Rescue Excavation Uncovers Royal Chinese Tombs

NANJING, CHINA—Live Science reports that archaeologists Li Zebin, Chen Gang, and Sheng Zhihan of Nanjing Museum recovered an intact jade coffin and more than 10,000 artifacts from a mausoleum consisting of three main tombs, 11 attendant tombs, two pits containing five life-sized chariots, and two weaponry pits holding iron swords, spearheads, crossbow triggers, halberds, knives, and more than 20 models of chariots. Burial chambers belonging to Liu Fei, a king of Jiangdu who died in 128 B.C., held artifacts made of gold, silver, bronze, jade, and lacquer. He had been buried with musical instruments such as chime bells, zither bridges, and jade tuning pegs. More than 100,000 banliang coins, lamps, and a kitchen stocked with food and cooking utensils had been left behind by looters, who took the king’s remains. “Near the coffins many jade pieces and fragments, originally parts of the jade burial suit, were discovered. These pieces also indicate that the inner coffin, originally lacquered and inlaid with jade plaques, was exquisitely manufactured,” the research team wrote in an article that appears in translation in the journal Chinese Archaeology. The intact jade coffin was recovered from an adjacent tomb. “Although the central chamber was looted, the structure of the jade coffin is still intact, which is the only undamaged jade coffin discovered in the history of Chinese archaeology,” they added.