(Source: CGTN)

The world's top archaeologists are working to preserve new cultural and scientific finds, recently unearthed in southern China and Mexico. A new round of digging inside Yangputou Tomb in China's Yunnan province has revealed rare relics from the Han, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, preservation work is also underway on the remains of a 14-thousand-year-old mammoth that was found in the town of Tultepec last year.

A total of 313 ancient utensils were found during this new round digging inside Yangputou Tomb, and the relics are mainly pottery and bronze wares. The tomb has a history of over 2000 years.

"This kind of pottery is made in Han dynasty. Its shape helps us to recognize which period it belongs to. And many other relics we found this time have obvious features of the Dian culture," Hu Changcheng, archaeologist with Yunnan Institute of Archaeology, said.

The discovery of Yangpuyou Tomb has been regarded as one of the most important discoveries of China in the 1990s, and the new round excavation was the largest since 1998.

Across the globe, in central Mexico, archaeologists are working hard to preserve the remains of a 14,000-year-old mammoth that was found in the town of Tultepec last year.

The mammoth's bones are housed in a municipal building, where members of the public can watch the restoration work.

Experts say the skeletal remains are one of the most important archaeological finds in Mexican history. The mammoth was found cut up into pieces, indicating the presence of ancient humans in Mexico 40,000 years ago.

"The discovery in Tultepec is important because it indirectly supports the presence of humans 40,000 years ago. In the case of the Tultepec mammoth and given the stratigraphic register various natural layers have been identified during different excavations," Assistant archaeologist Felipe Munoz said.

The last mammoths died off some 5,000 years ago. Although the area around modern-day Tultepec is dry, in prior eras it was believed to be lush and with ample water supply.
Excavation work of the subsoil has revealed new evidence of the region of Tultepec during the mammoth's life.

"We are talking about 40,000 years ago so it is a very considerable period of time. The affect (on the bones) over such a period is that the bones are very sensitive but pedagogically the sediment that was found for it to be at the bottom of a lake and the level of the mud, in reality this helped to conserve it better," Munoz said.

Experts hope the remains of the mammoth are in good enough condition to be assembled and put on display.