Archaeologists are stumped after finding a 100-year-old Swiss
watch in an ancient tomb that was sealed more than 400 years
ago. They believed they were the first to visit the Ming dynasty
grave in Shangsi, southern China, since its occupant’s funeral.
But inside they uncovered a miniature watch in the shape of a
ring marked ‘Swiss’ that is thought to be just a century old.
The mysterious timepiece was encrusted in mud and rock and had
stopped at 10:06 am. Watches were not around at the time of the
Ming Dynasty and Switzerland did not even exist as a country, an
expert pointed out. The archaeologists were filming a
documentary with two journalists when they made the puzzling
discovery. ‘When we tried to remove the soil wrapped around the
coffin, suddenly a piece of rock dropped off and hit the ground
with metallic sound,’ said Jiang Yanyu, former curator of the
Guangxi Museum. ‘We picked up the object, and found it was a
ring. ‘After removing the covering soil and examining it
further, we were shocked to see i