In September 2000 to January 2001, the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and other institutions carried out drillings and excavations in the Xiufeng-cun cemetery in Wushan County, Chongqing. They discovered 30 graves from the Han to the Song periods, including six excavated, of which three are earthen-pit burials of the Western Han period, two brick-chambered of the Eastern Han, and one brick-chambered of the Song period. These graves are small in size except for medium-sized earthen-pit M3 and M4 of the Western Han. Among the funeral objects the most important is a gilt bronze belt with an Ordos-style buckle at either end and shell pendants on the body. This is the first discovered Ordos bronze belt in the Three Gorges region.
Found on the hill on the northern bank of the Yujinag River in the territory of Zhongjiang County,Sichuan,nine of the cliff tombs underwent rescue excavation in2002from September to November. Each tomb consisted of a tomb passage,a tomb gate,a main chamber,a tunnel,a side cham-ber,a coffin bed,a wall recession and a fireplace.The tombs are either single chambered,double-chambered or multi-chambered.Mural paintings with ink caption were found in cliff tombs for the first time.In addition,discovery of carved figurines and sculptures in the form of some wooden ar-chitecture enriches largely our knowledge of cliff tombs.These tombs should be dated back to the middle and late Eastern Han dynasty.
