Tomb
The tomb of Wen was discovered in 1983, 20 meters under Elephant Hill in Guangzhou on a construction site for a hotel, and has been excavated. The tomb measures 11 meters long and 12 meters wide. It is divided in seven parts, with a front chamber, east and west wing rooms, the main coffin chamber, east and west side rooms, and a back storage chamber. The tomb has yielded more than 1000 burial artifacts, and a chariot, gold and silver vessels, musical instruments, and human sacrifices were found (15 courtiers were buried alive with him to serve him in death). It is also the only tomb of the early Western Han Dynasty that has murals on its walls.
The tomb also yielded the oldest imperial seal discovered in a Chinese tomb: the seal, with the name "Zhao Mo", declared the royal corpse to be “Emperor Wen", indicating that he considered himself equal in rank to the Han ruler.
Alongside Chinese artifacts, pieces from the steppes, and Iranian and Hellenistic Central Asian regions have been found: a Persian silver box found in the tomb is the earliest imported product found to date in China.
The Museum of the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King, located in Jiefang road in Guangzhou, stands on the site of the tomb of Zhao Mo.
Read more about this topic: Zhao Mo
Famous quotes containing the word tomb:
“And so all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride
In her sepulchre there by the sea—
In her tomb by the side of the sea.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“She hears, upon that water without sound,
A voice that cries, “The tomb in Palestine
Is not the porch of spirits lingering.
It is the grave of Jesus, where he lay.””
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)