Sillustani is a pre- Inca cemetery on the shores of Lake Umayo near Puno in Peru . The tombs, which are built above ground in tower-like structures called chullpas , are the vestiges of the Qulla people , most likely a Puquina -speaking people, conquered by the Inca Empire in the 15th century .
104-470: The structures housed the remains of complete family groups, although they were probably limited to nobility. Many of the tombs have been dynamited by grave robbers , while others were left unfinished. Veneration of the dead and kinship were integral parts of Aymara culture, and the huge chullpas or "chupa" at Sillustani were built to house the Aymara elite of the immediate pre-Inca and Inca period. The word
208-580: A Xianbei kingdom, which had one of its earlier capitals at present-day Datong in northern Shanxi, and which went on to rule nearly all of northern China. The Tang dynasty (618–907) originated in Taiyuan. During the Tang dynasty and after, present day Shanxi was called Hédōng ( 河東 ), or "east of the (Yellow) river". Empress Wu Zetian , one of China's only female rulers, was born in Shanxi in 624. During
312-545: A continental monsoon climate, and is rather arid. Average January temperatures are below 0 °C, while average July temperatures are around 21–26 °C. Winters are long, dry, and cold, while summer is warm and humid. Spring is extremely dry and prone to dust storms. Shanxi is one of the sunniest parts of China; early summer heat waves are common. Annual precipitation averages around 350 to 700 millimetres (14 to 28 in), with 60% of it concentrated between June and August. Major cities: The outline of Shanxi's territory
416-555: A fetal position . Some of the tombs also have various animal shapes carved into the stone. The only openings to the buildings face east, where it was believed the Sun was reborn by Mother Earth each day. While chullpas are not unique to Sillustani and are found across the Altiplano , this site is considered the best and most preserved example of them. A large ramp on one of the chullpas demonstrates how stones would have been stacked upon
520-447: A Resurrectionist or grave robber to dig up a grave rather than to topple down iron or steel doors guarding the mausoleum. A flaw in the design of the mausoleum was the stained glass or other windows within. Almost every family between the 18th and 19th century had a religious affiliation. Many of these families (usually with a Christian affiliation) would put stained glass within the mausoleums. The grave robbers would then just have to smash
624-414: A body of teaching and publication in modern Chinese medicine that became one of the foundations of the national institution of modern traditional Chinese medicine that was adopted in the 1950s. Yan invested in Shanxi's industrial infrastructure, and by 1949 the area around Taiyuan was a major national producer of coal, iron, chemicals, and munitions. Yan was able to protect the province from his rivals for
728-553: A broader pattern of colonial violence against Indigenous Australians, which included forced removal from their land, massacres, and the forced assimilation of Indigenous children into white Australian society. One of the most notorious examples of grave robbery in Australia is the case of the Tasmanian Aboriginals (see also: Black War ). After the last full-blooded Tasmanian Aboriginal woman died in 1876, her body
832-488: A functional role in protection against graverobbing. These feature strongly in French and British layouts. Typically these would be a semi-enclosed stone structure with an ornamental cast iron access gate and usually plainer rails to the roof or sides. Although the protective function of the vaults became redundant by 1840 most mid 19th century cemeteries continue to include vaults as a visual focal point in their layouts. This
936-571: A large, fortified prison complex filled with Communist prisoners. In a final act of desperation, Liang set fire to the prison and committed suicide as the entire compound burned to the ground. Soon after the Chinese Communist Revolution , Mao Zedong assigned Kang Sheng to carry out land reform in Shanxi. Kang encouraged the populace to have numerous farmers from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds denounced as "landlords," beaten, arrested, and executed. In some areas of
1040-488: A major part of Shanxi's economy. Shanxi possesses 260 billion metric tons of known coal deposits, about a third of China's total. As a result, Shanxi is a leading producer of coal in China and has more coal companies than any other province, with an annual production exceeding 300 million metric tonnes. The Datong ( 大同 ), Ningwu ( 宁武 ), Xishan ( 西山 ), Hedong ( 河东 ), Qinshui ( 沁水 ), and Huoxi ( 霍西 ) coalfields are some of
1144-520: A select number of days, the family would delegate this duty amongst them and close friends. As grave robbing became a lucrative business in the 19th century, a bribe would convince some guards to look the other way. In Scotland, construction of guard towers became common in the late 18th century, usually in a position overlooking most of the burial ground. Within the Great Pyramid of Giza (completed around 2560 BC), an Egyptian deterrent system
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#17327718800631248-600: A shipment of 12 bodies of southern African Americans. "They came in barrels labeled [as containing] turpentine and were shipped to a local hardware store that dealt in painting materials". State laws in Mississippi and North Carolina were passed in the 19th century which allowed medical schools to use the remains of those at the bottom of society's hierarchy—the unclaimed bodies of poor persons and residents of almshouses , and those buried in potter's fields for anatomical study. The option to dissect Confederate soldiers
