Source: Xinhuanet

07-23-2007 18:59

HOHHOT: Archaeologists have discovered more than5,000 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 square meters and must have been constructed sometime from the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) to the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).

They believe 285 of the tombs belong to the Warring States Period, 43 belong to dynasties of the Qin (221-206 BC) and theHan (206 BC-AD 220), 13 belong to the Wei (AD 220-265) and the Jin (AD 265-420), and 23 belong to the Liao (916-1125) and the Yuan.

Chen Yongzhi, vice director of the regional cultural relics and archaeology institute, said the Warring States tombsare oblong shaped and were built in the middle and late periods of the Warring States. Most of the Warring States tombs were small and simple, Chen said.

Judging from the entombment process and items found in a large Warring States tomb, the occupant might have been a high-ranking general, the expert said. 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 one-year excavation project

 

Editor:Chen Ge