A tomb dating back around 1,700 years was unearthed in Lujiang county of East China's Anhui province on March 29, with the coffin inside well preserved and showing few traces of rot, Hefei Evening News reported.

The tomb, measuring about 3 meters by 3 meters, was found by a local worker when he was operating an excavator on a construction site. Large as it is, only a dozen funeral objects were dug out and many of them turned out to be pottery ware.

"Many burial objects are supposed to be unearthed in such a big tomb, but as we excavated it, we found an opening suggesting it had been raided," Yang Biyu, head of the Lujiang administration of cultural relics said regretfully, adding that judging from the hole, the tomb suffered a raid as early as the Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD).

Inside the tomb, a 2.5-meter-long coffin has been surprisingly preserved intact, with few signs of decay found in its 20-plus planks.

It will not be known for whom or in which year the tomb was built, nor its historical value until all the antiques are studied by archaeologists. "The objects will help us to get a glimpse of the county in the Han Dynasty if any writing is discovered on them once the centuries of dirt is rubbed off," the official said.

A tomb dating back around 1,700 years is excavated in Lujiang county of East China's Anhui province on March 29, 2013.（Photo from Anhuinews.com）