Over 140 cultural relics unearthed in NW China

Archaeologists have unearthed more than 140 cultural relics from six Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) tombs in Xi'an, the capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

The items are made of pottery, stone, copper and other materials. Significantly, archaeologists found 11 floor tiles with inscriptions underneath in the side room of a tomb, according to the Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology.

The inscriptions include words that indicate the exact period they were made, as well as patterns such as a dragon.

According to the shape and structure of the tombs, the combination of unearthed relics and the characteristics of funerary objects, the six tombs were family burial sites during the middle and early Eastern Han Dynasty, the academy said. The inscriptions on the backs of the tiles are rare in the excavation of Han tombs, thus they are important for the study of burial customs during the period, it added.