In September-December 2002, the Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology excavated the Nos. 1 and 2 Chu State tombs and the horse-and-chariot burial pits auxiliary to them in the Jiuliandun cemetery of Wudian Town in Zaoyang City, Hubei Province. The two graves are large in size, rectangular in plan, with ramping tomb-passages and, on each wall, 14 steps. Either of them contains a double outer and a double inner coffins, the former being partitioned into five cabinets. The funeral objects are very rich, numbering 617 pieces/sets for Tomb No.1 and 587 pieces/sets for Tomb No.2, and more than 1,000 bamboo slips were unearthed from the second grave. Two horse-and-chariot burial pits were discovered on the western side of the tombs. Their contents consist of 33 chariots and 72 horses in Pit 1 and 7 and 16 respectively in Pit 2. The discovery will greatly push forward the study of the Chu culture.
