ARCHAEOLOGISTS in China's northwestern Shaanxi Province said the crops they have unearthed from an emperor's mausoleum dating back more than 2,100 years were identified as carbonized peanuts, a discovery that can rewrite the nut's history.

The finding in the tomb belonging to the Western Han Dynasty's (206 BC-AD24) fourth emperor Liu Qi and his wife, all but destroys the previous belief that peanuts were first introduced to China in the 16th century from South America, China News Service reported today.

Archeologists also found large sums of rice paddies and wheat in two barns inside the Hanyang Emperor Mausoleum, where researchers have located 193 burial pits since it was discovered in the 1990s, the report said.

A lot of utensils for daily life and terracotta statues of pigs, dogs and sheep were also found in the mausoleum, while 64 colored terracotta warriors, regarded as guards for the stored crops, were unearthed, the report added.

The mausoleum, which opened its Outside Pits Exhibition Hall to the public in 2006, covers about 12 square kilometers and is about 20 kilometers north of Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi.

As the first underground museum in China, the mausoleum comprises the emperor's and empress's tombs, the south and north burial pits, a ceremonial site, human sacrifice graveyard and criminals' cemetery.

To date, more than 260 smaller tombs of other imperial family members, nobles or officials have been unearthed around the mausoleum.