Wood Slips

These wooden slips have writing on them. The slips contain a list of all the items within the tomb. This may have been placed here so that the lord could make sure that all the objects he wanted buried with him were put in his tomb, and that nothing had been stolen or left out. These documents would also prove the wealth of the dead person to the officials of the afterlife.

Wooden or bamboo slips were used before the invention of paper in China to show long pieces of information. In the late Eastern Zhou and Han dynasty people often had wooden slips buried with them in the tomb. Sometimes these slips had lists of the items in the tomb, sometimes they were to show that the person buried in the tomb had bought and paid for the tomb properly.

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