About 900 there was some looting of elite tombs of the site, which some think is suggestive of a revolt against the site's rulers.

They traveled to Egypt in caravans; knowledge of this comes primarily from scenes in elite tombs.

Objects made of obsidian were often buried in elite tombs as special deposits or caches.

Archaeological excavations of Maya sites have turned up a number of rectangular lumps of plaster and paint flakes, most commonly in elite tombs.

Experts thought that the artifact may have been looted in the late 1980s from an elite tomb at the Moche site of La Mina.

It was extremely rare in ancient Egypt for an elite tomb to be shared by two men of apparently equal standing.

They said in interviews last week that the find was remarkable as the oldest unplundered elite tomb to be found in Syria.

Burial 128 is an elite tomb built into Structure A-III.

The first is a truly fabulous display of ceramic guardian figures, entertainers and animals made for elite tombs from the Han to Tang dynasties.

The increasingly centralised organisation of the third millennium BC created a disciplined labour force, which was used to build vast royal monuments and elite tombs.