A vast ancient tomb discovered beside one of China’s major airports may be the burial place of Empress Dowager Huayang, the influential adoptive grandmother of Qin Shi Huang, the ruler who unified China more than 2,200 years ago.
Archaeologists believe the heavily looted royal tomb near Xi’an Xianyang International Airport most likely belonged to Huayang, a powerful figure whose family relationships helped shape the succession that ultimately brought China’s first emperor to the throne.
The tomb was discovered on land earmarked for an expansion of the airport, placing the ancient burial complex close to its modern runways.
Despite centuries of looting, archaeologists recovered hundreds of objects from the site, including pottery and artefacts made from bronze, iron, jade, agate and glass.
Researchers have not found an inscription, identifiable human remains or another object that definitively reveals who was buried there. However, evidence from the tomb’s design, historical records and scientific dating has led them towards one prominent candidate.
“I believe the most likely identity of the tomb owner is Empress Dowager Huayang,” Zhao Hanqing of the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology said in a research paper.
A tomb dating back around 2,250 years
Radiocarbon dating of bones recovered from the tomb produced a date range of 389 to 208 BC, placing the burial firmly within the period when Huayang lived. Empress Dowager Huayang died in 230 BC.
Archaeologists began surveying the site in 2018, establishing that it contained a large tomb accompanied by its own independent cemetery.
Further excavation of the northern part of the cemetery took place in 2022, while additional surveys helped researchers reconstruct the wider layout of the burial complex.
The tomb was originally suspected to belong to an emperor of the Northern Zhou dynasty, which ruled centuries later between AD 557 and 581.
Subsequent investigation instead led archaeologists to conclude that it was a royal burial associated with the ancient Qin state during the Warring States period.
Historical records and comparisons with Qin burial traditions were then used to narrow the potential occupant to a woman of imperial status.
The woman behind a dynasty
Huayang occupied an important position in the dynastic events that preceded Qin Shi Huang’s rise.
She was married to the Qin prince who later became King Xiaowen. The couple had no sons, and Huayang adopted Ying Yiren, an impoverished Qin prince who had been sent to another state as a political hostage.
Following King Xiaowen’s brief reign, Ying Yiren succeeded him as king. His own son would eventually take the throne and become Qin Shi Huang.
Qin Shi Huang went on to defeat the remaining rival states and establish the Qin dynasty in 221 BC, becoming the first ruler of a politically unified imperial China.
That makes Huayang the emperor’s adoptive grandmother and an important figure in the chain of succession that preceded his rise.
A burial mystery near the runway
One question facing researchers is why Huayang would have been buried in a separate cemetery.
Historical accounts describe her as being buried alongside King Xiaowen at Shouling on the Xianyang Plain.
The king’s burial site lies approximately 2.3 kilometres from the newly studied tomb.
Researchers now suggest that the historical description of a “combined burial” may not necessarily mean the royal couple occupied the same cemetery. Instead, it could refer to separate but neighbouring mausoleum complexes.
Such an arrangement would fit an important transformation taking place in Qin royal burial customs at the time.
Earlier tradition called for a king to be buried with his queen, but King Xiaowen had two wives and the practice was discontinued.
The emerging system of separate mausoleums for kings and queens subsequently became an important feature of Qin royal burial architecture.
Researchers say those changes ultimately helped lay the foundations for the burial system used for Qin Shi Huang himself.
His enormous mausoleum near Xi’an, constructed after he became China’s first emperor, would later become famous around the world as the home of the Terracotta Army.
While the airport tomb cannot yet be conclusively attributed to Huayang, researchers say its date, scale, location and burial layout make the empress dowager its most likely occupant.
If that identification is correct, the discovery would provide a rare archaeological connection to the royal family whose political manoeuvring preceded the unification of China more than two millennia ago.
Sources : SCMP
