ZAOYANG CITY, CHINA—A complex made up of 2,800-year-old tombs is under excavation in central China by a team of archaeologists from Peking University. The tombs are thought to have belonged to high-ranking Chinese nobility from the Spring and Autumn Period, from 770 to 476 B.C. Near the 30 tombs, separate pits containing at least 28 wooden chariots and 49 pairs of horses have been found. “The chariots and horses were densely buried. Many of the wheels were taken off and the rest of the parts of the chariots were placed one by one,” Liu Xu of the School of Archaeology and Museology of Peking University told China Central Television, and reported in The International Business Times. The tombs have yielded fine pottery, a bronze pot engraved with Old Chinese characters, a dragon-shaped pot, and a thin, flat, metal object painted with Old Chinese characters that may have been a tool. Some of the oldest musical instruments in China were also recovered from the tombs, including a frame for a set of bronze chimes and a se, or stringed instrument. The wealth of the tombs suggests that the independent Chu state may have been more powerful than previously thought. To read about China's looting epidemic, see "Tomb Raider Chronicles."