Millennia-old relics unearthed in Central China's Hunan

CHANGSHA — A collection of pottery and stone artifacts dating back more than 2,200 years has been unearthed from an archaeological site in Hunan province, according to the provincial institute of heritage and archaeology.

Unearthed artifacts mainly include pottery pieces, pottery cauldrons and stone tools, such as spears, arrowheads and knives.

The latest discovery marks the completion of excavation work at the Tiaojiwo relics site located in Chaling county of Zhuzhou which was first found in the 1980s.

Based on the various patterns on the hard pottery pieces and other archaeological findings in nearby areas, experts believe that the unearthed relics belong to the Zhou Dynasty (c.11th century-256 BC).

Chen Bin, leader of the on-site archaeological research team, says the imprints on hard pottery fragments display specific cultural characteristics of the ancient Yue people living in roughly today's Guangdong province and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in South China, which provides new research materials for studying cultural exchanges among different regions of that era.