The 16th National Mausoleum in xi 'an, Shaanxi Province, which was independently excavated by Xi 'an Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology, entered the final evaluation step by step and finally ranked among the top ten. This competition has been successfully held for 30 years. The annual contest has become a major event with the highest public concern in the cultural and artistic circles, which has aroused widespread concern from all walks of life and the whole country. The 20 archaeological discoveries shortlisted for the final evaluation come from 15 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. In terms of time, there are 6 prehistoric archaeological discoveries, 4 archaeological discoveries in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, 6 archaeological discoveries in Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, 4 archaeological discoveries in Tang Dynasty and 4 archaeological discoveries in Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties. From the perspective of time span, the projects participating in the final evaluation began in the Paleolithic Age 45,000 years ago, and went through the Neolithic Age, Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties.
From the geographical distribution, it mainly involves from the loess area to the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and from the southwest mountainous areas to the border areas. According to the types of sites, it includes cave sites, Peiqiu sites, primitive city sites, granary settlements, copper casting sites, tombs, sacrificial sites, lighthouses and so on. During the Sixteen Kingdoms period, three high-grade tombs with huge scale, unique shape and complete structure were discovered. Earth-carved buildings, exquisite murals and painted pottery figurines have been unearthed, which is of great value for studying the distribution and structure of large-scale high-level tombs in the Sixteen Kingdoms period.
Due to the large scale and complicated situation of the tombs, Xi Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology held several expert consultation meetings during the excavation process. Archaeological excavation and cultural relics protection were discussed. In terms of excavating and collecting data, the tomb pays attention to strengthening the protection of cultural relics by scientific and technological means, and adopts technical means such as aerial photography by unmanned aerial vehicle, mapping by geographic information system, element analysis, determination of pigment composition, and ultraviolet and infrared photography, and has achieved phased scientific research results.