1352-555: A small force of 6,000 men to hold off the entire Japanese army. A representative of the Japanese Army, speaking of the final defense of Taiyuan , said that "nowhere in China have the Chinese fought so obstinately". The Japanese suffered 30,000 dead and an equal number wounded in their effort to take northern Shanxi. A Japanese study found that the battles of Pingxingguan, Xinkou, and Taiyuan were responsible for over half of all
1456-481: A term denoting the contested or unlawful taking of a body (usually from a grave), which can be extended to the unlawful taking of organs alone. Grave robbing has caused great difficulty to the studies of archaeology , art history , and history . Countless precious grave sites and tombs have been robbed before scholars were able to examine them. In any way, the archaeological context and the historical and anthropological information are destroyed: Looting obliterates
1560-539: A width of 385 km (239 mi) from east to west, with a total area of 156,700 km (60,500 sq mi), accounting for 1.6% of the country's total area. Shanxi is divided into eleven prefecture-level divisions : all prefecture-level cities : The 11 prefecture-level cities of Shanxi are subdivided into 118 county-level divisions (23 districts , 11 county-level cities , and 84 counties ). Those are in turn divided into 1388 township-level divisions (561 towns , 634 townships , and 193 subdistricts ). At
1664-453: A year or two after burial. They are common throughout northern Europe. They usually predate any graverobbing periods and indeed serve no purpose in relation to graverobbing as they stored bones not bodies. Up to 31 recorded mort houses were scattered throughout Scotland and northern England. Usually these structures were built within or near cemeteries to make transportation easier. Prior to grave robbers, they were used to store dead bodies in
1768-515: Is a leading producer of coal in China , possessing roughly a third of China's total coal deposits. Nevertheless, Shanxi's GDP per capita remains below the national average. The province hosts the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center . The province is also known for having by far the largest number of historic buildings among all Chinese provinces, by possessing over 70% of China's surviving buildings built during or predating
1872-428: Is a parallelogram that runs from southwest to northeast. It is a typical mountain plateau widely covered by loess . The terrain is high in the northeast and low in the southwest. The interior of the plateau is undulating, the valleys are vertical and horizontal, and the types of landforms are complex and diverse. There are mountains, hills, terraces, plains, and rivers. The area of mountains and hills accounts for 80.1% of
1976-440: Is from north to south and from basin to high mountain. The annual precipitation in the whole province is between 358 and 621 mm, and the seasonal distribution is uneven. In June–August, the precipitation is relatively concentrated, accounting for about 60% of the annual precipitation, and the precipitation distribution in the province is greatly affected by the terrain. The province has a length of 682 km (424 mi) and
2080-576: Is now the city of Hohhot , and overlapped with the jurisdiction of the Eight Banners and the Guihua Tümed banner in that area. For centuries, Shanxi served as a center for trade and banking. The " Shanxi merchants " were once synonymous with wealth. The well-preserved city and UNESCO World Heritage Site Pingyao shows many signs of its economic importance during the Qing dynasty. With
2184-404: Is often a critical point within overall composition. One of the most simplistic and low-tech methods to prevent grave robbing were to have an individual guard over the newly buried body. This was done until decomposition of the body was brought to a point where they would no longer be desirable for medical use. If families did not have enough money to hire an individual to watch over the grave for
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#17327718800632288-413: Is possible that decades of Yan's socialist indoctrination may have prepared the people of Shanxi for Communist rule. After the death of Mao, the experiment was discontinued, and most peasants reverted to private farming under post-Maoist economic reforms . Shanxi is located on a plateau made up of higher ground to the east ( Taihang Mountains ) and the west ( Lüliang Mountains ) and a series of valleys in
2392-678: The Jin-Song wars . The Mongol Yuan dynasty administered China into provinces but did not establish Shanxi as a province. Shanxi only gained its present name and approximate borders during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) which were of the same land area and borders as the previous Hedong Commandery of the Tang dynasty. During the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Shanxi extended north beyond the Great Wall to include parts of Inner Mongolia , including what
2496-589: The Nationalist government until 1949. Early in Yan's rule he decided that, unless he was able to modernize and revive the economy of his small, poor, remote province, he would be unable to protect Shanxi from rival warlords. Yan devoted himself to modernizing Shanxi and developing its resources during his reign over the province. He has been viewed by Western biographers as a transitional figure who advocated using Western technology to protect Chinese traditions, while at
2600-801: The Song dynasty . Also notable are the Yungang Grottoes in Datong, which date back over 1500 years. In the Spring and Autumn period ( c. 770 – c. 481 BC ), the state of Jin was located in what is now Shanxi. It underwent a three-way split into the states of Han , Zhao , and Wei in 403 BC, a traditional date sometimes taken as the start of the Warring States period ( c. 473 – 221 BC). By 221 BC, all of these states had fallen to
2704-545: The collapse of the Qing dynasty , Shanxi became part of the newly established Republic of China . From 1911 to 1949, during the period of the Republic of China's period of rule over Mainland China , Shanxi was mostly dominated by the warlord Yan Xishan until the Chinese Communist Party took full control in 1949; Communists had already set up secret bases in 1936, but did not completely overturn Yan and
