2,200-Year-Old Chu State Tomb Excavated in China

HUAINAN, CHINA—China Daily reports that a tomb built by the Chu vassal state at the end of the Warring States Period (475–221 B.C.) has been excavated at the Wuwangdun site in eastern China. Looting has severely damaged the tomb, prompting this rescue excavation. The site features a cemetery surrounded by a moat. The largest tomb, made up of eight chambers arranged in the shape of a cross around a central chamber, had been topped with an earthen mound. Each of the eight chambers was covered with four layers of planks inscribed in ink and bamboo mats. So far, 78 of these bamboo mats have been removed and stabilized. “This is currently the largest-scale ancient bamboo mat extraction project conducted worldwide,” said Zhang Zhiguo of the National Center for Archaeology. The inscriptions on the layers of planks described the function of each chamber, added archaeologist Gong Xicheng of the Anhui Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. Lacquer objects, bronze ritual artifacts, utensils, wooden figurines, and musical instruments were found in these chambers. Smaller tombs, chariot pits, and sacrificial deposits have also been uncovered in the cemetery. To read about a burial in China's Henan province that researchers believe belonged to the Luhun Rong, a people that were eliminated during the Warring States Period, go to "Tomb from a Lost Tribe."