Among the artifacts excavated from a 1,700-year-old tomb in Jiangxi Province, China, there is a wooden tablet inscribed with the name of the individual interred in the grave.
The tablet, measuring 3.2 cm in width, 24.7 cm in length, and 0.7 cm in thickness, has allowed archaeologists to identify the tomb’s occupant as Lei Tiao Poyang. The director of the Jiangxi Archaeological Institute stated that a similarly named tablet was also discovered in the tomb, but archaeologists were unable to decipher the inscriptions on it.
The tablets are among over 50 artifacts found within the tomb, which include 9 fragments of a lacquer work, 10 pieces of a bronze object, 12 porcelain items, and 24 wooden fragments. The abundance of such rich artistic works indicates a thriving economy during the Jin Dynasty (265-420).
This also provides evidence that the economic center of China gradually shifted southward of the Yangtze River during the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties (396-589).
M.T.