2808-584: The state of Qin , which established the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC). The Han dynasty (206 BC – AD 220) ruled Shanxi as the province of Bingzhou . During the invasion of northern nomads in the Sixteen Kingdoms period (304–439), several regimes including the Later Zhao , Former Yan , Former Qin , and Later Yan continuously controlled Shanxi. They were followed by Northern Wei (386–534),
2912-480: The 1820s. Mausolea do not play a major role in the history of graverobbing and are largely built as a display of wealth rather than security. Historically mausoleums have been used as a sign of a family's wealth and a symbol of gentry and nobility in many countries. In the mid and late 19th century in North America, more and more families began to buy mausoleums. The belief was that it would be easier for
3016-491: The 1925 generated great interest in Shanxi for the Kuomintang 's ideology, including women's rights , Yan allowed girls to enroll in middle school and college, where they promptly formed a women's association. Yan attempted to eradicate the custom of foot binding , threatening to sentence men who married women with bound feet, and mothers who bound their daughters' feet, to hard labor in state-run factories. He discouraged
3120-536: The 1980s, as the development and construction boom following the Chinese economic reform led to many archaeological sites being revealed. Other peaks of tomb robbing occurred in the early 2000s and in the 2010s, when the plunder of graves was on the upswing due to an increase in global and domestic demand (and prices) for Chinese antiquities. The provinces of Henan , Shaanxi , and Shanxi were particularly affected by tomb robbing. Ancient Egyptian tombs are one of
3224-840: The Ancient World outside of Egypt. The Romans ( Byzantium ) also suffered decades of theft and destruction of tombs, crypts, and graves. In parts of Europe, graves are robbed on an accelerating and alarming scale. Many grave robbers work with metal detectors and some of the groups are organised criminals , feeding the black market with highly prized archaeological artifacts. Merovingian graves in France and Germany and Anglo-Saxon graves in England contain many metal grave goods, mostly of iron. Grave robbers often leave them, being only interested in gold and silver. Grave contexts, ceramics, iron weapons and skeletons are typically destroyed in
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3328-528: The Eighth Route Army and continued to advance towards Yan's capital. The lack of attention directed at their forces gave the Communists time to recruit and propagandize among the local peasant populations (who generally welcomed Communist forces enthusiastically) and to organize a network of militia units, local guerrilla bands and popular mass organizations. Genuine Communist efforts to resist
3432-489: The Japanese "special forces" under Yan totaled 15,000 troops, plus an officer corps that was distributed throughout Yan's army. These numbers were reduced to 10,000 after serious American efforts to repatriate the Japanese were partially successful. Yan's Japanese army was instrumental in helping him to retain control of most of northern Shanxi during much of the subsequent Chinese Civil War , but by 1949 casualties had reduced
3536-418: The Japanese gave them the authority to carry out sweeping and radical social and economic reforms, mostly related to land and wealth redistribution, which they defended by labeling those who resisted as Hanjian . Communist efforts to resist the Japanese also won over Shanxi's small population of patriotic intellectuals, and conservative fears of resisting them effectively gave the Communists unlimited access to
3640-465: The Japanese into his service in the manner that he did, he retained both the extensive industrial complex around Taiyuan and virtually all of the managerial and technical personnel employed by the Japanese to run it. Yan was so successful in convincing surrendered Japanese to work for him that, as word spread to other areas of north China, Japanese soldiers from those areas began to converge on Taiyuan to serve his government and army. At its greatest strength
3744-646: The Japanese. During the Battle of Xinkou , the Chinese defenders resisted the efforts of Japan's elite Itakagi Division for over a month, despite Japanese advantages in artillery and air support. By the end of October 1937, Japan's losses were four times greater than those suffered at Pingxingguan, and the Itakagi Division was close to defeat. Contemporary Communist accounts called the battle "the most fierce in North China", while Japanese accounts called
3848-826: The Khitans for the next 100 years because it lay south of the Great Wall . The later Zhou , the last dynasty of the Five Dynasties period was founded by Guo Wei , a Han Chinese, who served as the Assistant Military Commissioner at the court of the Later Han which was ruled by Shatuo Turks . He founded his dynasty by launching a military coup against the Turkic Later Han Emperor however, his newly established dynasty
3952-523: The Nationalists or the Japanese. He then negotiated a secret anti-Japanese " United Front " with the Communists in October 1936 and invited them to establish operations in Shanxi. Yan, under the slogan "resistance against the enemy and defense of the soil", attempted to recruit young, patriotic intellectuals to his government in order to organize a local resistance to the threat of Japanese invasion. By
4056-558: The Research Society for the Advancement of Chinese Medicine, based in Taiyuan, in 1921. Highly unusual in China at the time, the school had a four-year curriculum and included courses in both Chinese and Western Medicine. The main skills that Yan hoped physicians trained at the school would learn were: a standardized system of diagnosis; sanitary science, including bacteriology ; surgical skills, including obstetrics ; and,
