Cultural relics found by two farmers of Ningxiang county. (Photo/Cswb.changsha.cn)

Xiong Shangfeng and Xiao Aimin are both farmers in Ningxiang county of central China's Hunan province. During an excavation, they found two pieces of cultural relics and handed them over to the government. These two relics have been initially identified as Soul Jars from ancient China's Song Dynasty by experts at the local Cultural Relics Bureau. The two men got 400 yuan from the government as a sign of appreciation for turning in the important objects.

"Last Saturday, I was digging ditches with Xiao Aimin in a place about 100 meters from my home. Suddenly, I felt my hoe touch something hard. I dug it out and found that the peculiar-looking vessel was very different from the pots and pans in my home. The place where I live was the hometown of China's bronze culture. The famous Siyangfangzun four sheep statue was unearthed here, so I thought this vessel might also be a cultural relic," said Xiong.

Both farmers cleaned the vessels with water and carefully kept them at home. "We are not experts, but we thought the vessels might be cultural relics. They did not belong to us and we should not own them, so we called the local Cultural Relics Bureau," said Xiao Aimin after he also found a vessel.