Eastern China's Fujian Province has been suffering from an extended and severe drought. But the lack of water has brought one benefit: it has revealed 31 tombs dating back about 4,000 years that were long hidden under the waters of Dongzhang Reservoir in Fuqing.

The 31 prehistoric tombs are scattered around an area of 800 square meters. Archaeologists with the provincial archaeological research institute have excavated the area during the past two months, unearthing 123 funerary objects. The relics range from pottery to stone tools to jade ware.

Each of the tombs is about two meters long and 0.5 to 0.6 meters wide.

Lin Yuliang, a research fellow with the institute, said that a stone dagger, a stone ear pendant and pottery cups were first of their kind discovered in Fujian Province. The fine jade articles and stone loops and bracelets show that handicrafts had reached a certain high level in the area at that time.

Comparing with pottery ware unearthed from other parts of Fujian, experts concluded that the tombs belonged to a period between the late New Stone Age and the early Bronze Age, 3,500 to 4,000 years ago.

Lin Yuliang said the area of the Dongzhang Reservoir was once an open flatland surrounded by mountains and suitable for farming. Lin and his colleagues believe that the people who settled the area farmed instead of fished, because their digs have not turned up any of the tools typically used in fishing.

Archaeologists conducted a hasty excavation in the area when the Dongzhang Reservoir was built in 1957, but found only the foundations of a Bronze Age residence.

The current team will expand excavations to about 10,000 square meters in the area to search for more traces of prehistoric humans.

(Xinhua News Agency October 28, 2004)