4160-694: The Ten Kingdoms, in what is now northern and central Shanxi. Shi Jingtang , founder of the Later Jin , the third of the Five Dynasties, ceded a piece of northern China to the Khitans in return for military assistance. This territory, called the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun , included a part of northern Shanxi. The ceded territory became a major problem for the Song dynasty's defense against
4264-643: The United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. The mining-related companies include Daqin Railway Co. Ltd., which runs one of the busiest and most technologically advanced railways in China, connecting Datong and Qinhuangdao exclusively for coal shipping. The revenue of Daqin Railway Co. Ltd. is among the highest among Shanxi companies due to its export of coal to Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia. Shanxi's nominal GDP in 2011
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4368-521: The accessibility of the automobile (in the early 19th century), the transportation of bodies was difficult. An example of this is Mount Auburn Cemetery, in Cambridge Massachusetts. It was the first rural cemetery inside the United States. The rural location of the cemetery created transportation issues. In addition, the terrain of and around the area was formidable, as the designer, Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn , wanted to leave
4472-482: The battle a "stalemate". In an effort to save their forces at Xinkou, Japanese forces began an effort to occupy Shanxi from a second direction, in the east. After a week of fighting, Japanese forces captured the strategic Niangzi Pass , opening the way to capturing Taiyuan. Communist guerrilla tactics were ineffective in slowing down the Japanese advance. The defenders at Xinkou, realizing that they were in danger of being outflanked, withdrew southward, past Taiyuan, leaving
4576-420: The casualties suffered by the Japanese army in North China. Yan himself was forced to withdraw after having 90% of his army destroyed, including a large force of reinforcements sent into Shanxi by the central government. Throughout 1937, numerous high-ranking Communist leaders, including Mao Zedong , lavished praise on Yan for waging an uncompromising campaign of resistance against the Japanese. Possibly because of
4680-534: The center through which the Fen River runs. The highest peak is Mount Wutai (Wutai Shan) in northeastern Shanxi with an altitude of 3,058 m. The Great Wall of China forms most of the northern border with Inner Mongolia . The Zhongtiao Mountains run along part of the southern border and separate Shanxi from the east–west part of the Yellow River. Mount Hua is to the southwest. The Yellow River forms
4784-510: The city's walls, initiating bloody street-to-street fighting for control of the city. At 10:00 am, April 22, the Taiyuan Campaign ended with the Communists in complete control of Shanxi. Total Nationalist casualties amounted to all 145,000 defenders, many of whom were taken as POWs. The Communists lost 45,000 men and an unknown number of civilian laborers they had drafted, all of whom were either killed or injured. The fall of Taiyuan
4888-551: The commander of the Eighth Route Army active in Shanxi and was named the vice-commander of the Second War Zone, under Yan himself. Yan initially responded warmly to the re-entry of the arrival of Communist forces, and they were greeted with enthusiasm by Yan's officials and officers. Communist forces arrived in Shanxi just in time to help defeat a decisively more powerful Japanese force attempting to move through
4992-409: The consent of Indigenous communities but were used to advance racist and pseudoscientific theories about their supposed inferiority. It was a common practice carried out by medical students who needed corpses for dissection and research. This practice continued until the late nineteenth century when laws were introduced to regulate the supply of cadavers for medical research. This was all part of
5096-494: The defenders due to fears of being shot down by the advancing Communists. The People's Liberation Army , depending largely on their reinforcements of artillery, launched a major assault on April 20, 1949, and succeeded in taking all positions surrounding Taiyuan by April 22. A subsequent appeal to the defenders to surrender was refused. On the morning of April 22, 1949, the PLA bombarded Taiyuan with 1,300 pieces of artillery and breached
5200-518: The discovery of a previously unknown family cemetery by a new landowner. One notable historical incident occurred during the evening of November 7, 1876, when a group of counterfeiters attempted to steal Abraham Lincoln 's body from his grave in Springfield, Illinois , in an attempt to secure the release of their imprisoned leader, counterfeit engraver Benjamin Boyd. However, a Secret Service agent
5304-457: The early days of British colonisation, when Aboriginal burial sites were viewed merely as sites of scientific curiosity and anthropological study, and sought to collect and study their remains before they disappeared altogether. This belief was reflected in the work of anthropologists and scientists who travelled to Australia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to collect Aboriginal remains for study. These remains were not only taken without
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#17327718800635408-467: The east, Henan to the south, Shaanxi to the west and Inner Mongolia to the north. Shanxi's terrain is characterised by a plateau bounded partly by mountain ranges. Shanxi's culture is largely dominated by the ethnic Han majority, who make up over 99% of its population. Jin Chinese is considered by some linguists to be a distinct language from Mandarin and its geographical range covers most of Shanxi. Both Jin and Mandarin are spoken in Shanxi. Shanxi
