综合一区欧美国产,99国产麻豆免费精品,九九精品黄色录像,亚洲激情青青草,久久亚洲熟妇熟,中文字幕av在线播放,国产一区二区卡,九九久久国产精品,久久精品视频免费

USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
Lifestyle
Home / Lifestyle / Flash

Discovery rekindles legend of 'blood-sweating' horse

China Daily | Updated: 2011-02-22 07:49

Discovery rekindles legend of 'blood-sweating' horse
A woman cleans soil from horse skeletons in a sacrificial pit inside the mausoleum in this file photo. [Photo/Xinhua]

XI'AN - The bones of 80 horses unearthed from the mausoleum of a Chinese emperor who lived more than 2,000 years ago have rekindled an ancient legend about blood-sweating "heavenly horses" from Central Asia.

Related readings:
Discovery rekindles legend of 'blood-sweating' horseTraditional horse parade in US 
Discovery rekindles legend of 'blood-sweating' horse60 Han dynasty beacon towers found in Gansu 
Discovery rekindles legend of 'blood-sweating' horseBronze mirrors reflect history of Han Dynasty 

The skeletons were found in two sacrificial pits within the mausoleum of Emperor Wudi of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - AD24) in Xingping city, Northwest China's Shaanxi province, said Yang Wuzhan, a researcher with the provincial archaeological institute.

Yang and his team began excavating the two pits in September 2009, but had published few of their findings until Monday.

Discovery rekindles legend of 'blood-sweating' horse
Workers ship out dirt from the sacrificial pit in this file photo. [Photo/Xinhua]

Each of the two pits was a huge cavern containing 20 caves - each "guarded" by two stallions and a terracotta warrior, Yang said.

He said archaeologists have conducted laboratory work on the skeletons and confirmed all were adult male horses. "Scientists will soon carry out DNA tests hoping to determine the genus of the horses."

The finding was likely to rekindle a centuries-old Chinese legend about the mysterious blood-sweating horse from Central Asia, Yang said.

"The legend goes that Emperor Wudi offered a hefty reward for anyone who could find him a mysterious 'blood-sweating' purebred horse that was said to have roamed Central Asia, but was rarely seen in China," he said.

Today, the horse is identified as the Akhal-Teke, one of the world's oldest and most unique breeds.

Wudi left China's earliest written record of the breed, in a poem he composed for his Akhal-Teke mount, describing it as a "heavenly horse".

The horse is known for its speed, endurance and perspiration of a blood-like fluid as it gallops along. It was also believed to be the horse ridden by Genghis Khan (1167-1227).

Wudi was best known for his opening of the Silk Road, an ancient trade route linking Asia and Europe.

Construction of his mausoleum began in 139 BC, a year after he was enthroned at 16 years of age. It took 53 years to build.

The mausoleum had more than 400 sacrificial pits, more than the mausoleum of the "first emperor" of a united China, Qin Shihuang.

Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
新化县| 罗源县| 夹江县| 乌鲁木齐县| 双城市| 怀化市| 兴海县| 盈江县| 长海县| 昌黎县| 上林县| 改则县| 兴国县| 资中县| 海林市| 建平县| 神农架林区| 曲麻莱县| 五河县| 建德市| 洮南市| 陵水| 雷山县| 托里县| 汝南县| 沛县| 昆明市| 长岭县| 师宗县| 丰镇市| 宣威市| 房产| 格尔木市| 肥东县| 同江市| 青河县| 宿迁市| 城固县| 上饶县| 达拉特旗| 阳江市|