Even centuries later, Cao Cao sure knows how to start a turf war. This week the Henan Cultural Preservation Office issued a statement saying that there were no plans to commercialize the recently discovered tomb of Three Kingdoms era general Cao Cao. Spokesperson Sun Yingmin said that great care was needed to preserve and study “one of China’s greatest archaeological discoveries.”
I suspect what may be going on here is akin to an ongoing battle in Shaanxi over the tomb of Qin Shihuang, the first Qin Emperor. Some government officials, anxious to develop the regional economy, are eager to exploit famous archaeological sites for tourism hoping to add some cash to the local coffers. Archaeologists, historians, and the like are reluctant to rush excavations for fear of causing irreparable harm to the contents of the tombs.
This sounds like a bit of preemptive strike on the part of Henan Cultural Preservation officials to their more profit-driven brethren to back off and let the researchers work.