A coffin dating back 2,000-2,700 years was unearthed in southwestern China's Chongqing municipality during an excavation for rescuing cultural relics at the Three Gorges area of the Yangtze River.

Experts regarded it as the oldest and best-preserved coffin ever found in the region and even in southern China.

This amazing coffin, unearthed from a large-sized tomb, was believed to be built from the later Warring States Period (475 BC-221 BC) to the early Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - AD 24).

Experts of the prestigious Wuhan Cultural Relics and Archaeology Institute referred to this as a single tomb of Ba people with the body decayed but the gigantic inner and outer coffin remained intact.

A large number of ceramic relics, such as Ding, an ancient cooking vessel with two loop handles and three legs, pots, kettles and other pottery wares have also been found inside the tomb, which provided new evidence for research on the culture of the Warring States Period in this region, according to the experts.
 
(Xinhua News Agency December 11, 2003)