Largest Ancient Tombs In China

Zee News ^ | 3-25-2008

[blam]

Largest ancient tombs in China

New Delhi, March 25: Archaeologists have unearthed 604 tombs belonging to Qin Dynasty in Qujia Village, near Xi’an in China, which are believed to be the largest discovered in the country till date.

Excavations were undertaken ahead of a railway improvement project in Shaanxi Province.

"I was astounded by the sheer number of tombs," said Sun Weigang, a researcher with the Shaanxi Institute of Archaeological Research. "We know Shaanxi is rich in cultural relics, with over a thousand tombs unearthed every year. But we have never found so many in such a small area," he added.

Most of the tombs are of ordinary people and do not contain particularly valuable objects, but are of enormous interest to archeologists researching the social life of the period.

A vast collection of pottery and bronze ware has been unearthed including cauldrons, pots, jars, axes and swords, as well as more than 200 complete human skeletons.

According to Chen Liang, associate professor of Archaeology, Northwest University, "The remains are mainly of adult men who died from natural causes. They don`t appear to have had a close clan relationship with each other."

Archaeologists hope the discovery of the tombs will help them locate the site of the ancient Qin Dynasty city of Liyi.

It had been thought that Liyi was near a village called Liuzhai, based on sporadic discoveries of Qin relics.

"But the tombs are over 5 kilometers away from Liuzhai Village, and the custom of the time was to locate burial grounds close to the city," said an archaeologist.

According to some natives of Qujia Village, they knew there was an ancient city nearby. Villagers often found jars and pots in the fields but thought it was bad luck to take them home.

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks Blam. I always like to read these posts of yours.

[blam]

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[SunkenCiv]

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[norton]

Good post, as usual.
It's not surprising that China has so much history buried in its huge area, it is fantastic that a totalitarian state spends so much effort on it and then shares.

But, it also forces me to share an anecdote:

"Villagers often found jars and pots in the fields but thought it was bad luck to take them home."

There is a lot to this superstition.
Long ago, when stationed across the straits from China, another guy from my detachment took his family to the beach for a leisure week end. Along the way he found a nifty old wooden bucket, picked it up and claimed it as a souvenir. Carried it around all week end and was quite happy with himself;
Just before they left - one of the locals finally told him what a honey bucket was.