BEIJING, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- The following are highlights of China's archaeological news from the past week:

-- Ancient stone tablet unearthed in China's Hebei

An ancient stone tablet dating back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) was unearthed in north China's Hebei Province, according to local relic protection authorities.

The tablet, which is 320 cm high, 96 cm wide and 30 cm thick, has been found in the village of Yuqingtun, Cangxian County in the province.

The inscriptions on the tablet recorded that the emperor issued a decree to commemorate Jin Sheng, who was an unknown figure in history, and confer a title of the royal guard on him posthumously.

-- China's Shaanxi cracks down on cultural relics crimes

Northwest China's Shaanxi Province has cracked 510 cases related to cultural relics crimes in 2020, according to the provincial cultural heritage department.

The province has for nine consecutive years been undertaking a series of special operations to combat cultural relic crimes. In 2020, it brought to justice 391 criminals involved in the crimes and retrieved 3,404 cultural relics.

Shaanxi has established police stations in more than 50 key cultural relics protection sites across the province while strengthening inspections on cultural relics.

-- Thousands of relics discovered during Spring Festival dig in Xi'an

Thousands of historical relics have been found in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province, during metro construction work and an airport expansion project, local authorities said Thursday.

During this year's Spring Festival holiday, which started on Feb. 11, about 1,000 archaeological workers excavated more than 4,600 cultural relics, including over 3,500 ancient tombs of various periods, at an expansion project of the Xi'an Xianyang International Airport, according to the Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology.

-- China's Shaanxi sees record number of ancient tombs excavated in 2020

A record number of 3,956 ancient tombs were discovered in Shaanxi Province in 2020, according to the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Heritage Administration.

The tombs were found in 179 archeological projects that the province conducted last year, while about 105,800 square meters of ancient sites were excavated during the period.

Since 2011, archaeologists in Shaanxi have been exploring the outside of the world-renowned mausoleum of Emperor Qinshihuang and discovered over 30 ancient tombs. Enditem

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