There is a major archaeological discovery in Yang Di's tomb in Yangzhou: Hou Yaozong's crown ornaments contain cotton.

Yesterday afternoon, this newspaper held a 12 lecture in the lecture hall of Yangzhou Shuangbo Museum jointly planned by Yangzhou Cultural Relics Bureau, Yangzhou Museum Association and Yangzhou Museum. Shu Jiaping, director of Yangzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, explained the excavation and preliminary study of Yang Di's tomb.

There are two ponds, which may be related to Emperor Yang Di and his wife. Tomb of Yang Di and Xiao Hou discovered in Cao Zhuang, Yangzhou. Shu Jiaping, director of Yangzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that this was a rescue excavation in line with the basic construction. The Sui and Tang Tombs of Cao Zhuang in Yangzhou are located in Cao Zhuang Formation, Situ Village, Xihu Town, Hanjiang River. The location of the tomb is called Houtou Mountain, and the original terrain is relatively high.

During the investigation, archaeologists were surprised that there was no legend about the mausoleum of Emperor Yang Di. During the visit, I heard that there are two ponds near Yang Di and Xiao Hou's tomb. The pond in the west is called Tang Ming, and the pond in the east is called Jiaotang. The location of these two ponds reminds people of the location of these two tombs-the tomb of Emperor Yang Di is in the west and the tomb of Hou Yaozong is in the east. In addition, the emperor is called, Jiaohe is similar. Are there stories in these two ponds? Shu Jiaping said that archaeological work is a rigorous scientific work, and they are also studying it.

The third brick tomb is the same period as Hou Yaozong's tomb. The mounds where Yang Di's tomb and Xiao Hou's tomb are located are artificially piled. Shu Jiaping said that according to the excavation, the way to build Yang Di's tomb in Sui Dynasty is to dig shallow holes in raw soil, repair brick houses, and pile rammed soil while repairing brick houses, and reserve a tomb passage when piling rammed soil. After burial, close the door, fill the tomb passage with soil, and finally seal the soil to form a mound. The construction of the whole tomb should be a complete process, and the rammed soil should be close to the brick wall of the tomb. Building mound tombs is a typical practice of high-grade tombs in South China. Hou Yaozong's tomb was buried after the mound was dug, which is also in line with historical records.

Although more than 10 ancient tombs have been excavated in the work area around the tomb, only one tomb related to Xiao's tomb has been discovered. About 80 meters northwest of Yang Di's tomb, a brick tomb was found, and only a few cultural relics were unearthed. The shape of this brick tomb is similar to that of Xiao Hou's tomb and bricks. The fragments of gray pottery unearthed, especially the mouth of the pottery jar, are very similar to Hou Yaozong's tomb. We speculate that the third brick tomb and Hou Yaozong's tomb belong to the same period.

After archaeological exploration and excavation, no cemetery signs such as cemetery, Shinto and Zhao Gou were found within the scope of work.

There is a new discovery in xiaohouguan decoration. More than 400 precious cultural relics, such as epitaphs, jade articles, bronzes, pottery and lacquerware, were unearthed from the tombs of Yang Di and Xiao Houguan, which were rare among cotton in the Tang Dynasty. Shu Jiaping said that after the laboratory archaeology of Xiao Houguan's ornaments by Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics Protection, preliminary results have been achieved. About two-thirds of Hou Yaozong's crown ornaments have been cleared, and fragments such as 12 pieces of copper hairpin, 1 piece of copper incense burner, 1 piece of copper lamp, 1 piece of forehead support, 2 pieces of bobbin and several flowers have been unearthed. Ornaments have various shapes, such as water drops and lotus flowers.

In addition to bronze censers and lamps, these cultural relics, such as bronze hairpin, foreheads, temples, flowers, etc., should be part of the crown ornaments after archaeological cleaning in the laboratory. The preliminary study shows that the production process of Xiao Hou's crown ornaments includes hammering, twisting, inlaying, beading, gold plating, polishing and carving. The complexity of components and exquisite craftsmanship far exceed imagination. In addition, there is a new discovery. Shu Jiaping said that the filler suspected of cotton was exposed at the fracture of copper hairpin, and it was cotton after microscopic observation and infrared spectrum analysis. According to the scanning electron microscope image, the microscopic characteristics of cotton in copper hairpin are consistent with those of modern cotton. Shu Jiaping believes that this is of great significance in archaeology: cotton unearthed in the Tang Dynasty is extremely rare at present, and the appearance of cotton in Xiaohouguan ornaments fills the gap to some extent.