Maiko: Lady
Dai’s Tomb at Mawangdui
1.
The Tomb
Location
The Mawangdui tomb is located in 4 kilometer east of
which is the capital city of
Characteristics
The tombs dates from the Western Han (25 CE to 220 CE). The Mawangdui tomb
was excavated in 1972 and 1973-74. The tomb's dates are from 193 - 140 BC.
The body of Lady
Dai
The preserved perfectly body of a woman was
lying in the first tomb of Mawangdui. The preservation of Marquis Dai's wife's
dead body was unusually good.
Surprisingly, her skin was still elastic. When pushed by the finger it was
slightly indented but quickly regained its common. appearance.
Lacquer wares
Among the funerary objects there were 184 lacquer wares altogether in the
tomb, and 134 of them were decorated. Moreover, there were 15 kinds of lacquer
wares only in the category of table wares.
Funeral ritual in the Ancient times
Ancient exploited classes believed that the
soul will go to the heaven after they had died; moreover, they wished that
their own bones remain eternally intact to receive blessings. Womens’ dead
bodies were decorated according to ancient Chinese etiquette. The whole body
was encompassed by various robes, summing up to about 20 layers of cloth.
All these kinds of ceremonies from ancient times preserved each body perfectly.
After dressing the body, people dedicate foods to it. A monk who was holding
a vessel with alcohol was standing at the head and stewards who were carrying
alcohol and dry meat followed him to the temple. Then foods were displayed
to the east side of the deceased. T
2. Foods in the tomb
Preservation
The preservation of foodstuffs was necessary
because the food was in the tomb with the body for the long time. However,
it was also necessary to have obtained the same food that the person ate during
her or his life.
Aesthetics and variety of foods
Beautifully displayed tableware with chopsticks and a skewer made by bamboo
were affixed on the tray.
There are tripods which had stripes of lotus root, vases which had contained
some sort of wine, boxes which had some sort of cake-like-food and were filled
with rice, and deep dishes which had ox-ribs, pheasant bones, wheaten foods,
mandarin-fish's bones and the shoulder-blade of an ox.
The gastronomic culture in this age was enhanced.
3. Agriculture in
The artifacts from 14000 years before the beginnings of rice culture were
discovered in the plain in
Ancient times
In the Han period, the situation of farm
villages had changed with a development in the rice farming agriculture. The
farm management gradually became small units separated from the village unit
when class differentiation began to progress. Rice was the most important
grain in the area along the
Present
days
Foods in
They also have pickled vegetables and a fiery hot sauce.
4. Conclusion
There was a high culture in the Western Han period in