5512-666: The end of 1936 Taiyuan had become a gathering point for anti-Japanese intellectuals from all over China. The Marco Polo Bridge Incident in July 1937 led the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces to invade China, and Shanxi was one of the first areas the Japanese attacked. When it became clear to Yan that his forces might not be successful in repelling the Imperial Japanese Army , he invited Communist military forces to re-enter Shanxi. Zhu De became
5616-548: The end of 2017, the total population of Shanxi is 37.02 million. The Governor of Shanxi is the highest-ranking official in the People's Government of Shanxi. However, in the province's dual party-government governing system, the Governor is subordinate to the provincial Communist Party Committee Secretary ( 中共山西省委书记 ), colloquially termed the "Shanxi Party Committee Secretary ". As is the case in almost all Chinese provinces,
5720-414: The entire south Central Andes with the above ground burial styles going back at least to the mature Tiwanaku period (c. 500–950). The insides of the tombs were built to hold entire groups of people, most likely extended families of the Aymara elite. Corpses were not intentionally mummified, but in the dry environment created by the closed tomb, they survived for centuries. Most mummy bundles indicate burial in
5824-543: The first part of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907–960), Shanxi supplied rulers of three of the Five Dynasties. Among the Ten Kingdoms, it was the only one located in northern China. Shanxi was initially home to the jiedushi (commander) of Hedong, Li Cunxu , who overthrew the first of the Five Dynasties, Later Liang (907–923) to establish the second, Later Tang (923–936). Another jiedushi of Hedong, Shi Jingtang , overthrew Later Tang to establish
5928-663: The former base of the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Liberation Army. Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre , one of China's three satellite launch centers, is located in the middle of Shanxi with China's largest stockpile of nuclear missiles . Many private corporations, in joint ventures with the state-owned mining corporations, have invested billions of dollars in the mining industry of Shanxi . Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing made one of his largest investments ever in China in exploiting coal gas in Shanxi. Foreign investors include mining companies from Canada,
6032-399: The generations. Efforts to repatriate stolen Indigenous remains and protect Indigenous burial sites have been ongoing in Australia for many years. In recent years, there has been a growing movement to return stolen remains to their traditional owners for proper burial and commemoration. The geography and placement of burial grounds became a deterrent within itself. This is because without
6136-418: The glass to break in and to retrieve the body. Making it even easier, around the 1830s families began to fear burying family members. To remedy this, families would put a spare key somewhere within the mausoleum and create doors with two way locks. Grave robbers could break a window, recover the body, find the key, and walk straight out the front door of the mausoleum. Unlike mausolea, cemetery vaults did play
6240-574: The grave. These deterrents, used commonly in Scotland, would be rented from the sexton until the body decomposed and were used on a circulating basis. At the passage of the Dissections Act the purpose became redundant and they were left where last used, sometimes being incorporated into the grave marker by addition of inscription. A mort house, ossuaries or dead house was used to store bones (usually skulls and femurs) gleaned from graves
6344-451: The head of Yan's "Patriotic Sacrifice League", had fought for years against the Communists in Shanxi until he was finally trapped in the massively fortified city of Taiyuan. For six months Liang put up a fierce resistance, leading both Yan's remaining Republic of China Army forces and his thousands of Japanese mercenaries. When Communist troops finally broke into the city and began to occupy large sections of it, Liang barricaded himself inside
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#17327718800636448-462: The highest-ranked provincial officials, Jin Yinhuan , died in a car accident. Since Xi Jinping 's ascendancy to General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party at the 18th Party Congress , numerous highly ranked officials in Shanxi have been placed under investigation for corruption-related offenses, including four incumbent members Bai Yun , Chen Chuanping , Du Shanxue , and Nie Chunyu of
6552-517: The influence of solar radiation, monsoon circulation and geographical factors, Shanxi's climate has four distinct seasons, synchronous rain and heat, sufficient sunshine, significant climate difference between north and south, wide temperature difference between winter and summer, and large temperature difference between day and night. The annual average temperature in Shanxi Province is between 4.2 and 14.2 °C. The overall distribution trend
6656-593: The majority end up in private collections. Grave robbing in China is a practice stretching back to antiquity; the classic Chinese text Lüshi Chunqiu , dating to the 2nd century BCE, advised readers to plan simple burials to discourage looting. The presence of jade burial suits and other valuables in tombs were powerful temptations to rob graves. In modern China, grave robbing has been perpetrated by both amateurs (such as farmers and migrant laborers) and by professional thieves associated with transnational criminal networks . The practice reached epidemic proportions in
6760-446: The memory of the ancient world and turns its highest artistic creations into decorations, adornments on a shelf, divorced from historical context and ultimately from all meaning. Grave robbers who are not caught usually sell relatively modern items anonymously and artifacts on the black market . Those intercepted, in a public justice domain, are inclined to deny their guilt. Though some artifacts may make their way to museums or scholars,
