The Administration of Cultural Heritage of central China's Henan Province announced on December 27, 2009 that they had discovered the tomb of Cao Cao (155-220), a renowned warlord and important politician in China's history, in Anyang County of the province.

More than 250 pieces of relics were unearthed from the 740-square-meter tomb, a size appropriate for a king, the administration said. Archaeologists also found 59 stone steles engraved with the descriptions and the number of articles buried in the tomb. Also unearthed were a large number of paintings on stone tablets.

The announcement soon sparked a debate in society about the authenticity of the evidence the administration presented. After several days of research and study, an expert team of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) later announced that based on current archaeological research, the unearthed ancient tomb in Anyang could be "primarily ascertained" to be Cao's. At the same time, CASS added the discovery of Cao's tomb to the list of China's six major archaeological findings in 2009