Have you ever walked through an ancient Chinese tomb or seen artifacts from ancient Chinese dynasties?

If you never have, you may want to stop and see a new exhibit starting Tuesday at the Palmer Museum of Art.

Differences Preserved: Reconstructed Tombs from the Liao and Song Dynasties, a large touring exhibition of more than 50 objects, will be on display at the museum through Dec. 16.

The exhibit will not only recreate an ancient Chinese tomb for viewers to walk through but will also display multiple decorous items that were excavated from the ancient tombs of the Liao (A.D. 907-1125) and Song (A.D. 960-1127) dynasties.

The exhibition will be "quite different from previous exhibitions," public relations coordinator Robin Seymour said. "It will be very interesting and elaborate.

"People should come and witness this display because it is different from previous exhibits that have been featured at this museum."

Some of the objects in the exhibit include wooden furniture, ceramic figures and mural paintings from three excavated tombs.

At the end of the 10th and beginning of the 11th centuries, the Liao and Song dynasties existed alongside each other in what is known today as the Hebei Province of China. Only 100 miles separated the two civilizations. Regardless of the short distance that existed between them however, they never communicated. They were prohibited from interacting with one another.

The exhibition reveals many of the similarities between the two dynasties, despite their lack of communication, as well as many differences that existed between the two cultures. They each lived under different political systems yet shared many ethnic similarities.

The main differences between the two dynasties illustrated in the display exist in the tombs' structures, the images projected on the tombs' walls, the religion of the occupants, and the objects placed inside the tombs to prepare the deceased for an afterlife, said Dana Kletchka, educator of the museum.

Kletchka also said other differences seen in the display are prevalent in the ways the two dynasties dressed and the way they wore their hair, as well as in the way they decorated their figures and objects.

The Liao family dynasty was primarily Buddhist and the family tomb that was excavated revealed that the Liao dynasty was more focused on religion than the Song dynasty. The Liaos wore their hair in "Quiban" fashion signifying that they shaved their heads in the front and pulled the rest back into a ponytail. Their ceramics were also less decorative and there were many more objects placed in their tombs.

Both dynasties however, prepared their dead for the imagined afterlife. "There is an ancient Chinese saying: Treat the dead like the living," said curator Joyce Robinson. "The tombs were filled with objects that would have made its occupants ready to make a transition into a different afterlife."

In one Liao family tomb, many wooden figures were discovered which represented the servants who were to serve the dead in the afterlife. In the two excavated Song tombs similar objects were discovered, only made of ceramic.

Years ago, the Chinese sacrificed humans, usually a servant or maid, when aristocratic or influential people died so that the dead would have someone to accompany them and serve them in their afterlife, Kletchka said.

"If you had a servant or maid in your household, the servant would be sacrificed and buried with you when you died," she said. "It was for preparation. It was their culture. They later stopped human sacrifice and replaced it with the figures that will be on display. The figures represent the human servants that were once laid in the tombs along with the influential people that they worked for."

The exhibit will also include films and lectures. Gallery guides and talks will also be available for guests.