10 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1925 



by Mr. Carl Whiting Bishop, associate curator of the Freer Gal- 

 lery, conducted successful archeological investigations at I Chou, 

 Province of Chihli, and at various localities in the Province of 

 Shensi. To the southwest of I Chou, which is built upon the ruins 

 of an ancient city, Mr. Bishop discovered parts of old earthen 

 walls of considerable size, and to the east of the city were found 

 groups of large mounds rising frojn the plain. These were exam- 

 ined, and many fragments of pottery and tile collected on the sur- 

 face of the mounds. A survey of the locality was made by airplane, 

 in order to determine the extent and plan of the ancient site. 



Although the work of this expedition commenced during the 

 previous fiscal year, it was continued into the present year; and, 

 as no detailed account was given in my last report, I will quote a 

 few paragraphs from the report of the curator of the Freer Gallery 

 upon the work at Shensi : 



In Shensi the members of the field staff visited the Western Ilan (206 

 B. C. — A. D. 25) capital of Ch'ang-an, securing sufficient data while there to 

 make a fair reconstruction of the ancient city. In the same Province they 

 insi)ected also two large mounds of the usual truncated pyramidal form, as- 

 cribed to early Han emperors ; the supposed tomb of the Emperor Ch'in Shih 

 Huang-ti (221-210 B.C.), and the tombs of the famous Emperor Han Wu 

 Ti (140-87 B. C), and his General Ho Ch'u-ping. The tomb of Han Wu Ti 

 is an unusually large one, measuring 278 yards at its base, and presents 

 opportunities of great archeological interest, as does also that of General 

 Ho Ch'u-ping, where Mr. Bishop saw not only the well-known stone figure 

 of a horse trampling on a recumbent warrior but examined also several other 

 partially exposed stone sculptures of- the early Han in-riod. Photographs and 

 scale plans of several of the tombs and temples in this vicinity were made. 



The first actual excavation work conducted by the exiKnlitiou was begun 

 in the spring of this year at Yii-ho Chen, about 17 miles west of Hsin-yang 

 Chou, in the Province of Honan. This specific undertaking has an added sig- 

 nificance archeologlcally, in tliat it is the first work of the kind to be con- 

 ducted in China by any foreign Government in cooperation with the Chinese 

 authorities. At Yu-ho Chen two tombs of the Han dynasty (206 B. C— A. D. 

 221 ) were excavated ; the work revealed intei'e.sting data on ancient tomb 

 construction, and brought to light Chine.se cultural objects dating from pre- 

 historic times to the Han period. Specimens in metal, stone, and pottery 

 were found in the tombs ; chariot fittings, mirrors, and arrow points of bronze ; 

 one or two gold rings ; cast-iron implements ; a stone ax, and parts of stone 

 doors and lintels ; a jade chisel ; slate arrow-heads, and a number of pieces 

 of ancient i)Ottery — some intact, some fragmentary — among them a kind of 

 glazed jxjttery which, if it be of Han production, is a type hitherto scarcely 

 known to us. 



In August the Yu-ho Chen finds were exhibited for one day, under Mr. 

 Bishop's direction, at the Historical Mu.seum in Peking ; between 5,000 and 

 0,000 visitors attended the exhibit. 



In the early autumn Mr. Bishop, together with Doctor Barbour, professor 

 of geology at Peking University, and Doctor Tegengren, a Swedish mining 

 geologist, examined a mound in Peitaiho, on the Gulf of Chihli, which dis- 



