Judging from bronze articles unearthed from ancient tombs in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, archaeologists estimate that nomadic tribes in north China had contacts with Western civilizations approximately 2,500 years ago.

Local archaeologists found a bronze mirror and a bronze plate at the two ancient tomb sites in Liangcheng county which can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) and the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), which they believed could not be the work of ancient northern peoples in China.

The semi-circle button of the mirror and the plate design of a weird beast with a bird's head and a tiger's body resembled very much the style of relics excavated in the hinterland of the Eurasian grass plain extending eastwards from the Black Sea to the outer Trans-Baikalia region in Russia, said Cao Jian'en, a noted researcher with the regional archaeology institute.

The round mirror is approximately 10 cm in diameter and its semicircle button, through which archaeologists believed the mirror was tied to its user for convenience, is only about one centimeter in radius.

More than 80 tombs were unearthed from the two sites and some 200 ornaments, numerous bone utensils for daily use and production purpose, and bones of sacrifice animals including horses, oxen, sheep and dogs were found in the tombs.

Archaeologists said the animal sacrifice showed that the tombs belonged to nomads.

According to Cao, the makers of the tombs were native Rong and Di people, two minority ethnic groups in ancient China later to be assimilated by the Hun people, called Xiongnu in the Han Dynasty (206 BC- AD 220).

The discovery of the tombs will provide valuable clues to the research of the origin of the Hun people, Cao said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 29, 2003)