The excavation of the tomb M1017 at Dahekou Cemetery of the Western Zhou Dynasty in Yicheng, Shanxi

The tomb M1017 is located in the southwest of the Dahekou Cemetery of the Western Zhou Dynasty in Yicheng County, Shanxi Province. It is a rectangular vertical earthen pit tomb equipped with one wooden coffin chamber and one wooden coffin. The occupant (estimated to be a male) is interred with the head to the west, underneath whom is a waist pit. The grave goods unearthed from this tomb are made of bronze, gold, tin, pottery, shell, etc. Bronzes take the bulk of the grave goods, including ritual vessels, musical instruments, weapons, tool, chariot and horse fittings, and so on; the 50 bronze vessels are concentratedly set between the coffin chamber and coffin in front of the occupant’s head. The bronze ritual vessels include 13 ding-tripods and fangding-quadripods, seven gui-tureens, one li-cauldron, four dou-stemmed bowls, two basins, one yu-basin, two spoons, seven jue-cups, two gu-goblets, three zun-vessels, three you-wine jars, zhi-cup, jia-wine vessel, lei-wine jar, pot, ladle, pan-basin and he-pitcher, one of each of them. Many bronzes bear inscriptions of “bo 伯 (earl)” or “Ba Bo 霸伯 (Earl of the Ba State)”, hinting that the occupant of this tomb might be a lord of the Ba State. The date of this tomb is the early stage of the mid Western Zhou Dynasty.