The unique fish scale armor found in the tomb of Haihunhou——

More than 6,000 pieces of armor were found in the tomb of Liu He, the Marquis of Haihun, in Nanchang, the capital of East China’s Jiangxi Province. Fish scale armor is made of lacquered iron, copper and leather. Han Dynasty armor previously found in tombs was made of a single material. This is the first piece of armor found from this period that was composed of multiple materials.

Liu He was the grandson of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and the son of King Changyi, so he was not the direct heir to the throne. In 88 BC, after his father’s death, he inherited the throne and became the king of Changyi at the age of four. According to later historical sources (supporters of his political opponents), he was a waster from his teenage years, running with bad guys and never taking good advice. When his uncle Emperor Zhao died without a son and appointed Liu He as emperor, the powerful general and regent Huo Guang regarded him as a useful idiot. His reign lasted a full 27 days, from July 18 to August 14, 74 BC. He was deposed, with articles of impeachment charging him with 1,127 counts of misconduct and stripping him of his title. The next emperor eventually relented and made him Marquis of Haihun in 63 BC, which had the significant advantage of keeping him away from the capital. He died in 59 B.C.

His grave was discovered in 2011 as part of a rapid rescue excavation in response to reports that thieves had stolen a rich vein of archaeological material. It is the largest and best-preserved tomb of the Western Han Dynasty discovered so far. During the years of excavation since its discovery, more than 20,000 cultural relics have been unearthed, including 2 million copper coins. It is the largest amount of gold unearthed in a Han tomb. Goose-shaped lamp, copper lamp, two lacquer screens (one of which contains the earliest known portrait of Confucius), 12 shields, 5,200 The block contains wooden tablets and bamboo slips of poetry, the Analects of Confucius and other writings of Confucius, historical chronicles of divination and game manuals.

The tomb contains many grave goods and is still being excavated, and the unearthed cultural relics are still in the process of investigation and protection. Two years ago, the scale armor was discovered in the armory on the west side of the tomb. It is a large pile with countless swords in it. Rising groundwater levels in Poyang Lake posed a threat to the metal and organic materials in the armor, so the entire pile of armor was removed in clods of earth to be excavated under laboratory conditions at the Han Dynasty Haihun Marquis Ruins Museum in Nanchang.

During two years of laboratory excavations, the archaeological team has sorted out and counted nearly 7,000 individual armor scales. Paint traces found indicate that the armor and swords were stored together in large lacquer boxes, which decayed over time, leaving behind their contents.

Bai Rongjin, a researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said, “The smallest armor piece is only 1 centimeter wide and 0.2 centimeters thick.” […]

Usually, the size of armor ranges from 4 to 10 centimeters. Even the exquisite iron armor pieces unearthed from the tomb of Prince Liu Sheng of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC to AD 25) are 2-3 centimeters wide. Bai explained that the presence of smaller armor fragments indicates that more armor fragments were needed to create the armor and that the forging process was more elaborate.