mainly manifested in wooden coffins,which have experienced the development stage of single wooden coffins,well-stem coffins→ box → cutting → inscriptions,cloister-shaped chamber tombs,and developed to the peak in the Western Han Dynasty.The transition to a chamber tomb was completed,and the tomb immediately declined.The development of "chamber tombs" is mainly manifested in two categories,the first is the development of mainstream tombs to chamber tombs,which basically completed the transformation in the Han Dynasty.The second is the origin and spread of tudong tombs.The tudong tomb can be classified as a chamber tomb because it has the main characteristics of a chamber tomb from its origin.However,the tudong tombs at initial stage did not yet fully possess their characteristics,thus they can be called "chamber-like tombs".The spread and popularity of tudong tombs played an important role in the formation of mainstream chamber tombs.There is also a kind of mound stone chamber tomb mainly distributed in Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions,which characteristics are also in line with the characteristics of chamber tombs.Second,the main forms of the tudong tomb are parallel shaft tudong tomb,linear vertical shaft tudong tomb and slope type tudong tomb.Vertical shaft tudong tomb and vertical inclined tudong tomb are a variant and fusion of mainstream tudong tombs.The earliest tudong tombs in the late Neolithic period are called "niche-style" tudong tombs according to their structural characteristics.The tudong tombs that flourished in the Ganqingning area,during Longshan period to bronze age,should be influenced by the local popular cave kiln sites.The popular tudong tomb in the Spring and Autumn Warring States period can be called the pastoral tudong tomb because of its popularity to place martyrs in the tomb passage.Warring States and Qin Dynasty standardized tudong tombs,most of the burial chambers have wooden coffins,and the tomb passage is wider than the burial chamber.The Han Dynasty completed the combination of shaft-type tudong tombs and slope tombs.At the same time,slope-type tudong tombs began to become popular and patios began to appear.The Northern Dynasty further developed the patio-style tomb passage,and the courtyard characteristics were obvious.At the time of the Sui and Tang dynasties,the patio-style tomb passage in medium and large-sized tombs and the patio-style tombs representing multiple courtyards became popular,while the small and medium-sized tombs were popular with vertical shaft-type slope tomb passage.During the Song Liao Jin Yuan Dynasties,the long slope patio tomb passage gradually declined,but the shape of the tomb was more abundant,such as hexagonal and octagonal tombs were common.Third,the brick chamber tomb is the key type of tomb in the process of transformation from a rafter tomb to a chamber tomb.Hollow brick tombs and tudong tombs also play an important role in the transformation process.Oblique hollow brick tombs and folded hollow brick tombs are the ancients exploration of the top of the voucher technology,and the uncompressed cave chambers of the tudong tombs have created conditions for these explorations.In the late Western Han Dynasty,the small brick coupon roof technology was basically mastered,and the barrel vault,the four-sided cross-cutting vault roof,and the four-corner crap-type vault roof had all appeared.Meanwhile,the stacked roof and the circular dome were variants of the crucifixion technology.The exploration of courtyard-style structures in the Northern Dynasty period is also evident in brick chamber tombs,which mainly reveal in the development of the doorway structure in front of the tomb,and the popular structures such as door covers,wing walls,walls,gate towers and so on.Multi-patio tomb passages were also popular in brick chamber tombs of the Sui and Tang dynasties.The gate structure developed to the peak and the gatehouse structure appeared with a double-story pavilion of the Song and Liao Dynasties.At the meantime,the bucket arch structure was more complex.The structures were gradually degenerated by the Yuan Dynasty.Fourth,the Inner Mongolia region is placed in the perspective of the large field of vision in northern China and combined with the above research results,the development of tombs in Inner Mongolia has unique characteristics and can be called the "northern model",which specifically includes three cultures and four phenomena.The three cultures refer to the pastoral burial culture of the northern desert grassland,the pastoral burial culture of the eastern woodland grassland and the agricultural burial culture of the southern plain.The pastoral tomb culture of the northern desert steppe includes the Xiongnu,Turkic,and Mongolian people.Their burial culture is characterized by a predominance of surface burial structures,with stones piled up on the surface of the tomb and surrounding stones,and underground structures with stony coffins and wooden coffins.The pastoral tomb culture of the eastern woodland steppe includes the early Xianbei people,the Room Wei,and the early Khitan people.Their burial characteristics are mainly manifested in the development of wooden coffins,single wooden coffins,log tiles,wooden plank splicing,and bark coffins showing the rich tree resources around their residential areas.Although the tenon structure is used,it is only a simple tenon and tenon structure,and has not developed into a complex coffin structure.The farming tomb culture of the southern plain mainly includes the Population from the Neolithic period to the Shang and Zhou Dynasties,the farming population of the middle and late Warring States period,the Population of the Two Han Dynasties,the Population of the Northern Dynasty,the Sui and Tang Dynasties,and the Liaojin Population.Its burial characteristics are mainly closely related to the burial culture in northern China.Among them,wooden coffin tombs,tudong tombs and brick chamber tombs are similar to those in the northern region.The reason why the tombs of these people are similar is because of the central governments policy towards the northland and the northern ethnic regime in the central plains,which not only because of cultural convergence,but also because of the exchange of tomb construction techniques between immigrants.However,there are many unique burial cultures,for example the tomb material in the middle and late Neolithic period are more stone and less wood.Although the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty established political power in the Central Plains,its cultural tradition was strongly conservative,therefore,it was still dominated by grassland animal husbandry in the northern grassland area.Based on the background analysis of the formation of the above-mentioned tomb culture,this dissertation summarizes four phenomena,which are natural environment phenomena,migration phenomena,frontier phenomena and non-central zone phenomena.The natural environmental phenomena are the objective natural environmental factors that form the three kinds of tomb cultures.The migration phenomenon is the direct factor in the short-term major changes in the three cultures.The frontier phenomena and non-central zone phenomena are the geographical restriction of the slow development and the low overall level of the tomb culture,which is relatively different from the northern pastoral civilization center and the southern agricultural civilization center.This dissertation summarizes the history of the development of tomb construction technology in Inner Mongolia in a broad time and space range.However,the single tomb or cemetery of different region and period has its own uniqueness,especially the comparative research in northern China.The dissertation provides a general comparative analysis because of the large number of tombs and the energy and time constraints.In the intervening time,due to some subjective and objective reasons of Inner Mongolia,tomb materials are still relatively small compared to the Central Plains,especially the tombs of pastoral groups.Therefore,some types of tombs can only use foreign materials to summarize their characteristics.Eventually,the analysis of mathematics,physics,chemistry,and engineering of burial technology cannot be done in a single discipline alone.It is hoped that all scientists,especially scholars in the natural sciences,will actively participate in promoting the scientific development of tomb excavation and research.