????Archaeologists have discovered more than 100 cultural relics dating back to the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) in the ancient tombs in Mutan township, Gongxian county of Yibin city, southwest China' Sichuan Province.

????To date, 16 ancient tombs of the Eastern Han Dynasty have been unearthed in the county.

????The relics include pottery, bronze wares and iron wares, etc., some of which were found for the first time in China. Among them are broken pieces of a "money tree" and coins in strange shapes used in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

????The shapes and types of the cultural relics indicate that people living in the present-day Gongxian county then grasped a relatively high skill in planting farm crops and breeding domestic animals 1,700 years ago, as a result of the influence of the Silk Road in southern China.

????The relics are believed to shed light on the study of history of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

(Xinhua 11/13/2000)