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Chariot excavation open to tourists in central China city

Xinhua, February 7, 2017 Adjust font size:

Visitors to a 2,000-year-old chariot tomb in Xinzheng in central China's Henan Province are now able to watch the ongoing excavation.

At the site visitors can not only see archeologists at work, but also experience the discovery of relics in real time, as headcams worn by researchers send images direct to a big screen.

The excavation of a Zheng State tomb from the Spring and Autumn Period (770 B.C. - 476 B.C.) has already found more than 20 chariots and a large amount of horse bones.

Li Hongchang, in charge of the dig, said that archeological sites in China are normally only opened to the public after excavation work is complete.

Chariots and horses were sunk into rivers or buried in the earth as sacrificial offerings in burial rites during the Spring and Autumn Period. The 12 meter by 11 meter pit is linked to the main tomb occupied by a nobleman.

More than 3,000 tombs of the Spring and Autumn Period have been found in Xinzheng. Endi