Excavated by:：Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of Jiangxi;Museum in Jing’an county

Excavation team leader:：Xu Changqing

After a year of archaeological excavation, nearly one thousand pieces of historical relics have been found in the Li Zhou'ao ancient tomb in Jing'an county, Jiangxi province. The tomb is 14.5 meters long, about 11.3 meters wide and three meters deep. It is believed to date back to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-221 B.C.).

It is the largest group of coffins ever discovered in a single tomb and the excavation has been dubbed "the most important archaeology project of 2007" by cultural experts and media.

Nine coffins in the tomb were rotten and partly destroyed by tomb robbers and archaeologists found a relatively complete human skeleton, bodily tissue, as well as many bronze, gold and silk items, porcelain and jade in some coffins. The bodily tissue has been identified as the brain of the dead people in the coffin. The tissue has shrunk to the size of a fist, but it has complete brain structure with two cerebral hemisphere, cerebrum, and brainstem.

This is the first time that such a complete structure was found in southern China and it will fill in gaps in the study of human bone structure in the pre-Qin era (770-221 BC). And the unique burial style explains why the skeleton and the brain tissue were preserved so well in an area where the soil was acidic and unfavorable for preservation of the human body. The coffins were made from halved nanmu, a rare and extremely durable wood, and covered in a layer of loess. They were fire-heated to make them solid, pressurized and waterproof. The coffins were tightly sealed and there was little oxygen in there for bacteria to reproduce.

The coffins, 2.5 to 2.8 meters long and 0.5 meters wide, were laid out side by side in an orderly fashion. They have been transported to a nearby storehouse to be kept in a temperature and humidity-controlled environment. The discovery could provide valuable clues for the study of social customs, funeral rites and lifestyles in the area.