Gold artifacts reveal tales of history from 2,000 years ago

In ancient China, in order to commemorate the auspicious signs that Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24) encountered during his tours across the empire, horse-hoof-shaped gold and qilin toe-shaped gold were crafted and bestowed as rewards to nobles and state kings.

Astonishingly, 48 pieces of horse-hoof-shaped gold and 25 pieces of qilin toe-shaped gold have been unearthed from the famous tomb of Marquis Haihun, Liu He (92-59 BC), grandson of the Emperor Wu of Han. Many of these artifacts bear inscriptions of Chinese characters reading shang (upper), zhong (middle) and xia (lower), a first in archaeology of the period.

Now housed in the Jiangxi Provincial Museum, these gold treasures continue to tell the splendid tales of Han Dynasty history.