About 400 pieces of cultural relics were excavated from an
ancient tomb dating from over 600 years ago in Zhongxiang city of
central China's Hubei
Province.
The unearthed cultural relics include quite a number of gold and
jade items, lacquerwork and porcelain utensils, in which five or
six pieces were of state-level, said professor Yuan Wenqing of the
Hubei Institute of Archaeology.
Many objects have rotted in the tomb because they had been in
water for so long.
"This tomb is the imperial one in the early Ming Dynasty which
remains intact and shows clear information of burial date and
persons," said Wang Hongxing of the institute.
The imperial tomb was constructed for Zhu Dong and his wife.
Zhu, also known as Yingjingwang, was the twenty-third son of Zhu
Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
The tomb was damaged by the Japanese invaders in 1937 and grave
robbers coming afterwards. The local archaeology bureau began to
excavate the tomb in 2005 and the tomb will become a museum.
(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2006)
