12th century tombs unearthed in China
By IANSWednesday, February 17, 2010
BEIJING - Chinese archaeologists claimed to have discovered 18 tombs which existed between 12th and 19th century in north China.
Two of the 18 tombs dated back to the Yuan dynasty which lived from 1206 to 1368 A.D, Li Enwei, a cultural heritage official, said Wednesday.
The other 16 tombs, which contained about 10 pieces of porcelain, tiles and copper coins, belonged to the period of Qing dynasty during 1644 to 1911 A.D, Li said Wednesday.
The tombs were found by the archaeologists while working along the route of a proposed water diversion project in Xingtai city of Hebei province.
“We excavated an area of 500 square metres around the reservoir area in the village in December,” Xinhua quoted Li as saying.
The experts had already discovered 104 ancient tombs in the area. “These ones spanned the warring states period (475 B.C.-221 B.C.) to the Qing dynasty,” Li said.
