The tomb of an ancient king filled with treasured artifacts of gold, silver, jade bronze and laquer has been discovered in China, archaeologists report.
The mausoleum in the country's modern-day Xuyi County was built for king Liu Fei, who ruled over the kingdom of Jiangdu, a part of the larger Chinese Empire.
Liu Fei died in 128 B.C. after ruling over his kingdom for 26 years, with historical accounts citing his lavish lifestyle and his burial amid luxurious surroundings.
Although the mausoleum showed signs of previous plundering, it still contained more than 10,000 artifacts, the archaeologists said.
Among them were weapons, models of chariots and musical instruments.
The king's body was missing from the tomb, and several surviving coffins had suffered damage, the researchers reported.
"Near the coffins many jade pieces and fragments, originally parts of the jade burial suit, were discovered. These pieces also indicate that the inner coffin, originally lacquered and inlaid with jade plaques, was exquisitely manufactured," they wrote in their original study, translated and published in the English-language journal Chinese Archaeology.
A team of archaeologists from the Nanjing Museum unearthed the site from 2009 to 2011, characterizing their work as a "rescue excavation" as the site was threatened by nearby quarrying activities.
Eleven attendant tombs were found north of Liu Fei's tomb, and one adjacent tomb dubbed "M2" by the archaeologists who said it was obviously that of someone of elevated status.
Although it also had been plundered, it still contained gold objects, jade, lacquer wares and pottery vessels, the researchers reported.
Also found in M2 was another jade coffin, much better preservied that the one in the king's tomb, they said.
"The 'jade coffin' from M2 is the most significant discovery. Although the central chamber was looted, the structure of the jade coffin is still intact, which is the only undamaged jade coffin discovered in the history of Chinese archaeology," they wrote in their journal report.
Although the Chinese Empire of the period ranked as among the richest and largest on earth, the power held by its emperor wasn't absolute, and a several kings such as Liu Fei ruled their own kingdoms under the emperor's control, becoming very wealthy.
Some of these kings attempted rebellions against the rule of the emperor, and while Liu Fei remained loyal, the emperor seized control of his Jiangdu Kingdom several years after Liu Fei's death when Liu Jiang, his son and successor, was believed to be plotting such a rebellion.
