A batch of cultural relics recently unearthed at the site of a former town during the West Zhou Dynasty (about 1029 BC to 771BC) were relocated Monday to the provincial museum in Jinan, East China's Shandong Province, and will be open to the public once construction of the new provincial museum has been completed, Qilu Evening News reports.

Among the excavated items are five pits that held sacrificial horses and another pit that held both horses and carriages that were buried along with their deceased owners some 3,000 years ago at what is today Chen Village of Gaoqing County in Shandong Province, according to the report, which also described the horses and carriages inside the pits as "astonishing."

The carriages, which were all made of wooden materials that had rotted and become tightly stuck together with mud, had to be removed whole to Jinan, where they were reinforced and restored to their original appearance, the report said.

It also took archeologists more than two months to clear out the accumulated water inside the pits, which were adjacent to a creek.

Zheng Tongxiu, head of the Shandong Province Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that usually archeological sites are resealed for safe-keeping once scientists have collected data. Relocating the excavated pits whole is a rare move in China, but Zheng said the true value of the cultural relics can be better realized if they are housed in museums for research, collection and exhibiting. He also said that the relocation means research can begin.