While the discovery is rare and significant, it is not unheard of. More than 2,000 statues were found in a temple in China’s Hebei Province in the 1950s, and in 2012, archaeologists uncovered more than 3,000 Buddha statues, which was the largest discovery of artifacts since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
The most recent discovery will contribute to the research on the development and change in religious art in northern ancient China.