Two farmers in the northwestern China province of Shaanxi have uncovered two earthen jars in white and brownish red that are confirmed by experts to be at least 5,000 years old.

Wu Tao and his wife Zhao Caining, natives of Sunjiacun village in Meixian County, discovered the two jars when digging in their farmland.

One of the jars was intact with a white coating and brownish red patterns on its upper part, and the other had been broken, with similar patterns still visible on its pieces, said Wu.

Liu Huaijun, a cultural heritage expert with the county's museum, assumed the two jars could have been sacrificial objects that had been buried with the dead during the Yangshao culture period, 5,000 to 7,000 years ago.

"Sunjiacun village borders Baijiacun village, where archeologists have discovered ruins of the Yangshao culture over the past years," he said.

Liu said the white coating on the jars was similar to earthenware pieces unearthed in central China's Henan Province and northwestern Gansu Province.

"They may provide clues to historians for further study on the cultural exchanges between these regions in the ancient period of history," he said.

The Yangshao culture was formed in the Neolithic period in China, and its relics were first unearthed in Yangshao Village of Henan Province in 1921.
 
(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2004)