Preliminary Study On Remains Of Unearthed Agriculture Of The Han Dynasty Tombs In Guangdong Region

Agricultural relics excavated from the Han tombs in Guangdong area, includingfarm tools, paddy-field models, irrigation works, livestock and poultry, cereals andfruits, as well as grain processing and storing facilities, served as the research objectsof this article.Two reasons of the decreasing number of ironware, discovered from the tombsafter the Nanyue Kingdom was amalgamated into the Western-Han government, wereconcluded after analyzing these relics: Ironware was introduced from the ChuKingdom and the Han central government limited the export of iron and ironware;Ironware was no more used as burial objects but farm tools with the changing ofburial customs. The following facts were also verified: Iron ploughs and ox-ploughinghad not been used in Guangdong area by the mid Western-Han period; Threeirrigation methods, surface water irrigation, facility irrigation and well irrigation werewidely used in the Han Guangdong area; Only pestles, mortars and dustpans wereused as processing tools and poultry feeding appeared from the mid Western-Hanperiod; Fours kinds of crops including grains, vegetables, fruits and spices wereplanted at this period; Agricultural techniques like ploughing, transplanting,double-harvesting, fertilizing and reaping with iron sickles were introduced intoagricultural production by the Guangdong inhabitants during the Han period.