Model vehicles of Warring States found in mausoleum   

河北趙王陵現“偶車”陪葬 將偶車歷史提早百年

河北邯鄲市文物局22日發布的最新消息稱，該市文物工作者在趙王陵陪葬坑內，發現多處“偶車”遺跡，將其歷史自秦提早了百年。

Handan (CNS) -- Model vehicles, a kind of burial object one-third the size of real ones, were discovered in a number of adjacent pits to the Zhaowang Mausoleum which was built in the Warring States Period (475BC -221 BC), said Wang Xing, director of Handan City's Bureau of Cultural Relics, on July 22.

The discovery proved that as early as the Warring States period, model vehicles were already used as burial objects, one century earlier than those of the same kind found in the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, said Wang.

Putting customized burial objects in the grave of the dead is an important component of China's burial culture and emerged as early as in the Neolithic Period. Burial objects provide researchers solid resources to explore history.