The archaeologists unearthed a total of 303 relics including bronze swords, daggers, spears, clusters of arrows, bronze mirrors, pottery jars and pots, as well as jade rings and agate pipes from these ancient tombs located in the downtown area of Yiyang City.

Fu Futian, a relics expert with the Yiyang City Cultural Heritage Management Office, said that the discoveries paint an accurate picture of social, economic, cultural and military development in the Dongting Lake area, in the northern part of Hunan, more than 2,000 years ago.

Dongting Lake is the second largest freshwater lake in China and the areas around the lake have become a major grain production base of the country.

Fu said the unearthed relics provided precious material evidence for the study of ancient history of the region.

Based on their field investigation, archaeologists confirmed that 27 tombs were built in the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States (475 -221 BC) periods, 11 were built in the Western Han and one in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). The date of the rest of the damaged tombs are not clear, they said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2003)