'Exceptionally Rare' Sheep Chariot Found Near Tomb of China's First Emperor

An ancient collection of chariots has been uncovered in China, dating back over 2,000 years.

The chariots were found near the Chinese city of Xi'an, in one of the tombs of the mausoleum of China's first emperor Qin Shi Huang, and included a rare six-sheep carriage.

While the body of the chariot was not preserved after all these years, the bones of six sheep were found lined up in a row, with accessories used to pull a chariot lying on top. This led the archaeologists to suspect this was the remains of an "exceptionally rare" sheep-drawn carriage, Jiang Wenxiao, head of the tomb's archaeological excavations, said at the fourth China Archaeological Congress, according to state-owned news website China Daily.

While carriages pulled by horses or ox were commonplace in ancient China, those drawn by sheep were a very rare sight and, therefore, an uncommon find. Sheep-drawn chariots are said to have been ridden by Emperor Wu, or Sima Yan, of the Western Jin Dynasty, who ruled between 266 and 290 A.D. He is believed to have ridden a sheep-drawn carriage around his palace every night, sleeping wherever the sheep came to a halt.

Until now, Emperor Wu was the oldest reported occurrence of sheep-drawn chariots in history. However, this discovery in the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, who ruled between 221 and 210 B.C., marks the earliest discovery of this type of carriage.

The archeology team hopes that doing laboratory analysis on the burial, which is currently underway, will help them determine who was buried there, the report said.

At the same site, the archaeologists uncovered a number of other wooden horse-drawn chariots, as well as an ornate wooden umbrella and several iron tools and copper weapons, according to the South China Morning Post. These are also thought to date back to the Qin dynasty. Previous discoveries in this same tomb include an ancient silver camel figurine, which was the earliest of its type found in China and suggested that the country had already begun to trade with the Middle East and West Asia.

The rest of the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang is enormous, covering around 10 square miles, and is also home to the famous Terracotta Army. These life-sized soldier-like statues number over 8,000 and were first uncovered in the 1970s. The exact tomb belonging to Qin Shi Huang is yet to be uncovered by archaeologists.

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