China archeological news in brief: tombs tell ancient stories; prehistoric plant found

The following are highlights of China's archeological news reported Sunday.

400-YEAR-OLD CORPSES, CLOTHING REMAINS INTACT

Archeologists in east China's Jiangsu province said Sunday they had unearthed some well-preserved corpses and silk and cotton clothing from five tombs that were at least 400 years old.

The corpses and clothing were found in coffins built of cypress or fir wood that were excavated from a construction site in downtown Taizhou city between 1979 and 2008.

One body was identified as a woman aged 50 or 60 years at death. Her clothes and cotton-padded boots remained intact and even her hair was not lost, though her body was found soaked in a yellowish liquid.

Experts believed the liquid was underground water that had seeped into the coffin and kept the moisture and temperature at a certain level to preserve the body.

Other coffins contained robes, pants, skirts, caps, shoes, towels and pillow cases.

Wang Weiyan, curator of the city museum, said the bodies and fabric had not decayed because the coffins were sealed and airtight.

Yet Wang and his colleagues said the tomb owners were all civilians, as little sacrificial items were found in their caskets.

ANCIENT TOMB FOUND AT THREE GORGES' DAM AREA

Archeologists have found an ancient tomb at a major tourist destination in the Three Gorges' Dam area of the southwestern Chongqing Municipality, and believed it is about 2,000 years old.

The tomb was found at Mount Mingshan in Fengdu county last week when construction workers were building an escalator near a temple. Construction work was halted immediately.

Fengdu county is known as a "ghost city". Legend has it that the gates of hell are on top of Mount Mingshan.

PREHISTORIC PLANT FOUND

Chinese and Australian scientists have found remains of a prehistoric mill that produced stone implements 600,000 years ago in today's Henan Province.

The site, found in Lushi County, contained more than 100 stone implements that dated back 600,000 to 620,000 years, said Prof. Lu Huayu with Nanjing University.

Prof. Lu has co-authored a thesis on the finding with researchers from the Henan archeological institute and La Trobe University of Australia. The thesis was published on the latest issue of Journal of Human Evolution.