page_title: Shuanggudui
section_title: Excavation and identification
hierarchical_section_title: Shuanggudui / Excavation and identification
caption_attribution_description: English: Tomb of Xiahou Zao, son of Xiahou Ying. Now located in the museum in Fuyang city, Anhui province, China. Texts and other items were found in the tomb, and the find was dubbed Shuanggudui. (2nd chamber.)
context_page_description: Shuanggudui is an archeological site located near Fuyang in China's Anhui province. Shuanggudui grave no. 1, which belongs to Xiahou Zao, the second marquis of Ruyin, was sealed in 165 BCE in the early Han dynasty. Excavated in 1977, it was found to contain a large number of texts written on bamboo strips, including fragments of the Classic of Poetry and the Songs of the South, a text on breathing exercises, a "year table" recounting historical events, a manual on dogs, a version of the I Ching that differs from the received one, and artifacts including the oldest known cosmic board, a divinatory instrument. Like Mawangdui and Guodian, two other tombs from the area of the old state of Chu, the Shuanggudui find has shed great light on the culture and practices of the early Han dynasty.
context_section_description: Shuanggudui (双古堆, literally "paired ancient tumuli") was excavated in July 1977 during the expansion of the Fuyang municipal airport in Anhui province, China. Located about two miles outside Fuyang at the time, the site was known to contain old tombs, yet it is unclear whether the excavation was pre-planned or rushed just as construction started. The digging was supervised by two archeologists from the Anhui Provincial Archaeological Relics Find Team, who discovered two tombs, one of which (Tomb 1, to the east) was found to contain texts and artifacts. A ramp 4.1 metres (13 ft) wide led to a coffin chamber measuring 9.2 metres (30 ft) north-south by 7.65 metres (25.1 ft) east-west, about half the area of the more famous Tomb 3 that had been discovered in Mawangdui in 1973.
  Some of the bronze artifacts found in Tomb 1 were marked with the name of the tomb's occupant Ruyin Hou (女［汝］陰侯), which means "Lord of Ruyin". This title had first been granted to Xiahou Ying (d. 172 BCE), who had helped Liu Bang (r. 202–195 BCE) to establish the Han dynasty. Archeologists have identified the tomb as belonging to Ying's son Xiahou Zao, the second Lord of Ruyin. Little is known about him, except that he died seven years after his father. The tomb is therefore thought to have been sealed in 165 BCE, the fifteenth year of Emperor Wen's reign.
caption: Tomb of Xiahou Zao (rear). The site of Xiahou Zao's tomb became known as Shuanggudui
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