After reaching lvl 30 u will lose all your items when u die.
When u die before u reach lvl 30 there's a message that says the same thing, But i don't know if it's said anywhere else.
And your items will stay there where u died for atleast a couple of minutes.. don't know the exact time
Also once you reach level 30 it tells you your items will now drop on your corpse if you die.