An Archaeological Discoveries And Study Of The Chu Tombs In The Three Gorges Region

Chu Tombs is the most representative of the civil construction of the Chu culture,especially in the Eastern Zhou period. The Chu culture was very popular as arepresentative of the Southern culture and the Chu Tombs in this period, regardless ofits shape or its funerary objects, have a strong local cultural characters Three Gorgesregion is located in the southwest border of Chu state and its special geographic positionmake it play a strategic role for Chu state achieving its western domination andoppression of western neighbors. Chu Tombs of the Three Gorges region enjoy itsunique features, compared with typical tombs of the eastern part of the Jiang han Plain,which is the state of Chu hinterland. The differences are mainly reflected in threeaspects: First, the imbalance. As the Statistics show, the number of locations andnumber of Chu tombs founded in the east part of Qutang Gorge are far larger than theWest region, which is the uneven distribution. In addition, the earliest Chu Tombfounded in the east Gorge far reached to middle and late period of western zhoudynasty,while the earliest discovery in West gorge happened around the middle ofSpring and Autumn Period., this is the uneven distribution in time. Second,comparatively low grade. Judgment from the Earthwork scale and funerary objects ofChu Tombs in the Three Gorges region, most of which belong to the common peopleand ordinary soldier, while the largest one is the Ba Dong Lei Jiaping sites M9which isthe only discovered tomb ranked next doctor. Compared with the princely tombs, andthe Chinese nobility tombs of Jiang Han Plain, the Chu tombs of three gorges is quitelow grade. Third, cultural hybridity. the Three Gorges region is located at the junctionof Ba state and Chu state. Constantly cultural exchanges and wars of two statesthroughout the Eastern Zhou period make cultural hybridity of the Three Gorges areacome into being inevitably During late Warring States period, the Three Gorges areawere occupied by the Qin and the Qin culture implanted the local culture as well. Suchas,the funerary objects of Yunyang Li Jiaba site M10carry the features of three kindsof cultural identity of Ba Chu and Qin, which is the best example of the hybridity of local cultural factors.With the accumulating of related materials, the evolution rule of funerary objectsand the chronological sequence of Chu Tomb in Three Gorges region have beenbasically clear, and the period of tombs has been identified on this basis too. The authorcarried out the collection, comb and statistics of recent three years' Chu tombs materialsin Three Gorges region A brief introduction and classification of the distribution andshape characteristics of Chu Tomb in the region are produced on this basis In addition,The tombs and the funerary objects, combined with staging and related historicaldocuments, have been analyzed in this paper The phenomenon of the unique Ba, Chu,and other cultural factors of Chu Tomb in the Three Gorges region at different stage ofthe Eastern Zhou period and the causing of such multi-cultural factors in this regionhave been elaborated and explained in the paper.