Keting V

Keting V (Shinasthana: 五且丁, menga-ktsa-keting; r. c. 92 – 80 BCE) was a ruler of the city of Tsinh in the Middle Archaic Period. His ordinal name indicates he was the fifth to bear the ordinal "keting", the fourth member of the sequence.

Keting V is a notable figure in archaeology because his burial lay undiscovered and undisturbed until the modern era, an extremely uncommon occurrence where an most graves were robbed by the time they were scientifically documented, and royal burials in a complete state are rarer still. His burial led to the recovery of over 4,000 artifacts (weighing 2.8 tonnes), amongst a much-improved knowledge of early Themiclesian funerary practices. On the other hand, a total of 122 subsidiary burials of varying sizes were found adjoining his royal burial, and some if not all were the results of funerary human sacrifice.

156 Armoured Man

Amongst his subsidiary burials is the 156 Armoured Man or 156AM, who was buried with a full suit of armour, weapons, and clothes. Owing to the fact that the water table rose soon after his burial, his burial chamber was submerged in water, preventing its decay. 156AM's skeleton remains complete as well as his armour and funerary garb. From these remains, it is known that 156AM was an exceptionally large person, measuring at least 196 cm standing upright, when average height was around 168 cm. 156AM was buried with a bronze charger with the inscription "Baron Ker made this for the Revered and Generous Prince, Middle Brother Keting. May this be presented to him" (矦堇乍中拀文王兄丁 克厥賓).

Given this bronze, it is thought that 156AM is likely to have been a funerary sacrifice presented by the same Baron Ker that the charger mentions, and indeed the charge asks to be presented to the Prince. So 156AM was intended to present the charger to the Prince in the underworld. However, this still leaves the relationship between Baron Ker and 156AM unsolved. Some have made the argument that 156AM, based on his full suit of armour and weapon in hand, should be deemed a retainer-warrior in the service of the Baron Ker. But recently it has been noted that 156AM would be exceptionally well-equipped if he was the owner of the suit of armour he was buried with, since retainer armour (even in the greatest households) was basic in comparison.

Some have gone as far as to suggest that 156AM was wearing royal armour, with its crimson fringe, which was also intended as a gift to Keting V in the afterworld, and it was merely put on the body of 156AM. However, it seems difficult to explain the fact that the suit of armour fits 156AM's body very exactly—this would not be reasonable unless Keting V was just about as large as 156AM, which (in view of the general evidence) is far from likely. In other words, the exquisite armour must be considered tailored to 156AM himself. If 156AM had indeed been a mere retainer-warrior, it is incredible to believe he had sufficient werewithal to fashion a set of bronze armour like this for himself and wear it into his grave (rather than pass it on to his successor).

In this line of thinking, 156AM was a shaman dressed up in the guise of a god. It would also be congruous with known facts to think that 156AM was a gift from the Prince to Baron Ker, and that after serving Baron Ker in some capacity, the latter decided to return him to Keting V in a deified state in gratitude. Such return-gifts were culturally common for Themiclesians of the age, and craftsmen, shamans, slaves, and materials were often gifted away by princes to their subordinates colonizing foreign areas as a form of assistance. If so, 156AM could be Ker's elaborate return gift that would have been culturally expected.