In central China, a “stunning tomb” was uncovered dating back 800 years, and built entirely by bricks to resemble the inside of a home.
Dating probably to the year 1190 CE, three individuals were found inside the tomb which was also constructed with a skylight of all things,
The 11-square-foot chamber was discovered in Yuanqu County in Shanxi Province, north-central China. Reached via a stepped passageway, the north wall of the tomb was intricately built of brick and carved with a relief of the tomb’s owner sitting for dinner at a table with his wife.
The opposite south wall is carved to resemble the inside of a house, with typically-Chinese lattice windows, and the interior wooden architecture typical of the period. In fact, as the Charlotte Observer pointed out, the whole tomb appears to be made out of wood.
The east and west walls are carved with more latticed windows and doors, as well as sculptures of wrestlers and lions.
Near the tomb ceiling, the brickwork perfectly resembles Chinese roofing beams and tiles, all of which march upward into a skylight.
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The Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, which excavated the room, made no mention of why the tomb’s contents were built so as to be open for public viewing. They did say that the tomb, while typical of the period, enriches the tomb data for traditions of the Jin Dynasty—a particularly strange episode in China’s long history.
The Later Jin Dynasty royal court was made up of the descendants of a Mongol-like nomadic culture who took control of China north of Nanjing by conquering the Liao Dynasty—themselves another group of Mongol-like nomadic horsemen.
The Jin were brought down by Ghengis Kahn and his descendants, who established the Yuan Dynasty, making it four centuries running that China was ruled by barbarians from the north.
The Chinese being some of the greatest tomb builders in the world, the Jin Dynasty tomb found here and others like it differ substantially from the later Ming Dynasty tombs which are so famous because they mirror the construction of the Forbidden City in Beijing.
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