Doubts over Cao tomb's Authenticity This week, an excavation team in Henan Province, announced they'd uncovered the tomb of Cao Cao, a famous warlord who ruled northern China during the Three Kingdoms period. But, scholars and experts rose quickly to question the authenticity of the find, dismissing the evidence as unreliable. The tomb of Cao Cao, a renowned warlord and politician in the third century, was unearthed in Anyang City of central China's Henan Province. This week, an excavation team in Henan Province, announced they'd uncovered the tomb of Cao Cao, a famous warlord who ruled northern China during the Three Kingdoms period. But, scholars and experts rose quickly to question the authenticity of the find, dismissing the evidence as unreliable. A few years ago, local workers accidently unearthed the tomb while they were digging mud to make bricks. But they didn't report the find to authorities. Since then, the tomb has been raided several times. No one knew the owner of the tomb until local authorities seized some stone tablets reportedly from tomb raiders. The tablets bear inscriptions of "King Wu of Wei," Cao Cao's title after his death nearly 18-hundred years ago. However, scholars in Beijing are questioning the authenticity of the relics. The tomb of Cao Cao, a renowned warlord and politician in the third century, was unearthed in Anyang City of central China's Henan Province. Yuan Jixi, Vice Director of Renmin University, said, "It doesn't make sense. Historical records say that the tomb is protected by 72 decoys, so where are the rest?" Cao Cao is known for his Machiavellian nature, distrusting those around him. During his ascension to power, he made many enemies. Fearing the tomb could be desecrated, Cao Cao decided to set up decoys. That's why most skeptics are arguing the warlord would never allow anyone to locate his grave by simply reading the inscriptions of tablets. However, an archeologist who has studied the relics at the site, dismissed the doubts. Liu Qingzhu, archeologist, said, "History is written by people and therefore is inevitably subjective. However, we found another person buried over one hundred years later in Anyang. The inscriptions of that person say he was buried near Cao Cao's tomb. This is clear evidence, and is much more accurate." The excavation team found the remains of a man in his sixties, and the bones of two women in their fifties and twenties, believed to be Cao Cao, his wife, and their female servant. However, final results remain to be seen until DNA samples retrieved from the skeletons are compared with Cao Cao's descendants in his hometown.
haha. I have heard about the 72 decoys before but that's from San Guo Yan Yi (Semi-fictional story) they also made T'sao T'sao sound really evil too xD But, I do hope they examine the skull and see if it's really him and determine if he really died from a tumor like disease in the brain.
Im really anxious to find out what the DNA results are, kind of hoping it is an authentic tomb =D. But if it is, kind of a pity for all the raids that happened.