6864-612: The most common examples of tomb or grave robbery. Most of the tombs in Egypt's Valley of the Kings were robbed within one hundred years of their sealing (including the tomb of the famous King Tutankhamen , which was raided at least twice before it was discovered in 1922). As most of the artifacts in these ancient burial sites have been discovered, it is through the conditions of the tombs and presumed articles that are missing in which historians and archaeologists are able to determine whether
6968-563: The most important in Shanxi. Shanxi also contains about 500 million tonnes of bauxite deposits, about a third of total Chinese bauxite reserves. Industry in Shanxi is centered around heavy industries such as coal and chemical production, power generation, and metal refining . As part of an effort to promote diversification in non-resource industries, since 2004, some local governments in Shanxi province have required that coal mining companies set aside funds for investing in non-coal business like agriculture and produce processing. In 2006,
7072-1071: The natural terrain (including ponds and hills) within the cemetery. If someone wanted to rob a grave, they would have to maneuver around these obstacles and navigate large stretches of land in the dark. Note that Mount Auburn Cemetery is over 175 acres. Other cemeteries, of the time, that were originally built away from populated areas for similar reasons, include: Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor, Maine (1834); Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1836); Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Taunton, Massachusetts (1836); Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York (1838); Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York (1838); and, Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland (1838). A mortsafe or mort safe
7176-451: The number of Japanese soldiers under Yan's command to 3,000. The leader of the Japanese under Yan's command, Hosaku Imamura, committed suicide on the day that Taiyuan fell to Communist forces. Yan Xishan himself (along with most of the provincial treasury) was airlifted out of Taiyuan in March 1949. Shortly afterwards Republic of China Air Force planes stopped dropping food and supplies for
7280-537: The period of his rule partially due to his building of an arsenal in Taiyuan that, for the entire period of his administration, remained the only center in China capable of producing field artillery. Yan's army was successful in eradicating banditry in Shanxi, allowing him to maintain a relatively high level of public order and security. Yan went to great lengths to eradicate social traditions which he considered antiquated. He insisted that all men in Shanxi abandon their Qing-era queues, giving police instructions to clip off
7384-441: The poor were frequently the target of grave robbing. African Americans would often be compelled to bury their dead in a potter's field , not having the access or money for a proper funeral. When buried in potter's fields, the dead were not normally buried very deeply. A grave robber could wait discreetly in the distance until nobody else was in sight, then quickly and easily disinter the body from its shallow resting place. Once
7488-820: The process. In Eastern Europe , including Southeast Europe and the European part of Russia , grave robbers target all kinds of historically important graves, from prehistoric tombs to World War II graves. Modern grave robbing in North America also involves long-abandoned or forgotten private Antebellum Period to pre- Great Depression era grave sites. These sites are often desecrated by grave robbers in search of old and valuable jewellery. Affected sites are typically in rural, forested areas where once-prominent, wealthy landowners and their families were interred. The remote and often undocumented locations of defunct private cemeteries make them particularly susceptible to grave robbery. The practice may be encouraged by default upon
7592-484: The province as many as one in five residents were denounced as landlords, and his program was copied throughout the rest of the new People's Republic of China . Shanxi became the site of Mao's "model brigade" of Dazhai : a utopian communist scheme in Xiyang County that was supposed to be the model for all other peasants in China to emulate. If the people of Dazhai were especially suited for such an experiment, it
7696-501: The province is Taiyuan , while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi and Datong . Its one-character abbreviation is 晋 ( Jìn ), after the state of Jin that existed there during the Spring and Autumn period ( c. 770 – c. 481 BC ). The name Shanxi means 'west of the mountains', a reference to its location west of the Taihang Mountains . Shanxi borders Hebei to
7800-424: The provincial Communist Party Standing Committee. They were all removed from office around August 2014. The following were also removed from office: Thousands of Shanxi officials were disciplined during the anti-corruption campaign under Xi Jinping . This necessitated a scramble to find find suitable personnel for many vacated offices. In the aftermath of the 'political earthquake', party secretary Yuan Chunqing
7904-415: The provincial government established a policy of "subsidizing peasants by coal" which made this diversification a provincewide requirement and encouraged local governments to develop policies like subsidies and favorable tax treatment to further encourage mining companies to invest in non-coal business. There are countless military-related industries in Shanxi due to its geographic location and history as
8008-464: The provincial party secretary and Governor are not natives of Shanxi; rather, they are outsiders who are, in practice, appointed by the central party and government authorities. The province went through significant political instability since 2004, due largely to the number of scandals that have hit the province on labour safety, the environment, and the interconnected nature between the provincial political establishment and big coal companies. Yu Youjun
