Drainage System Uncovered in Cluster of Tombs in China

News January 22, 2019

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SHENYANG, CHINA—Xinhua reports that a group of Liao Dynasty (A.D. 907–1125) tombs recently discovered in northeast China’s Liaoning Province were equipped with a 360-foot-long drainage system. Water would have flowed through a series of ditches created with flagstones laid over stone balls and covered with bricks. In addition, archaeologists have recovered ceramics and objects made of stone, metal, jade, glass, and amber in five of the brick tombs, which had been looted and damaged. Si Weiwei of the Liaoning Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeological Institute suggested the system may have also been intended to deter plunderers. For more, go to “Letter from China: Tomb Raider Chronicles.”

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