“ One of the principal problems is that no signs of human remains or of a coffin were found. It is true that the excessive dampness of the soil, and the fact that the tomb may for long periods have been full of water, would have been sufficient to cause bones or wood to disintegrate entirely; but one might have expected to find teeth, or, if the burial was of the Han dynasty, jade amulets and metal belt-hooks. Another possibility is that the tomb was a cenotaph, perhaps of a military officer whose body could not be recovered from the battlefield. ”

“ The earth within the tomb was of very fine texture, unlike the gritty soil outside, and one of the unsolved problems is to explain how it accumulated within a closed tomb. It has been suggested that it may have been carried by water percolating between the bricks of the walls closing the ends of the chambers, where the bricks, not being under pressure, appear to be more loosely set. ”

“ The pottery is all of the funerary type (ming ch'i) found in tombs of the Han and Six Dynasties. The designs on the edges of the bricks are mostly geometrical, and a few present stylized outlines of fishes, and some of dragons, again reminiscent of the Han and Six Dynasties. Among the bronze objects, a Han dynasty mirror is important for purposes of dating. Two short inscriptions, represented several times in the designs on the bricks, include reference to Punyü, the district in which Canton is situated, and a term which once included this particular region. ”