One million years old ivory fossil unearthed in north China province
28/12/2005 17:29
A Chinese villager unearthed an ivory fossil in north China's Shanxi
Province, which was verified by archeologists to be at least one million years
old.
The milk-white fossilized tusk is nearly 27 centimeters long and 22
centimeters in diameter in the thickest part and 12 centimeters in diameter in
the thinnest part.
The fossil was unearthed by a villager surnamed Xue in
Hehe Village in Jishan County in the province, when he was digging sand by a
river. He immediately contacted the local relic protection bureau about his
findings.
Archeologists said that the fossil was integrated. It has been kept
in preservation by local relic protection authorities.
There were several
findings of ivory fossils in the region. The oldest ivory fossils previously
spotted in the province was 450,000 years old.
Ancient ivory fossils were
previously discovered in north China's Tianjin municipality and Hebei Province,
and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the northwest. But ivory fossils of more
than one million years old were rarely seen.
Xinhua
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