Heavy machines and construction workers loom at sites around China as it drives towards a modernized future.

Away from the limelight, sometimes just a few paces away from bulldozers, small teams of people working only with "brushes and garden tools" are digging carefully to find out more about the country's past.

And recently they have been making headline finds.

On Tuesday, local archaeologists in northwest China's Qinghai Province announced that they discovered 29 tombs of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD25-220) in Huangzhong County, at the site where a national highland sports training center is being built.

From the tombs, the researchers have already unearthed a large number of relics ranging from pottery ware, copper kettles, bronze mirrors, coins and ornaments.

The excavation will continue and all the relics will offer more insight into the lives of people living in frontier areas of the Han Dynasty.

Ancient Tibetan city

In Ngari, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, archaeologists investigated the ruins of the mysterious "Silver Castle," and discovered fantastic statues of Bon gods, which belonged to a religion prevalent on the roof of the world a millennium ago.

The ancient city, known as the "Silver Castle of Qionglong (today's Zhada, Ngari)," was in Tibetan legends the capital of Zhangzhung Kingdom.

It fell into oblivion in the 10th century when the Guge Kingdom was founded and Tibetans converted from the Bon religion to Buddhism. It had been forgotten until archaeologists discovered its ruins in the 1920s.

Since the investigation kicked off this June, archaeologists have been reporting amazing finds on the ruins, which lie on the northern bank of the Xiangquan (Langqen Zangbo) River and covers an area of 130,000 square meters.

"Lying before us is a magnificent castle boasting buzzing lives a millennium ago, with well-planned residential areas, ritual and public buildings, defense walls and even secret underground tunnels," said archaeologist Huo Wei from Sichuan University.

Porcelain shreds and iron tools were unearthed along with statues of Bon gods. One of them, painted in green and gold, have two faces - one on the front and one on the back.

"It's only an investigation. We'll never know what the ground is hiding from us until an excavation begins," said Huo.

Ancestors' Teeth

Anthropologists and archaeologists in Yunxi, Central China's Hubei Province, unearthed three teeth of the primitive men in a limestone cave.

The three, all well preserved, have been identified as fossilized human teeth among more than 500 fossils of bones and teeth of rats, squirrels, bats, hedgehogs, porcupines, pandas, bears, dogs, wolves, wild cats, elephants, swine, deer, goats and rhinoceros.

Though the exact ages of the teeth are unknown, the discovery may shed light on the evolvement of the Chinese, said archaeologist Wu Xianzhu.

Besides teeth, the early ancestors have also left behind them fossilized tools made from the bones of large mammals.

"They must have hammered the bones with something really hard, as such marks can be seen obviously on the tools," said Wu.

Ancient sword

In a fisherman's house by the Yalu River bordering China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, archaeologists found a bronze sword of China's Warring States Period (475-221 BC).

The fisherman claimed he and his family salvaged the sword in the river when they were fishing.

The sword discovered in Dandong, Northeast China's Liaoning Province, is covered with green rusts that have accumulated in the past two millenniums.

But marks made by vehement clashing with other weapons can be clearly observed on the 43-centimetre-long, 4.6-centimetre-wide sword, which weighs about half a kilogram, said archaeologist Wang Hai, with the local Dandong archaeological research institute.

It is the first time such a straight bronze sword in the style of the Central Plains have been discovered in the northeastern corner of China, he added.

Other bronze swords discovered are curved, which is typical of swords of ethnic minority groups in the area about 2,000 years ago.

"It's recorded in historical files that the Qin and Yan states both built their influences in the area at the time," said Wang. He speculated the sword to be made in the Yan state, which centered around today's Beijing, as swords produced in the more powerful state of Qin (which covered roughly today's Shaanxi Province in Northwest China) were usually heavier and the bronze were of a better quality.

Old cannon

Meanwhile, in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, workers cleaning deposits of the Qinhuai River salvaged a cannon from the riverbed.

Inscriptions on the 1-metre-long cannon showed it was made by then governor Yang Pei of Central China's Hubei Province, in the provincial capital Wuhan.

Armies of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1851-64), rebellions of the ruling Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), moved it to Nanjing after defeating Yang's army, said sources with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Museum in Nanjing, which collected the cannon.

Fortifications were built along the Qinhuai River in the rebellions' effortless defense of Nanjing, capital of the "Heavenly Kingdom" in 1864.

The cannon must have fallen into the river in the fierce battle, which led to the doom of the kingdom, said Yang Lei with the museum.

Funeral objects

Archaeologists in East China's Fujian Province have unearthed 31 tombs dating back about 4,000 years from the bottom of a reservoir in Fuqing.

The tombs are scattered in an area of 800 square meters at the bottom of the Dongzhang Reservoir, which has dried up due to continual droughts.

Archaeologists with the provincial archaeological research institute have excavated the area during the past two months, unearthing 123 funeral objects from the tombs.

The relics range from pottery to stone tools to jade ware.

Lin Yuliang, a research fellow with the institute, said that among these relics, a stone dagger, a stone ear pendant and pottery cups were first discovered in Fujian Province. The fine jade articles and stone loops and bracelets show that the handicraft art had reached a high level in the area at that time.

Comparing with pottery ware unearthed from other parts of Fujian, experts concluded that the tombs belonged to a period between the late New Stone Age and the early Bronze Age, dating back to 3,500 to 4,000 years.

Lin said the Dongzhang Reservoir was formerly an open flat land surrounded by mountains and suitable for farming.

Du and his colleagues concluded that ancient people in the area farmed instead of fished, because the researches have not found any tools used in fishing.

Du said the unearthed relics provided material evidence for the study of pre-history cultural development in Fujian Province.

(China Daily November 19, 2004)