During the period of 1995, the archaeological team of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses tried to dig the northwest corner of "No.4 pit". According to the unearthed cultural relics, we have a more practical understanding of the No.4 pit.
According to relevant data, the first discovery of "No.4 pit" was in June-July after the discovery of No.3 pit, 1976. In the data, the detailed written report on the discovery and basic situation of "No.4 pit" is: "1From June to July, 1976, an unfinished pit was dug between No.2 and No.3 Terracotta Warriors and Horses Pit on the north side of the middle part of No.1 Terracotta Warriors and Horses Pit. The northern part of the pit and the northern part of the east and west sides are very neat and clear, and the southern part of the pit is washed by the river, and the southern line is unclear. The pit is 48 meters long from east to west, 96 meters wide from north to south, 4.8 meters deep and covers an area of 4,600 square meters. The pit is full of silted sand and gravel, and there are no architectural relics such as backfill soil, brick floor, earth partition beam and shed wood, and there are no cultural relics such as pottery figurines and pottery horses. This pit was obviously deliberately dug by man. The depth of the pit is similar to that of No.1 pit, No.2 pit and No.3 pit, and it is located 36.4 meters east of No.2 pit and 20 meters west of No.3 pit. Judging from the overall layout of the building, the layout and this pit are complete. If this pit is removed, there is a gap between Pit 2 and Pit 3. It is inferred that this pit and pits 1, 2 and 3 should be a group of burial pits excavated at the same time. " Later, some scholars called it the fourth pit of terracotta warriors.
The position, area and depth of No.4 pit learned by the archaeological team during drilling and trial excavation in 1995 are quite different from the original report.
1May, 1995, Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses Archaeological Team organized personnel to conduct a special investigation and drilling on "No.4 Pit", and exposed an area of over 70 square meters in the northwest corner of "No.4 Pit", and got a basic understanding of its shape and connotation: "No.4 Pit" is located between No.2 and No.3 Terracotta Warriors and Horses Pits, with a total area of about 75 meters from north to south and 48 meters from east to west. The pit is full of artificially filled sand and miscellaneous soil. The depth of the pit mouth is about 1.8m from the bottom of the pit, and there is a later sand and gravel accumulation layer with a thickness of 1.9m above the pit mouth. About 3 meters south of the north wall of the pit, there is also a loess partition beam, which is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, and divides the pit into two. The western wall and northern section of the pit are relatively clear, while the southern wall and eastern wall are not clear. The second pit is from south to north, the distance from the east pit to the fourth gate is only 20 cm, and the distance from the west pit to the third gate is 27 meters. The south is 26 meters from the north side of No.1 pit.
It can be clearly seen from the comparison of the excavation data and the original reported data that both are "No.4 pits", with the original reported area of 4,600 square meters and the actual area of 3,600 square meters, with a difference of 1000 square meters; In terms of location, the original reported pit is 96 meters north and south, but it is actually 75 meters, with a difference of 2 1 meter. Therefore, the location of this pit is not in the north, but in the middle of the No.2 pit and No.3 pit. In terms of depth, the original reported pit depth is 4.8m, but it is actually1.8m, with a difference of 3m. Pit spacing between Pit No.1, Pit No.2 and Pit No.3 of Terracotta Warriors is also very different. For cultural relics archaeologists, basic data is the premise of research. If we use inaccurate basic data for research, it is bound to draw a conclusion that is difficult to conform to historical facts. The deviations and mistakes that are easy to appear in the conclusion are not in the research methods, but can be attributed to the mastery of the original materials.
Through the analysis of peeling bamboo shoots layer by layer, the problem here is very clear. The "No.4 pit" is only an earth trench formed during the reign of Kanggan in the Qing Dynasty, not the proposed Terracotta Warriors and Horses pit. There is no need to discuss all the speculations about its nature. As for why the pit was backfilled in time at that time, there may be other reasons, but it is not appropriate to define it as "earth ditch in Qin Dynasty" accordingly.