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Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwest China might have been under the imperial rule of Chinese emperors much earlier than archeologists previously thought, according to an excavation of a group of 3,000-year-old tombs.

Experts at top archeological research institutions, including the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Peking University and Nanjing University, have gathered in Ningxia’s Pengyang County to join the excavation of the Yaoheyuan Ruins.

Ma Qiang, who leads the archeological team, said yesterday that all of the tombs had been looted prior to the start of the official excavation earlier this year.

However, the team has discovered the main tomb of a Marquis-level ruler 13 meters underground. Although no bronze burial vessels with inscriptions identifying the owner of the tomb have been located, they have found two jade mantis.

A similar jade mantis was unearthed from China’s World Heritage listed Yinxu archeological site near Anyang in central China’s Henan Province, which was an ancient capital city in the late Shang Dynasty (16th century-11th century BC).

“The jade item provides strong evidence of the tomb owner’s relationship with the imperial governments during the period from the late Shang to the middle of Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century-770 BC),” said Zhang Tian’en from the Shaanxi Provincial Archeological Research Institute.

Liu Xu, a professor at Peking University, said the discovery of the ruins suggests that Ningxia was part of the imperial empire from the late Shang Dynasty, about 1,000 years earlier than previously believed.

The team has only excavated one quarter of the area, and Liu said it should contain a further 40 neighboring tombs.