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What is the difference between horizontal cave tombs and vertical cave tombs?

Horizontal tombs are horizontal burials, so the structure of the tomb is semi-underground or above ground.

Among them, it is common for horizontal cave type tombs and horizontal mouth type tombs to use one side of the stone chamber wall to house the deceased. However, horizontal cave type tombs have corridors, and horizontal mouth type tombs use the wall directly. As an entrance, there is only a tomb passage outside the stone chamber.

A vertical pit tomb is a relatively regular rectangular or square earth pit dug downward from the ground. Shaft tombs appeared in the late Paleolithic Age and gradually decreased in the late Warring States Period. It appeared relatively early, and the tomb was upright rectangular or square

In the Han Dynasty, horizontal caves were commonly used as tombs, and tomb chambers were built with bricks and stones, imitating real-life houses in shape.

Through the analysis of the tomb shape, it can be seen that these tombs have transitioned from a symmetrical layout along the central axis to a lateral asymmetrical layout, and have evolved from the characteristics of tombs with vertical pits to completely horizontal tombs.

Extended information

1. Dajingpo Cliff Burial is now a cultural relic protection unit of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture. Located at Dajingpo, Baigushui Village, Changliang Township, it is called "Shenxian Cave" by the locals. The 20 tombs are concentrated on a limestone cliff 20 meters wide and 15 meters high. The lowest point is 2 meters above the ground and the highest point is 20 meters above the ground. It is the only cliff burial site in Jianshi County that is not on the river bank.

The tombs here are mainly divided into two types: horizontal pit type and square pit type. Among them, there are 12 horizontal pit tombs, and the horizontal pit type tombs are located above the square pit tombs.

According to actual measurements of two tombs that are low to the ground, the horizontal tomb is 2.8 meters wide, 1.4 meters high, and 2 meters deep. The chisel marks in the tombs have all been weathered, and the chisel marks in the horizontal-cave tombs are more severely weathered than in the square-cave tombs. It can be seen that the heng-cave tombs were carved earlier than the square-cave tombs. There are 0.15 meters of white ash marks at the entrance of the tomb, which should be traces of the sealing wall.

2. There is a deep rectangular shaft above the stone wall tomb in the shaft tomb, and the tombs are arranged in a ring. ***There are two places, one was excavated in 1876 and the other was discovered in 1951. There is gold and silver buried in this kind of tomb; the carvings of the chariot are the earliest chariot remains in mainland Greece.

Baidu Encyclopedia: Horizontal Cave Tomb

Baidu Encyclopedia: Vertical Cave Tomb