Elaborate murals uncovered in 700-yr-old tomb Elaborately depicted #murals, created during the Yuan Dynasty, 700 or so years ago, have been discovered in a #tomb in Hengshan county, of North #China’s Shaanxi Province. The tomb was accidentally discovered in 2014 when a heavy downpour washed away the top layer of the stone. The tomb is located along a mountain slope in Luo Ge Tai village of Hengshan County. It is composed of a pathway with a dome-shaped chamber. The walls of the chamber are painted with pictures. The mural depicts the tomb-owner seated with his five wives, while the background is a check-patterned screen. Their outfits and the vessels on the table in front of them shed light on the ethnicity of the tomb-owner. According to excavation team leader, Miao Yifei, the tomb-owner is most likely a Mongolian, though there are other possibilities. “From their clothes, furniture, and other things, we can see influences from the Han culture. So the tomb-owner might also be Han, but wearing Mongolian clothes.” Seven of the popular legends Twenty Four Stories of Filial Piety, were painted in the surrounding areas of the main picture. Paintings depicting filial piety stories are widely seen in Yuan Dynasty tombs in north Shanxi Province and the central area of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It indicates an active cultural exchange between these three regions during that time, as well as similar customs among these places. The discovery of the tomb and murals reveals much about life in the Yuan Dynasty, in what are now provinces of Shaanxi and Shanxi, and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 09:10:00 +0000
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