3,000 year old Chinese tombs found

From this morning's news:

Archaeologists unearth 3,000-year-old tombs in northwest China
Tue Oct 19, 1:19 PM ET
BEIJING (AFP) - Chinese archaeologists are unearthing a group of tombs believed to be the family cemetery of the Duke of Zhou, a de facto imperial ruler who lived about 3,000 years ago, state media said.

Archaeologists discovered the group of 22 tombs in February at Qi Mountain in the northwestern province of Shaanxi. They cover an area of about 80,000 square meters (860,800 square feet), the Xinhua news agency reported.

Ten of the tombs each have four passages -- an indication that the owner was from the highest rank in the the Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century BC - 771 BC).

"Judging from the scale of the tombs, the owner might be somebody of high rank, a duke, a prince, or even a king of the Western Zhou Dynasty," said Lei Xingshan, associate archaeology professor at Beijing University.

Four inscriptions on some 700 tortoise shells unearthed during the excavation suggested that the tombs were linked to the duke's family.

The archaeologists also unearthed a 1,500-meter (4,950-feet) city wall and six construction ruins.

The Duke of Zhou was the founder of the Western Zhou Dynasty. He helped his brother overthrow the Shang Dynasty (c.1600 BC - c.1100 BC) and became prince regent to his brother's young son after the brother died.

He was best known for established the ancient feudal hierarchy and etiquette systems that laid the foundation for Chinese civilization.

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