8112-425: The queues of anyone still wearing them. In one instance, Yan lured people into theatres in order to have his police systematically cut the hair of the audience. He attempted to combat widespread female illiteracy by creating in each district at least one vocational school in which peasant girls could be given a primary-school education and taught domestic skills. After National Revolutionary Army military victories in
8216-467: The railroad was invented and tracks laid, the sale of the bodies of African American slaves from the South for dissection began in earnest. The bodies were robbed from graves by night doctors and shipped to medical schools in the northern part of the United States. One New England anatomy professor reported that, in the 1880s and 1890s, he entered into an arrangement in which he received, twice each semester,
8320-457: The repercussions of being in possession of stolen goods; the blame (and charges) were placed upon the lower-class grave robbers. Today's antiquities trade has become a streamlined industry, the speed at which these artifacts enter the market has grown exponentially. Laws to prevent grave robbing have been enacted in these regions, but due to extreme poverty, these grave robberies continue to grow each year. Enslaved and free blacks, immigrants, and
8424-420: The rural population. Subsequent atrocities committed by the Japanese in the effort to rid Shanxi of Communist guerrillas aroused the hatred of millions in the Shanxi countryside, causing the rural population to turn to the Communists for leadership against the Japanese. All of these factors explain how, within a year of re-entering Shanxi, the Communists were able to take control of most of Shanxi not firmly held by
8528-537: The same time reforming older political, social and economic conditions in a way that paved the way for the radical changes that would occur after his rule. In 1918 there was an outbreak of bubonic plague in northern Shanxi that lasted for two months and killed 2,664 people. Yan's interactions with the Western medical personnel he met with to discuss how to suppress the epidemic inspired him to modernize and improve Shanxi's medical infrastructure which he began by funding
8632-607: The severity of his losses in northern Shanxi, Yan abandoned a plan of defense based on positional warfare, and began to reform his army as a force capable of waging guerrilla warfare. After 1938 most of Yan's followers came to refer to his regime as a "guerrilla administration". After the surrender of Japan and the end of the Second World War , Yan Xishan was notable for his ability to recruit thousands of Japanese soldiers stationed in northwest Shanxi in 1945, including their commanding officers, into his army. By recruiting
8736-418: The strategic Pingxing Pass . The Battle of Pingxingguan was the largest battle won by the Communists against the Japanese. After the Japanese responded to this defeat by outflanking the defenders and moving towards Taiyuan , the Communists avoided decisive battles and mostly attempted to harass Japanese forces and sabotage Japanese lines of supply and communication. The Japanese suffered, but mostly ignored
8840-406: The third of the Five Dynasties, Later Jin , and yet another jiedushi of Hedong, Liu Zhiyuan , established the fourth of the Five Dynasties ( Later Han ) after the Khitans destroyed Later Jin, the third. Finally, when the fifth of the Five Dynasties ( Later Zhou ) emerged, the jiedushi of Hedong at the time, Liu Chong , rebelled and established an independent state called Northern Han , one of
8944-456: The tomb has been robbed. Egyptian pharaohs often kept records of the precious items in their tombs, so an inventory check is presumed for archaeologists. Oftentimes, warnings would be left by the Pharaohs in the tombs of calamities and curses that would be laid upon any who touched the treasure, or the bodies, which did little to deter grave robbers. There are many examples of grave robbing in
9048-530: The total area of the province, and the area of Pingchuan and river valleys accounts for 19.9% of the total area. Most of the province's altitude is above 1,500 meters, and the highest point is the Yedoufeng, the main peak of Wutai Mountain , with an altitude of 3061.1 meters, which is the highest peak in northern China. Shanxi is located in the inland of the mid-latitude zone and belongs to the temperate continental monsoon climate in terms of climate type. Due to
9152-450: The twentieth century, with some cases reported as recently as the 1970s. The theft and desecration of Aboriginal burial sites and remains has had profound and ongoing impacts on Indigenous communities in Australia. For many Indigenous Australians, the loss of their ancestors' remains has denied them the opportunity to mourn and grieve their loved ones. It has also perpetuated a legacy of trauma and dispossession that has been passed down through
9256-419: The use of diagnostic instruments. Yan hoped that his support of the school would eventually lead to increased revenues in the domestic and international trade of Chinese drugs, improved public health , and improved public education . Yan's promotion of a modern curriculum and infrastructure of Chinese medicine achieved limited success, but much of the teaching and publication that this school of medicine produced
9360-500: The use of the traditional lunar calendar and encouraged the development of local boy scout organizations . Like the Communists who later succeeded Yan, he punished habitual lawbreakers to "redemption through labour" in state-run factories. After the failed attempt by the Chinese Red Army to establish bases in southern Shanxi in early 1936 Yan became convinced that the Communists were lesser threats to his rule than either
9464-476: The walls during construction. Father Cobo saw Inca builders using a similar ramp in the construction of the Cusco Cathedral. Grave robbery Grave robbery , tomb robbing , or tomb raiding is the act of uncovering a grave , tomb or crypt to steal commodities . It is usually perpetrated to take and profit from valuable artefacts or personal property . A related act is body snatching ,
