Archaeologists found 24 teeth in the ancient tomb, but after confirmation, they discovered that these teeth did not belong to the same person.
In the late 1989s, farmers in Duong Chau town, Tan Can district, Jiangxi province (China) accidentally discovered some bronze ceramics during sand mining. This immediately aroused the high attention of the local cultural relics department, so they recovered the bronze objects discovered by the people.
A bronze object found by people (Photo: Baike.baidu)
At the same time, archaeologists also quickly arrived at the scene to conduct surveys and discovered an ancient tomb. This mausoleum is dated to the Shang Dynasty and is 3,000 years old.
Through the burial items in the mausoleum, it can be seen that the owner is highly likely to be a noble. However, unfortunately, the body inside the coffin was completely decomposed, so the identity of the owner could not be found.
It is known that the burial items in this tomb reflect some cultural characteristics of the southern region during the Shang Dynasty. In addition, the jade artifacts excavated from the tomb also show the excellent sculpting skills of Southern jade carvers at that time.
At the same time, archaeologists later collected more than 1,500 cultural relics from the tomb, including 486 bronze objects and 754 jade objects. The unearthed cultural relics are extremely diverse in type and exquisitely crafted, including sacrificial vessels, musical instruments, agricultural tools, and weapons.
Some weapons have quite special shapes
In particular, a bronze item named the Two-Tailed Bronze Tiger of the Shang Dynasty surprised all scholars.
Bronze two-tailed tiger unearthed
The two-tailed bronze tiger of the Shang Dynasty was 53.5cm long and weighed 6.2kg. The animal is depicted with a large, majestic mouth as if ready to attack the enemy at any time. On the tiger’s back, there was also a small bird perched on it. The relationship between the majestic tiger and the little bird remains a mystery, evoking the imagination of posterity.
Characteristic patterns of the Shang Dynasty are carved on the tiger’s back
On the back of the “two-tailed tiger” there are many complex patterns that create a harmonious whole. These are all the most commonly used patterns during the Shang Dynasty. This bronze tiger is indeed a special bronze cultural artifact that has never been discovered before.