Boy discovers 3000-yr-old bronze sword on river bank  

11岁男孩河边洗手捡到短剑 系3千年前古青铜剑(图)

高邮市临泽镇一个11岁男孩玩耍时弄脏了手，到河边洗手，竟“洗”出了一把呈灰黄色的青铜宝剑！经高邮文物部门鉴定，这把青铜短剑为商周时代铸造，距今已有3000多年历史。目前该剑已被高邮市博物馆收藏。扬子晚报记者采访获悉，这把只有26厘米长的短剑，具有重要的文物价值，是高邮发现的第二件商周时期的青铜器，也是第一件青铜兵器。[查看全文]

(ECNS) -- An 11-year-old boy from Jiangsu province in east China discovered a bronze sword dating back to the Shang and Zhou dynasties (1600 BC-256 BC) on a river bank while washing his hands, the Yangtze Evening News reported.

The newspaper said the lucky boy, Yang Junxi, chose a random spot on the banks of the Laozhou Linhe river in Gaoyou city to wash his hands after playing with friends on a normal summer day.

Yang spotted the strange item sticking out of the mud, which turned out to be a sword covered with rust, measuring 26 centimetres in length.

His father, declining large sums offered by business men, handed the sword to the local cultural relics preservation department on Wednesday.

Archaeologists have since estimated that the sword was crafted more than 3,000 years ago during the Shang and Zhou dynasties (1600 BC-256 BC) and that it is the second such bronze item of its kind found in the area.

Lv Zhiwei, head of cultural relics at the department, said the sword probably belonged to an aristocrat of the time.