From June to July, the archaeological work in tombs of Huangnitang has been completed by the cooperation of Hunan Archaeology and local archaeological teams under the approval of the National Cultural Heritage Administration.

A total of 11 tombs from the Hang Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty have been excavated on the site. It is worth mentioning that a house of the East Han Dynasty was also found, which is the first of its kind in Chenzhou and of great importance.

The 11 tombs include three from the Eastern Han Dynasty, six from the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the Southern Dynasties and 2 from the Tang Dynasty, which are located on the southeast side of a low hill in Lishushan Village, Chenjiang Town, Beihu District, Chenzhou City. The tombs are basically oriented toward the northeast without obvious distribution rules. The coffins and human bones in the tombs all decayed.

The three Eastern Han tombs are all from the middle and late period of the dynasty, including one earth pit tomb and two brick-chambered tombs. The two brick-chambered tombs are adjacent to each other and of large scale, composed of sloping tomb passages, sealing doors, corridors, front and back chambers.

The unearthed objects in the two brick-chambered tombs are porcelains, model wares, iron wares, copper wares, stringed accessories, silver wares and the like. The thin green glaze was found on the surface of potteries and model wares. The tombs were made of grey bricks decorated with rhombus and geometrical patterns by high-level firing technology.

Six tombs from the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the Southern Dynasties have also been excavated and cleaned in Beihu District. The tombs are single-chamber brick structures, but have been damaged or stolen. These relatively small tombs consist of tomb passages, sealing doors, corridors, tomb chamber and drainage ditches. The inscriptions of “the third year of Yonghe” and “the 10th year of Yixi” were also found in the tombs. Due to being robbed, few funeral objects have been unearthed from the six tombs, which are mainly celadon porcelain wares. The tombs were made of grey bricks and red bricks decorated with leaf vein and grid patterns by low-level firing technology.

The other two tombs are from the early and middle-late period of the Tang Dynasty. Both tombs are single-chamber brick tombs with a small burial scale, consisting of tomb passages, sealing doors, tomb chamber and drainage ditches. The unearthed objects are porcelains, iron wares, copper wares, and silver wares, most of which are porcelains.

Among them, the porcelains discovered from the tomb in the middle and late Tang Dynasty are basically preserved. There are 6 pieces in total, including colored porcelain boxes and pots with relatively small sizes, on which colored decorative patterns and shape features fit the characteristics of typical porcelains from Changsha kilns in the Tang Dynasty.

A house has also been excavated at the archaeological site. In the collapsed debris near the wall base, plate tiles, semicircular tiles and 2 eaves tiles also have been found. Plate tiles and semicircular tiles are decorated with cord pattern, cloth marks and dent marks can be seen on the inner side of the plate tiles. The eaves tiles with cloud pattern were damaged. The house foundation was made of grey bricks decorated with rhombus patterns by high-level firing technology.

Given the long-time natural scour and man-made sabotage, it is conjectured that the room door is likely to be located in the northeast corner of the house site. No living relics were found in or around the house site.

According to the ornamentation of the unearthed objects, the house, presumably, is in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, which is basically the same as the tomb. It is large, covering an area of nearly 64 square meters and located in the northeast of the tomb passages, which is likely to be an attached facility for worship or mourning. The discovery of eaves tiles which were used in high-grade buildings indicates that tomb’s owner had higher status.

The time of the tombs and the house site in Huangnitang is clear, and its unearthed objects are important supplements to the cultural relics from Han to Sui and Tang Dynasty in Hunan province, providing important archaeological materials for the tombs, buildings and cultural studies in southern Hunan.