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Shi Huang

An airport is an unlikely place to search for national origins but researchers say they have uncovered the tomb of the woman behind the man who unified China – next to a major city runway.
The researchers said the tomb was believed to belong to Empress Dowager Huayang, the adoptive grandmother of Qin Shi Huang, who unified the warring states more than 2,200 years ago.
“I believe the most likely identity of the tomb owner is Empress Dowager Huayang,” Zhao Hanqing, from the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, said in a paper published in the Chinese journal Archaeology and Cultural Relics in July.
Huayang was central to Qin Shi Huang’s rise. She was the wife of a Qin prince but, with no sons, she adopted his father, Ying Yiren, an impoverished hostage prince from a rival state.
Her husband became King Xiaowen but died after a brief reign, enabling Ying Yiren to become king. He was then succeeded by his son, Qin Shi Huang.

The tomb was found in an area that had been set aside for the expansion of Xian Xianyang International Airport and although heavily looted, yielded a range of artefacts, including hundreds of pottery, bronze, iron, jade, agate and glass items.
Announcing the results to the public on Friday, Zhao said that because of the severe looting, the tomb did not yield objects that could confirm the tomb owner’s identity or identifiable human remains.
However, based on historical records and the burial system of the Qin state during the Warring States Period, archaeologists narrowed down the most likely owner of the tomb to an empress from that time.
The theory was supported by radiocarbon dating of bones from the tomb, which yielded a range of 389-208 BC, or about 2,250 years ago.
Archaeologists began surveying the site in 2018 and confirmed that it contained a large tomb with an independent cemetery.
In 2022, they excavated the northern part of the cemetery and conducted additional surveys, clarifying its overall layout.
The tomb was initially thought to belong to an emperor from the Northern Zhou era (557-581AD) but the researchers concluded that it was a royal tomb from the Qin state.
Until Huayang’s era, Qin tradition dictated that a king be buried with his queen but King Xiaowen had two wives and discontinued this practice.
He is buried 2.3km (1.4 miles) away from the airport tomb site in an area on the Xianyang Plain called Shouling.
When Empress Dowager Huayang died in 230BC, she was described as having been buried alongside King Xiaowen in Shouling.
But on Friday, Zhao said the historical references to a “combined burial” could suggest that the king and the queen were buried in two separate but nearby independent cemeteries.
The burial system from this time was a turning point in the development of the Qin royal burial system.
Its main features, including separate mausoleums for kings and queens, paved the way for the design of Qin Shi Huang’s tomb, now a World Cultural Heritage site.


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Researchers say a looted tomb near Xian’s main runway belongs to the adoptive grandmother of the country’s first emperor


Researchers say a looted tomb near Xian’s main runway belongs to the adoptive grandmother of the country’s first emperor.


Archaeology and palaeontology

Is China’s fabled Empress Dowager Huayang buried near an airport? A study says yes

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Researchers say a looted tomb near Xian’s main runway belongs to the adoptive grandmother of the country’s first emperor

Researchers say a looted tomb near Xian’s main runway belongs to the adoptive grandmother of the country’s first emperor