Cemetery of Western Han Dynasty discovered at Three Gorges

Home>>Life

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, February 14, 2004

Cemetery of Western Han Dynasty discovered at Three Gorges

A huge cemetery from China's Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C. to 24 A.D.) has been discovered at the Three Gorges area's Tujing town of southwest China's Chongqing municipality.

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

A huge cemetery from China's Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C. to 24 A.D.) has been discovered at the Three Gorges area's Tujing town of southwest China's Chongqing municipality.

According to Fang Gang of the Chongqing archaeological squad, 62 burial pits with typical Western Han patterns were found withina scope of 2000 square meters at a large tableland alongside the Yangtze River.

The pits were orderly arranged in several rows and each row contained five to seven tombs with almost equal space among one another. The arranging pattern and the scale of the tombs were exactly like cemeteries today, said Fang.

Fang said that most tombs discovered were small and medium sized and the funerary objects unearthed were chiefly pottery, together with some adornments and weapons. Possibly it was a cemetery of civilians, said the archaeologist.

Most Han tombs discovered in this area were brick-chambered tombs and cliff burial tombs, Fang said, and it was the first timethat a Han cemetery had been unearthed here.

The big cemetery might indicate a large-scale settlement here, said Fang, and this would help a lot to study Chongqing's economy,culture and life patterns in the Western Han Dynasty.

Source: Xinhua

Questions?Comments? Click here

Ancient Inscribed Wooden Slips Excavated in Three Gorges Area

1,300-Year-Old Ruins Unearthed at Three Gorges

Ancient Tomb Group Discovered in Inner Mongolia

CEO of Indian Wipro Industries: Chinese software industry can't catch up with India's ( 6 Messages)

US media urge gov't not to surrender China market to EU ( 19 Messages)

UK monitors Chinese mission in the UN ( 4 Messages)

Why is it hard to stop the US dollar falling ( 2 Messages)

Japan decides to further cut back economic aid to China ( 46 Messages)