Chinese archaeologists have unearthed a tomb containing human and animal remains at the ruins of the Yangshao Culture, which dates back 5,000 to 7,000 years, in northwestern Shaanxi Province.

Archaeologists said that the discovery is of great academic value in studying the historical changes of the ecology on the Loess Plateau.

Inside the tomb, archaeologists found four layers of skeletal remains of animals and human beings. The majority of the bones were human, they said.

Adults and children were buried separately, with some of them facing upward, some bending over and some in the fetal position.

Archaeologists said that this is the first time that such kind of tombs is excavated in northern Shaanxi and at similar ruins in northern China.

Along with the tomb, archaeologists also unearthed a number of ruins of houses, ash pits, porcelain kilns, and several hundred of porcelain, stone, jade and bone utensils in an area of over 1,700 square meters.

(Xinhua News Agency 10/10/2001)