Beijing museum to display 2,000 years old artefacts

Beijing, Feb 28:

More than 400 artefacts from a 2,000-year-old tomb in China’s Jiangxi province are set to go on display at Beijing’s Capital Museum.

The exhibits on show from March 2 to June 2 were selected from 20,000 items unearthed from the tomb of Haihunhou (Marquis of Haihun) since the excavation began in 2011, Xinhua quoted the museum spokesperson Yang Dandan as saying on Sunday.

Yang said the exhibition will prioritise group visitors and allow only 1,000 individual visitors a day in the first week, and increase the daily limit to 5,000 people after that.

This will be the first exhibition of the artefacts outside Jiangxi. Last year, a display featuring 120 items from the tomb attracted 180,000 visitors to the Jiangxi provincial museum.

The Haihunhou tomb, which dates back to the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC — 24 AD), covers roughly 40,000 square metres and contains eight small tombs and a burial site for chariot horses.

The best-preserved tomb of its age found in China, it is thought to belong to Liu He, grandson of Emperor Wu. Liu was given the title “Haihunhou” after he was deposed as emperor after only 27 days.

Haihun is the ancient name of a very small kingdom in the north of Jiangxi. (IANS)