Archaeologists have unearthed more than 5,000 items dating back
2,000 years from a complex of 385 tombs uncovered at a construction
site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
The local cultural relics and archaeology authorities estimate
the tombs cover an area of 50,000 sq m and must have been
constructed sometime from the Warring States period (475 to 221
B.C.) to the Yuan Dynasty (1271 to 1368).
They believe 285 of the tombs belong to the Warring States
period, 43 belong to dynasties of the Qin (221 to 207 B.C.) and the
Han (206 B.C. to 220), 13 belong to the Wei (220 to 265) and the
Jin (265 to 420), and 23 belong to the Liao (916 to 1125) and the
Yuan.
Chen Yongzhi, vice director of the regional cultural relics and
archaeology institute, said the Warring States tombs are oblong
shaped and were built in the middle and late periods of the Warring
States.
Judging from the entombment process and funerary objects found
in a large Warring States tomb, the occupant might have been a
high-ranking general, the expert said, adding the funerary objects
unearthed from the tomb included bronze weapons, a carnelian cup,
and a pottery jug and pot.
Together with bronze ritual articles, pottery cooking utensils,
iron harnesses, and bronze decorations from tombs of other
dynasties, more than 5,000 relics were unearthed during the
yearlong excavation project.
Excavating the graves is a significant advancement in the study
of customs, cultural tradition, protocol, and burial rites in
ancient China, said Chen.
(Xinhua News Agency April 10, 2007)