Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1994 - 89

of the most significant
of the twentieth
discoveries
archaeological
- the tomb of a
b.c. Chinese
ruler containing
percentury
fifth-century
and
wind
the
cussion,
instruments,
string,
including
largest
assemblage
- is
of bronze
bells ever recovered
into
unprecedented
providing
insights

One

aristocratic
pre-Imperial
in Hubei
Suizhou
Province
reported

fully
a sophisticated

in Chinese
appreciation

culture.

in September
the tomb
China,

Found

in central

literature.

scholarly
of music

and

recovered, their remarkable
range of instruments
state of preservation, and the wealth of musical information supplied by the inscriptions on the bells have
surprised both Chinese and Western musicologists.
Physicists have marveled at the acoustical properties
of the two-tone bells and the technical and musical expertise that went into their production. In fact, the
discovery has led to an entirely new understanding of
the history of ancient Chinese musical instruments,
music, and musicology.

Study

1977
has

near

only
of the instruments

the

city" of
been

recently
has revealed

The
principles.
an irregularly-shaped
pit, roughly 69 by 53.5 feet,
lined with rows of massive timbers. Cranes were
brought in to remove the timbers from the top of the
tomb, which was divided into four chambers. By the
end of May the entire burial was exposed. Water had
flooded the chambers, and the contents were mired in
knee-deep mud.
Along one end of a large central room stood an Lshaped three-tiered bell rack (24.5 feet by 11 feet and up
to 8.7 feet high) made from massive lacquered wooden
knowledge

of musical

'
B
i
A crowd gathers to witness the removal of timbersfrom
the exposed tomb of the Marquis Yi of Zeng.

A crane hoists one of the 22 coffinsfound in the tomb.
Twenty-oneof the coffins held the bones of women.

The tomb was found by a detachment of the People's Liberation Army sent to level a low hill for use as
a factory site. The soldiers came upon a layer of gray
earth under reddish sandstone. Wondering whether
the soil marked the earth fill of an ancient burial, the
troops reported their discovery to a provincial cultural
relics bureau. Little was made of their report, and the
troops continued their work until February of the following year, when they hit upon large stone slabs,
clearly laid down by human hands. Once again, the find
was reported to the local authorities. This time, archaeologists were sent to the site where they identified
a large stone-lined burial pit dug into the hill. Formal
excavations began in May of that year. After removing
the topmost covering of stone slabs, excavators had to
dig through protective layers of brown and gray earth,
fine white clay, and charcoal before reaching the tomb,

beams, capped and reinforced by bronze sheaths and
supported by bronze figures on domed bases. Sixty-four
bronze bells on the rack were in graduated sizes, and
most still hung on bronze suspension armatures attached to the rack. Two wooden poles, used to strike
the large bells on the bottom frame, were propped
against the rack. A large drum lay in the mud, its 11.3foot support post having snapped in the middle. Near
the bell rack was a two-tiered bronze stand from which
hung 32 chime stones, also in graduated sizes. Many of
them had crumbled or shattered. Two smaller drums,
seven 25-string zitherlike instruments, four mouth organs, two panpipes, and two flutes were also found elsewhere in the central chamber.
The bones of a middle-aged male, the principal occupant of the tomb and presumably the owner of this
elaborate group of musical instruments, were found in

44 Archaeology

I
S
eu
S

Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1994

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1994