-1279 A.D. cond good for age small chip on base history, 907 - 1125 The Liao were Khitan Mongols. Before 936 A.D. they lived in the area between present days Beijing and the sea south of the Great Wall. In 946 A.D. they established the Kingdom of Liao which by 1120 covered a wide area of Northern Asia including Mongolia and Russia beyond Lake Baykal and Nothern China. The dynasty was contemporary with the first half of the Song Dynasty ruled from Kaifeng. During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Liao empire was the most powerful regime in East Asia. It developed broad contacts with the Korean and the Japanese on the east; the Song Chinese in the south; and the Uighur and Tangut people in the west. Through extensive routes inland and via the sea, the Liao's trading network further extended to India, West Asia, and the Baltic Sea. The Liao-dynasty tomb structures and their funerary contents indicate an integration of certain aspects of Siberian steppe burial tradition and Han Chinese tomb traditions with unique Liao Buddhist funereal practices. In China, the structure and interior decorations of a tomb along with its burial objects were consciously constructed to create a "personal universe" for the deceased. For centuries prior to the Liao dynasty, the Chinese built their tombs in imitation of underground shelters for the living, based on their beliefs in and ideas of the afterlife. The structure of Liao tombs relates to this mortuary tradition. Similar to a typical Han Chinese tomb, the interior of a Liao-dynasty tomb, was often painted with images of attendants and objects relating to the life of the deceased in an attempt to construct a familiar afterlife. Many tombs also contained provisions to sustain the "life" of the deceased after death and written messages to enable communication with the spirits.