"Forum of Xuzhou Museum" Phase 12: "Anti-robbing Measures of the Imperial Mausoleums of the Western Han Dynasty"

      Introduction:

      The main content of the lecture:

      Tomb-robbing existed due to elaborate funerals in ancient China, and various measures have been taken to prevent it. Mausoleums of the Western Han Dynasty brought together the best craftsmen at that time, and many treasures were buried in them. So the anti-robbing measures are very important. This lecture mainly lists the measures in ancient China's tombs from the aspects of the building structure, funeral appliances, and anti-robbing organs of the Western Han Dynasty.

      After Emperor Wen and Jing, building mausoleum nestling along mountains became popular. The rooms carved near hills and the slab-built tombs replaced the wooden outer coffin of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. In this way, the tomb doors and passages became the focus of anti-robbing. Most of the technologies have withdrawn from the historical stage. Only the method of adding stones to the soil has been inherited by the cave tombs. The anti-robbing technology of the Mausoleum of the Han Dynasty had a profound impact on later tombs. Most of the tombs after the Han Dynasty were brick-chamber and cliff tombs near hills. They inherited anti-robbing techniques such as stone-sealed doors and stone-filled passages in the Han Dynasty.

Although Emperors of the Western Han Dynasty took various measures and set up numerous organs, they still couldn't prevent the robbers, and the tomb was eventually dug. These facts show that stopping elaborate funeral is a truly effective measure.

This time, Ma Yongying, a researcher at the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, was invited to reveal the secrets of the Imperial Mausoleums of the Western Han Dynasty. 

Speaker profile:

Ma Yongying, born in July 1965, is from Xi'an, Shaanxi.

He graduated from the ideological and political education major of the social science department, Northwest University. He is currently a researcher at Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology and director of the Jingwei Base.

His main research area is Qin-Han archeology. He has been engaged in excavation and research of the Imperial Mausoleums of the Western Han Dynasty for a long time. He has successively published more than 30 academic papers and various works. He has given a series of programs in CCTV and has been widely praised by all sectors of society.