Yes, the tomb next to Tomb M7 is Tomb M1, not M8 or M6.

This is not the name of the grave pit on the site, but in the archaeological excavation work, this situation is quite normal.

Let's put it this way.

At a construction site, the naming principle of the grave pit is to name it in the order in which it was found.

However, it is impossible for him to really find the tombs one by one according to the order in which they are arranged.

Usually you find a tomb in the east, another in the west, another in the south, and another in the east.

As a result, when naming these tombs, it is possible to have M1 to the east, M2 to the west, M3 to the south, and M4 to the east.

In this way, M1 and M4 become neighbors.

Jiang Jiashan's side is also in this situation.

The first to be discovered was M1, and then after going around in a big circle and discovering 6 other tombs, another tomb was found next door to M1, which became M7.

Tomb M1 is located in the east of the south row of the cemetery, close to M2 in the west, and M7 in the east.

A small southeastern part of the tomb was destroyed by a late pit.

The grave pit is filled with reddish-brown soil, with a small amount of gray-white soil and gray soil clods, and the soil is hard.

The length of the tomb is 3.62, the width is 1.35, the depth is 0.24 meters, and the soil in the coffin is red gray porphyry, with more red soil clods and gray-white soil clods, and the soil quality is loose.

The people who carried out the excavation work in advance only drew the edge line of the tomb and the edge of the coffin on the scraping surface, which is all the preliminary preparations made by the staff of the Zhejiang Institute.

The next archaeological work will be taken over by the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

During the excavation, there were no obvious traces of the coffin plate and the coffin cover, only a "rectangular" coffin body line around the coffin.

The whole coffin is 3.05 meters long and 1.05 meters wide, and the thickness of the coffin is unknown, but depending on the size, it is larger than the coffin of the M7 tomb just now.

Maybe the owner of this tomb is a man, so he wants a bigger coffin.

After Chen Han took over, the first thing they had to do was to dig 5 centimeters horizontally down from the grave pit and scrape the surface.

The reason for this is simple, determine the size of the coffin.

Yes.

In the ancient kingdom of Liangzhu 5,000 years ago, there was already a "coffin" system that was widely seen in the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

The nobles of the ancient kingdom of Liangzhu, when they were buried, were buried with a layer of coffins, and then a layer of coffins!

That's it, can you not think that Liangzhu is one of the sources of Chinese civilization?

Whether it is the funeral culture of Liangzhu or the jade culture, they are all very similar to the Chinese culture!

This has to be said to be in the same vein!

Sure enough, after digging five centimeters under the horizontal, a clear range of the coffin was visible.

After Zhuang Yunpeng measured it with a soft ruler, he quickly came up with accurate data.

The coffin is 2.78 meters long and 0.7 meters wide.

In other words, there is a gap of almost 30 centimeters between the coffin and the coffin.

"The coffin is filled with light gray soil, mixed with a large amount of gray-white soil, and the soil is loose and delicate."

"It is impossible to draw the decay marks of the coffin side plate on the plane, but from the reserved small partition beam, you can observe the obvious traces of the coffin floor and the coffin side plate, which are fine gray-white soil and about 4 centimeters thick."

"The bottom of the coffin is concave and arc-shaped, so it can be inferred that the burial apparatus is a canoe-style wooden coffin with a concave arc bottom."

Zhuang Yunpeng kept reporting his findings.

Chen Han, Kong Jianwen and others standing on the pit are becoming more and more aware of their hearts.

It is known that the traces of the coffin board are completely missing, but fortunately, the traces of the coffin board are still there, and it can be concluded that the thickness of the coffin of the tomb owner is 4 centimeters.

This is also a figure that is very much in line with Chinese funeral culture.

The bottom of the coffin is concave and arc-shaped, which is a very common shape in tombs in the Yangtze River basin.

This type of coffin is called "canoe style", that is, it looks like a canoe boat.

In the Yangtze River basin, canoes have always been the most common means of transportation, first used 7,000 years ago.

And invariably, many tribes and cultures in the Yangtze River basin will use "canoe-style" wooden burial tools to bury themselves after death.

As a country that lived and ruled in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, it was also common for the ancient kingdom of Liangzhu to move closer to the "canoe style" in their funerary culture.

On the contrary, in the Central Plains, there are generally no such canoe-style burial utensils, and they are usually flat-bottomed and square-bottomed coffins.

"How so? Let's dig it! Professor Li said with a smile.

A tomb with a length and width of more than 3 meters X 1 meter, even if the entire exploration party is a 5X5 exploration party, but there is no need for more than a dozen people from the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Social Sciences to dig together.

In fact, in addition to the M1 tomb, there are also three tombs, M8, M11 and M14, which are also responsible for the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Four tombs, an average of four people are arranged for each tomb to excavate, just enough to arrange a group of people from the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Social Sciences.

After a little discussion, the excavation of Tomb M1 fell into the hands of Chen Han, Zhuang Yunpeng, Lin Ya and Professor Li.

The reason for arranging a Professor Li is mainly to have an experienced veteran to lead the team.

Don't look at Chen Han and Zhuang Yunpeng, they have dug a lot of graves in recent years.

But this kind of late Neolithic tomb, the experience is still not enough.

The simplest difference is that in the past, Chen Han and the others dug tombs with complete burial chambers and excavated underground.

And this kind of Neolithic tomb, soil pit vertical pit, directly excavated in situ, to dig the entire 5X5 exploration square to be dug flat, is a meticulous work.

Just when the Lajia ruins were excavated before, Chen Han and they did this.

A few years have passed, and there has been little experience gain.

"Let's do it, clean it up from the top to the bottom little by little."

After Professor Li gave the order, he took the lead and jumped into the pit.

This kind of late Neolithic book pit tomb is also very easy to dig.

It is nothing more than to demarcate an area of a few meters X a few meters, and then the archaeological staff will take brushes and hand shovels to clean up all the soil in the area little by little.

Of course, it is necessary to clean up according to the shape of the coffin, as well as the remains that may be found.

It's a delicate job that requires patience.

The burial utensils of this tomb are all located in the coffin, and in the process of cleaning, it is like opening a blind box.

After sweeping off a piece of soil, you may see a corner of the burial goods, and then little by little you will clean up all the dirt next to it, revealing the full appearance of the burial goods.

Not only the burial goods, when cleaning this tomb, the first thing to be cleaned out was the remains of the tomb owner, except for the two inconspicuous jade beads located in the upper part of the coffin.

The human bones of the tomb owners are poorly preserved.

During the clean-up process, only the remains of the skull, part of the ribs, the radial ulna on both sides, the femur on both sides, and the tibia and fibula on both sides can be distinguished.

Through the remains of the skull, it can be discerned that the owner of the tomb was buried in the direction of the head facing south and slightly west, and the head was facing 190 degrees.

This is a bit different from the traditional Chinese saying of sitting in the south and facing north.

(End of chapter)