Treasures from ancient Chinese tomb exhibited at Met museum

NANCHANG, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Nine treasures unearthed from the tomb of an ancient Chinese marquis are on show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 18 months after the discovery was made public.

Three gold ingots in the shape of a horseshoe, which symbolize imperial superiority, and a set of six bronze bells are among 160 Chinese artifacts and art from 32 Chinese museums on display at "Age of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties (221 B.C.-A.D.220)" from April 3 to July 16.

The nine pieces, estimated to be worth 9 million U.S. dollars, belong to the Jiangxi provincial institute of cultural relics and archeology.

"The three ingots are about the same size, but each is engraved with a different character," said Xu Changqing, head of the institute. The characters translate into "upper," "middle" and "lower" in modern Chinese, he said.

The bronze bells feature gold and silver inlays and delicate graphics, he said.

The items were among over 10,000 artifacts excavated from an extravagant tomb of the Marquis of Haihun near the provincial capital of Jiangxi, Nanchang. The tomb dates back to the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - 24 AD). Researchers began exploring the tomb in 2011 but large-scale excavations only began in November 2015.

The tomb is the final resting place of Liu He, a grandson of Emperor Wu. Liu was emperor for just 27 days before he was dethroned for lacking talent and morals.

After he was deposed, Liu was given the title "Marquis of Haihun." Haihun was the name given to a very small kingdom in the north of Jiangxi.