Lintong Museum

This guide to Lintong Museum in Xi'an centers on the reliquary coffins uncovered in May 1985, when farmers digging clay for a brickyard broke into a sealed Tang-dynasty tomb chamber and word of the find spread as fast as looting hands did. It follows Zhao Kangmin, then the museum's director, going door to door through the village to recover what had already been carried off, piece by piece, and the stele that pins down when the chamber was sealed. Around the reliquary case, the wider collection runs from Zhou and Qin bronzes to Han and Tang pottery, worn soft by centuries of hands.