Imperial sacrifices reveal intriguing facts

Remains of rare animals, including pandas, found at Han Dynasty tomb hint at changes to climate, environment, Wang Ru reports.

Early in August, a hashtag about panda remains found in Xi'an, Shaanxi province in one of the sacrificial pits dug for Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) went viral on Sina Weibo, China's popular micro-blogging platform. A lot of people expressed surprise that pandas existed 2,000 years ago.

"It seems that people are viewing the find from a modern perspective," says Hu Songmei, a researcher with the Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology, who studies animal archaeology.

"The panda is now considered a national treasure, with only a small number existing in the world, and it attracts a lot of attention.

"But in the past, the climate and environment were more suitable. As a result, there would have been more pandas, and they were probably not as valued as they are today," she adds.

There are actually more important findings from the sacrificial pits dug for Emperor Wen and his mother Empress Dowager Bo, which were excavated in 2021-22 and 2020-22, respectively, including the bones of 40 high-value animals, pottery and figurines.

Hu says that although it is not permissible to actively excavate imperial tombs in China, researchers can examine their sacrificial pits to find out more about them.

In 2021, the National Cultural Heritage Administration announced that the Jiangcun Grand Tomb in Xi'an, a large mausoleum found many decades ago, but whose occupant had yet to be identified, was the resting place of Emperor Wen. The tomb is referred to as "Baling" in historical records.

The announcement came as a surprise, as ancient sources seemed to suggest that Baling was in a different location, about two kilometers away from the tomb.

Emperor Wen's mother and wife are also buried nearby. So far, researchers have found over 100 sacrificial pits for the emperor, and around 380 for his mother. The mother's tomb is referred to historically as "Nanling".

Hu says the pits that have already been excavated contain the remains of animals, and that those dug for the emperor seem to be larger than those for his mother. While there is no clear reason why this should be the case, it is possible that larger pits were deemed more commensurate with the emperor's elevated status.

This is not the first time that panda remains have been found in a sacrificial pit. In 1975, excavations of one of the Empress Dowager Bo's pits also revealed traces of the animal, but as it had been broken into by grave robbers previously, only part of a single skeleton was intact.

The newly discovered panda remains are complete and show that it was placed on its side in a rectangular brick enclosure, with its head facing toward the emperor.

For Hu, the remains of an Asian tapir, an animal now extinct in China, is a much more important discovery. She vividly remembers the first time she saw its bones.

"It was an afternoon, and a member of the archaeological team asked me to take a look at some remains they had just discovered, thinking they might have belonged to a camel. But the moment I saw them, I realized they belonged to a tapir, as I had studied tapir fossils and recognized the shape."

Hu was surprised by the finding and quickly realized its value.

"Tapir remains have been found before in other sites around China, like the skull and jawbone unearthed at the Yinxu Ruins in Anyang, Henan province, but this is the best-preserved example found so far.

"The tapir has died out in China, but its presence here in the past shows that the climate and environment has changed a lot since then," says Hu.

After preliminary morphological comparisons, data analysis and ancient DNA identification, the bones of 40 kinds of animals, including red cranes, green peacocks, tortoises, golden monkeys, tigers, mainland serows, Indian bison, yaks and antelopes, have been found, and are believed to have lived in the royal gardens.

Western Han (206 BC-AD 24) poet and musician Sima Xiangru, who lived during the 2nd century BC, described the Shanglin Gardens, a large royal garden, and many of the animals he mentioned were also found in the sacrificial pits, Hu says.

"The discovery of a large number of such valuable animals, each buried in their own sacrificial pit, is groundbreaking in China," she says, adding that many animal sacrifices found at tombs elsewhere were buried in one large pit, instead of individually.

"Through the discovery of these animals, we can get a better picture of the environment and climate around the site during the time of the Western Han Dynasty. Some of the animals now living in southern China were able to live in northwestern China during the reign of Emperor Wen. This means the local climate was hotter and more humid at the time.

"Moreover, the existence of macaques, golden monkeys, tigers, pandas and deer suggests that multiple forms of landscaping were present in the Shanglin Garden, including forests, bamboo groves, grassland, rivers, lakes and swamps… so this early royal garden was host to a wide variety of flora and fauna," she adds.

As the area's environment and climate changed, and human activity increased, some of the animals gradually disappeared from what is now central Shaanxi.

Hu adds that while some of the animals sacrificed had likely been trapped locally, others had probably been sent as tributes from vassal states of the Western Han Dynasty.

Historically, the custom of burying animals to accompany the dead was seen as a demonstration of wealth. Hu says that it was common for the wealthy to be buried with ordinary livestock, like pigs, sheep and cows, but for royalty, being buried with high-value animals was a symbol of social status.

According to Cao Long, a researcher at the Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology who was part of the Baling excavation, there is a long history of taking animals from royal gardens for use as sacrifices.

He adds that while historical literature suggests that Emperor Wen was frugal, and cut back on many of the decorations for his tomb, it still conformed to the expectations for an emperor's tomb, and the large number of animal sacrifices is proof of this.

Contact the writer at wangru1@chinadaily.com.cn