Tombs found at China Olympic site
(AP)
Updated: 2006-05-09 14:43
BEIJING - Work on a shooting range for the 2008 Beijing Olympics has been
suspended after the discovery of imperial-era tombs on the site, newspapers and
an antiquities official said Monday.
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| Chinese officials from the antiquities bureau are seen near the
uncovered imperial-era tombs at the construction site of a shooting range
for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games where work has been suspended in
Beijing, China, May 8, 2006. [AP] |
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The
tombs, found in mid-April, are believed to date back five to six centuries to
the Ming dynasty, and may be those of eunuchs serving at the imperial court, the
Beijing Morning Post said.
Beijing has been the site of imperial and other capitals for more than 1,000
years, and many major building projects unearth gravesites or relics. Most are
removed or destroyed before experts can examine them.
A spokeswoman for the Beijing Olympic organizers, Zhu Jing, said the find
accounted for only a small part of the construction site and "shouldn't affect
the work too seriously."
"We'll let everyone know if there is a major discovery," Zhu said.
An official of the Beijing Cultural Relics Department, Liu Baoshan, declined
to give an age for the tombs and said no details would be released until a final
report is drawn up.
Archaeologists have found coins, ceramics and jade in the tombs at the
shooting range on the Chinese capital's western outskirts, the Post and other
papers said.
An Associated Press photographer who visited the site Monday saw antiquities
officials at work on several pits dug into an area on the edge of the
construction site, where work otherwise appeared to have halted. Workers refused
to answer questions and demanded the photographer leave the area.
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