Owner of the 2000-yr-old Tomb to be Revealed as External Coffin Lid Opened

Archaeologists look at the main coffin in the Haihunhou (Marquis of Haihun) cemetery.

Gilded trunks was unearthed from the main coffin in the Haihunhou (Marquis of Haihun) cemetery.

Chinese archaeologists on Sunday opened the external lid of the main coffin in the high-profile “Haihunhou” tomb in Nanchang, provincial capital of central China’s Jiangxi province. A bunch of gold and jade was found in the space between the inner and external coffin, as well as a piece of lacquerware decorated with gold foil.

The external plank is 3.4 meters long and 1.6 meter wide. Archaeologists also discovered a painting of rosefinch on top of the inner coffin.

The pattern on the external lid of the coffin.

"We are glad to see the interior coffin is well preserved. There are lacquer paintings on its surface," said Xin Lixiang, who is in charge of the project.

Archaeologists believed that the mausoleum belongs to a marquis who held the title of “Haihun” in the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC- 24 AD). “Marquis of Haihun”, or “Haihunhou”, is the grandson of Emperor Wu. Hopefully his seal would be found within the interior coffin. Covering some 40,000 square meters, the “Haihunhou” mausoleum is the most completed site known Western Han Dynasty cemetery.