Panda Skeleton Found in Ancient China Tomb
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
The skeleton of a giant panda has been found in a 4,000-year-old tomb in central China, the official New China News Agency said, adding that the now-endangered animals were apparently being hunted at the time.
Wu Xianzhu of the Hubei Provincial Archeology Research Institute said pigs and dogs had been used in burials as “funerary objects” since the early New Stone Age, about 8,000 years ago.
“Burying the giant pandas with the dead shows that ancient people had close contact with the creatures,” he said Wednesday.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
