Ancient Chariot Burial in China

(Photo from article below - shows parts of a chariot and the remains of two horses) I'm always interested in news of chariot burials. The 'ruhkh' piece (in middle Persian) was a chariot; the 'shah ruhkh' was the King's Champion, originally the most powerful piece on the chessboard. The King's Champion is the stuff of legend in ancient Persian tales of valor and battle. Today, the name of the 'ruhkh' lives on in western chess as the "rook" - although the piece was converted to a tower or "castle" in western terminology; and in northern India and Pakistan many men are named after the 'shah ruhkh' including famous Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan. As far as I am aware, popular theory today says that the ancient Chinese independently came up with the invention of the wheel, the spoked wheel and the war chariot. (Not sure of the dating on this.) From my own reading and research I know that the eight-spoked wheel war chariot was first invented in what is now modern Armenia around 1800 BCE and spread quickly across the lands. (It was the expertise of the Hyksos with war chariots and horse teams that led to the defeat of part of the Egyptian empire and the rule of Egyptianized Hyksos kings for about 200 years, starting around 1650 BCE). It is usually war chariots and the specially bred and trained horses who pulled those war chariots that are buried with the bodies of elite warriors, priestesses, kings and queens, that have been excavated, no matter in what region of the world. The size of this discovery is simply - staggering! Article from china.org.cn Tomb fit for Chu king, archaeologists agree Chinese archaeologists have reached a consensus that the master of a tomb dating back 2,400 years, was a king of the State of Chu in the Warring States Period (475 to 221 BC). "The tomb is the largest and best preserved found to date from the State of Chu in the Warring States Period," Liu Binhui, an expert in Chu culture with the Hunan provincial museum, who had carried out research in Jingzhou for more than 20 years before transferring to Hunan, said. The tomb has a 131-m-long horse and chariot chamber, the longest ever found from the period, the Wuhan Evening News reported yesterday. Excavation of the chamber is about half complete, with 43 chariots and more than 100 horses unearthed, Liu said. "Three chariots were equipped with six horses," he said. "That reflects the rank of the tomb's owner. Only kings were allowed to drive chariots with six horses during the Warring States Period." The consensus came at an archaeological forum dedicated to the discussion of the tomb's occupant on Wednesday after more than two years of excavation from the tomb compound, which is located in Jingzhou, Hubei province. "All of the evidence leads to the conclusion that the tomb belongs to a king of the State of Chu," Liu said. Meanwhile, archaeologists have also found 92 graves that might have been for people buried with the dead, a custom of the State of Chu, he said. Since its discovery in 1979, archaeologists have identified the main mound, about 100 ancillary tomb tumuli, more than 30 horse and chariot pits arranged in a row and a surrounding ditch. Formal excavation started in August 2006, he said. Ever since its discovery, archaeologists have shown great interested in the occupant of the tomb, which covers an area of 60,000 sq m. More than 1,300 jade items were put on display in Jingzhou in September last year, the largest exhibition of jade articles in China. Xu Wenwu, a professor with the Changjiang University, made an even bolder assumption. "The great probability is that the tomb is of King Zhao of Chu, named Xiong Zhen, who was the last king of the state," he said. In all, 11 kings ruled Chu.