Archaeologists in China have discovered a mysterious collection of rectangular wooden artifacts associated with an ancient astronomical calendar. The discovery was made within a well-preserved 2000-year-old tomb in the southwest of the country, according to Live Science. Each of the 23 wooden pieces measures about 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide and 4 inches (10 cm) long, displaying a character associated with Tiangan Dizhi, or "Ten Heavenly Stems and Twelve Earthly Branches," a traditional Chinese astronomical calendar established during the Shang Dynasty, which ruled around 1600 BC to about 1045 BC.
Archaeologists believe that one of the pieces might represent the current year, while the other 22 could have been used to identify any specific year in the ancient calendar. However, it is still unclear how the set of calendrical wooden pieces functioned. This is the first time such a valuable artifact has been found in an ancient tomb, although the practice of writing characters on strips of wood or bamboo was common in China before the invention of paper. The wooden pieces and many other artifacts were discovered earlier this year in a tomb located in the Wolong area, approximately 870 miles (1400 kilometers) southwest of Beijing.
