Chinese archeologists declared they found the oldest Zongzi, a kind of glutinous rice food which has been served at the traditional Chinese Dragon Boat Festival for thousands of years, in De'an, a county in east China's Jiangxi Province.

Zongzi, a pyramid-shaped dumpling made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves, is a kind of special food derived from the Dragon Boat Festival, also called Duanwu Festival. 

Archeologists found two pieces of pyramid-shaped objects in an ancient tomb, and experts from Jiangxi Provincial Archeology Institute and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage have confirmed the two objects to be the earliest Zongzi ever found in China.

The two pyramid-shaped objects hang in symmetry at the two sides of a peach branch about 40 centimeters long. They were about six centimeters long and three centimeters wide, and covered with bamboo leaves fastened with ramee lines.

Zongzi in the early period was used to mourn the deceased and sometimes used in burial rites, and a pair of Zongzi were used to indicate prosperity for the dead and the offspring, said Liu Shizhong, a researcher with Jiangxi Provincial Archeology Institute.

The tomb was discovered when villagers were building a water tower in Yangqiao Village in Baota Township.

The tomb belonged to a female who died in 1274 , according to the epigraph.

The Dragon Boat Festival has been observed to commemorate Qu Yuan, a famous patriotic ancient poet. He lived in the state of Chu during the Warring States period (475 BC to 221 BC). He drowned himself in the Miluo River in 278 BC, on May 5 of the Chinese lunar calendar, hoping that his death could stimulate the king to revitalize their kingdom.

The date has since been remembered as the Dragon Boat Festival, on which local fishermen would row dragon boats along the Miluo river to search for Qu Yuan and scatter glutinous rice dumplings in the water to prevent the fish and shrimps from eating his body.
 
(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2005)