Chinese archeologists have found a 5,000-year-old sacrificial pit filled with jade ware on the Muus Desert bordering north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Shaanxi Province in the northwest.

The rectangular pit contains over 30 pieces of jade ware including knives, hatchets and shovels. Experts believe that many may have been sacrificial articles. The jade is crystal-clear and artistically embellished.

The pit was discovered when a natural gas pipeline was being laid in Shenmu County in northern Shaanxi Province. The 4,000- square-meter relic site has six pottery kilns, 82 adult tombs and 13 tombs of children.

Nearly 1,000 pieces of pottery and stone, jade and bone ware have been unearthed from the site, some dating back to a period between the late Neolithic age and the Xia Dynasty (about 4,000-5, 000 years ago).

This discovery will be valuable for the study of the history of civilization along the Great Wall, said one archeologist.