Cemetery of Xijin Family, Jianyaomiao Village, Xinhe Town, Quzhou City

The Xijin family cemetery of Jianyaomiao Village was accidentally discovered by local villagers when leveling the land in June 2015. The Nanjing Museum, Xuzhou Museum and Luzhou Museum formed a joint archeological team to carry out rescue archeological excavations of the cemetery. After careful investigation, exploration and excavation, a total of 9 noble tombs of the Western Jin Dynasty were found in the cemetery. All of them were brick tombs with front and rear rooms with sloped burial pits, and they were complete in structure. They are the only Xijin tombs in the country that have not been stolen. As the dynasty burial ground of Jianyao Temple was kept intact and undisturbed, the location of the funerary items was clear. More than 300 pieces of funerary items including gold and silver ware, bronze ware, iron ware, porcelain, glassware, lacquer ware, stone ware, nautilus, and urn were unearthed . At the same time, southern celadon and northern sauce-glazed porcelain were found in the tombs, especially the discovery of celadon barns and flat pots, which reflected the northern transmission of southern celadon during the Western Jin Dynasty, as well as cultural exchanges and fusion represented by the transfer of north-south commodities.

Nautilus cup

Glass Bowl

At the expert demonstration meeting of the archaeological achievements of the Western Jin noble cemetery of Jianyao Temple on January 12, more than ten archeologists and scholars from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Nanjing Museum, Luoyang Institute of Archaeology, and Xuzhou Museum agreed that the Xuzhou area serves as a connection. The discovery of the Western Jin cemetery in Jianyao Temple in the middle transition zone between Lunan (the south of Shandong province) and Sunan (the south of Jiangsu province) made up the blank of archaeology in the Western Jin Dynasty in this area, and established the archeological relationship between Lunan and Sunan in the Western Jin Dynasty.

The Western Jin Cemetery of Xinhe Jianyao Temple is the only cemetery in the Western Jin Dynasty that has not been stolen. The historical information is extremely complete and rich. The cemetery of the Western Jin Dynasty in Jianyao Temple is intact and the relationship between the placement of funerary objects and the tomb is clear, which is of great significance to the study of the funeral system and burial system in the Western Jin Dynasty. In particular, the Nautilus Cup from the Pacific or Indian Ocean and the glass bowl from Western Sasanian Persia show that the Maritime Silk Road had radiated to the Xuzhou area as early as 1700 years ago. At the same time, the southern celadon and northern sauce-glazed porcelain were produced together. It reflects the northern spread of southern celadon during the Western Jin Dynasty, as well as cultural exchanges and integration represented by the transfer of north and south commodities. The archeological excavation of the Western Jin noble cemetery in Jianyao Temple is a particularly significant gain in the archeological history of Western Jin in Jiangsu and is of great significance even in the history of Western Jin archeology in China.