Live from Inner Mongolia	Volume 56 Number 5, September/October 2003
by Jarrett A. Lobell

Mongolian state television recently featured a live broadcast of archaeologists opening a Liao Dynasty (A.D. 907-1125) coffin found in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. The first of its kind to be discovered in a Liao tomb, the bright red coffin is elaborately decorated with golden phoenixes and servants and was buried along with rich grave goods, including silks, and gold, silver, and laquer wares. Inside the coffin was the well-preserved body of what archaeologists believe to be a Liao nobleman wrapped in a silk blanket, and wearing a necklace, bells around his ankles, and a studded metal mask and helmet.

© 2003 by the Archaeological Institute of America archive.archaeology.org/0309/newsbriefs/mongolia.html