The Dian Kingdom was a polity located on a handful of lakeshores in the eastern Yunnan province of China between ~500-109 BC, when it was conquered by the Han Dynasty. Historical records of the polity are from the Han Dynasty Shiji, a largely political tract written for the Han emperor by Sima Qian from 145-90 BC.
Archaeological records from Dian settlements are incomplete, as few have been found, and none of those have been fully excavated. What we know of them indicates they were clusters of lake dwellings, built of perishable materials near the lake shores. Much of what is known about the society is from the cemeteries, because they are far more visible.
- Read more about the Dian Kingdom and Culture
To date, there have been ~1,000 Dian culture burials excavated from cemeteries, and a few hundred elite burials. The most information which has been published in English (Yao 2005) comes from four cemetery sites: Shizhaishan, Lijiashan, Tianzimiao and Shibeicun. These cemeteries are group cemeteries, with between 20 and 100, usually located on the tops of small hills rising from the lake plain. Many individual interments, particularly those of elite personages, are covered by earthen mounds.
Early Dian culture burials were vertical pit tombs with a wide range of burial goods, including distinctive bronzes, small sculptures, forearm armor, buckle ornaments and plaques decorated with animal combat scenes, seals, vessels and gourd-shaped "sheng" musical instruments, farm tools and bronze weaponry. Large bronze drums and containers for keeping cowrie shells are characteristic of the most elite burials, which also include inner and outer coffins, decorated with brightly colored lacquered patterns.
After the Han dynasty conquest of Yunnan province in 109 BC, burials by and large followed Han dynasty patterns: that of brick edifices with multiple chambers covered with burial mounds up to 10 meters (~32 feet) in height. Grave goods after the conquest include traditional Eastern Han dynasty artifacts, such as mirrors, coins, various ceramic and bronze vessels, bronze censers, lamps, and ceramic sculptures featuring humans, stoves, cultivated fields, domestic animals and birds, dwellings and storehouses.
Shizhaishan
Shizhaishan is a large cemetery of the Dian kingdom, used between the 3rd century BC through early 1st century AD and located on Shizhai Hill. The cemetery covers the top of the hill, an area of 500x200 m (1640x660 ft). Shizhaishan is five kilometers (3 miles) west of the modern town of Jincheng in Jinning county of Yunnan province, southwestern China.
Twenty-one burials have been excavated at Shizhaishan, nearly all in outstretched position on their back. Larger tombs were placed in rectangular wood coffins, many of them painted with patterns drawn in black, green and vermillion lacquer. Grave plot size varies with the elite status of the burial, measured by the contents and quality of the burial goods. Six burials have the largest grave plots, between 7.8-10 square meters, 11 range from 2-7 m2. Five of the second group are set apart from the others by inner and outer lacquered coffins. A total of 5,000 burial goods have been recovered from the cemetery, mostly bronzes and objects of lacquer, gold, iron, jade, pottery, stone and pearls.
Tomb 6 excavated in 1957 was evidently the burial of the king at the time of the Han conquest. The plot measured 4.2 m (13.8 ft) in length and 1.9 m (6.2 ft) in width, with a 10 m (32 ft) burial mound over it. The body was held in an inner lacquered coffin, and an outer wooden coffin. A total of 250 grave goods, bronze serving ware, tools, weapons, musical instrucments and ornamental works, six bronze chime bells. Mirrors and coins from Han culture also included.
Most interestingly, Tomb 6's grave goods included a gold seal with an inscription reading "Seal of the King of Dian": this item is mentioned in the Shiji as having been a gift from Emperor Han Wudi at the time of conquest.
Lijiashan
Lijiashan is one of the most opulent cemeteries of the Dian culture, located in Jiangchuan county of Yunnan province, near Fuxian Lake, about 15 km (9 mi) from Jianchuan city and 40 km (25 mi) south of Shizhaishan. Excvations at Lijiashan uncovered 27 burials in 1972 and 60 burials in 1991-1992.
Out of the 87 burials at Lijiashan, only sixteen had one or fewer objects. Most of the burials are shaft or vertical pit graves, with plots between 0 and 2.75 m2. Seventeen of the plots range between 2.75-8 m2; and seven between 8 and 16m2. Two are significantly larger, more than 20 m2. The most elaborate of the graves consists of a lacquer inner and wooden outer coffin, with a secondary ledge placed around the grave perimenter. The size of the graves suggests a significantly stratified society, confirmed by grave good contents.
More than 4,000 bronze objects were recovered from these 86 graves, including bronze vessels, weapons, tools, everyday utensils, musical instruments and horse stirrups. Grave goods also included a total of 4,000 jades, 300 iron goods, 6,600 gold and silver pieces, 21 stone objects and more than 10,000 agates.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to Dian Culture, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Allard F. 1999. The archaeology of Dian: trends and tradition. Antiquity 73(279):77-85.
Yang X. 2004. Cemeteries of the Dian People at Shihaishan, Lijiashan and Yangputou, Yunnan Province. In: Yang X, editor. Chinese Archaeology in the Twentieth Century: New Perspectives on China's Past. New Haven: Yale University Press. p 267-270.
Yao A. 2005. Scratching beneath iconographic and textual clues: A reconsideration of the social hierarchy in the Dian culture of Southwestern China. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 24(1):378-405.
Yao A. 2005. Scratching beneath iconographic and textual clues: A reconsideration of the social hierarchy in the Dian culture of Southwestern China. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 24(1):378-405.
Yao A. 2010. Recent Developments in the Archaeology of Southwestern China. Journal of Archaeological Research 18(3):203-239.