9568-458: The western border of Shanxi with Shaanxi . The Fen and Qin rivers, tributaries of the Yellow River, run north-to-south through the province, and drain much of its area. The north of the province is drained by tributaries of the Hai River , such as Sanggan and Hutuo rivers. The largest natural lake in Shanxi is Xiechi Lake , a salt lake near Yuncheng in southwestern Shanxi. Shanxi has
9672-495: The winter, being that the ground was too cold and in some cases impossible to dig into. An example is the Udny Mort House built in 1832, Aberdeenshire, north-east Scotland and still standing today. The coffin collar was an iron collar often fixed to a piece of wood. It was fixed around the neck of a corpse and then bolted to the bottom of a coffin. Most common reports of these collars being used came from Scotland around
9776-533: Was also available, as Mississippi and North Carolina legally released those bodies to the families of the deceased. The North Carolina law also provided that the bodies of whites never be sent to an African American medical college (such as the Leonard Medical School ). These African American medical schools typically obtained unclaimed Black ‘‘potter’s field bodies’’. The practice of grave robbery against Aboriginal Australians can be traced back to
9880-415: Was an iron coffin or framework which helped to protect a grave by preventing the body from being dug up and taken away. Mortsafes were specific for the task of preventing bodies from being stolen for purposes of medical dissections. Other variants included movable stone slabs capable of being hoisted over the fresh grave. All work on the principle of greatly increasing the required time for criminals to access
9984-534: Was built to guard the tomb of Pharaoh Khufu . This system consists of blocks and grooves to protect the King's Chamber from tomb robbers. Some experts believe that Pharaoh Khufu's tomb has actually not been found because of the deterrent system; instead, what had been found by grave robbers were fake chambers. Shanxi Shanxi is a province in Northwestern China . Its capital and largest city of
10088-581: Was exhumed and her skeleton sent to the Royal College of Surgeons in London for study. It was not until 1976, a century later, that her remains were finally returned to Australia for a proper burial. Probably the most prolific documented individual pillager of Indigenous burial sites was George Murray Black , who ransacked around 1,800 graves around Victoria , eastern South Australia and southern New South Wales . The practice continued well into
10192-616: Was limited to the area around Taiyuan: by 1949 three of the seven government-run hospitals were in the city. In 1934 the province produced a ten-year-plan that envisaged employing a hygiene worker in every village, but the Japanese invasion in 1937 and the subsequent civil war made it impossible to carry these plans out. Yan's generous support for the Research Association for the Improvement of Chinese Medicine generated
10296-487: Was one of the few examples in the Chinese Civil War in which Nationalist forces echoed the defeated Ming loyalists who had, in the 17th century, brought entire cities to ruins resisting the invading Manchus. Many Nationalist officers were reported to have committed suicide when the city fell. The dead included Yan's nephew-in-law, who was serving as governor, and his cousin, who ran his household. Liang Huazhi ,
10400-437: Was present and had notified the police beforehand, so the grave robbers only succeeded in dislodging the lid of his coffin. As a consequence, when Lincoln was reburied, additional security measures were implemented to prevent further grave robbery attempts. Grave robbers often sold stolen Aztec or Mayan goods on the black market for an extremely high price. The buyers (museum curators, historians, etc.) didn't often suffer
10504-647: Was removed from his post in September 2014, with Wang Rulin 'helicoptered' into the provincial Party Secretary office. The GDP per capita of Shanxi is below the national average. Compared to the provinces in east China, Shanxi is less developed for many reasons. Its geographic location limits its participation in international trade, which involves mostly eastern coastal provinces. Important crops in Shanxi include wheat , maize , millet , legumes , and potatoes . The local climate and dwindling water resources limit agriculture in Shanxi. Mining-related industries are
10608-571: Was sent by the central government in 2005 to become Governor but resigned in the wake of the Shanxi slave labour scandal in 2007. He was succeeded by Meng Xuenong , who had been previously sacked as Mayor of Beijing in the aftermath of the SARS outbreak. Meng himself was removed from office in 2008 after only a few months on the job due to the political fallout from the 2008 Shanxi mudslide . In 2008, provincial Political Consultative Conference Chair, one of
10712-714: Was short-lived and was conquered by the Song dynasty in 960. In the early years of the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), the sixteen ceded prefectures continued to be an area of contention between the Song dynasty and the Liao dynasty . Later the Southern Song dynasty abandoned all of North China , including Shanxi, to the Jurchen Jin dynasty (1115–1234) in 1127 after the Jingkang Incident of
10816-526: Was used in the 19th century and comes from the Dictionary of Ludovico Bertonio (1612). Bertonio referred to the basket burials of the semi-nomadic pastoralists as "chulpas" and actually referred to stone towers as uta amaya "houses of the soul". However, the term "chullpa" remains used today for the towers. Many of the chullpas at Sillustani show pre-Inca characteristics that were later redressed with Inca stone blocks. Similar chullpas are found throughout
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