A small object found by a boy in a park in the western Japanese city of Kobe has turned out to be a fragment of an ancient bronze mirror that is designated as a national cultural asset.

The city authorities sent the boy a letter of appreciation for preserving the fragment.Sixth-grader Shogo Sano found a blue-green fragment measuring about 5 by 3 centimeters in a park near his home in January of 2009. The park contains a late-third-century burial mound.

He cherished the object and kept it in a desk drawer. But in May, he noticed that it looked a lot like an ancient mirror he learned about in a history class, and he took it to school.

Experts identified the object as a fragment of a bronze mirror, part of which was found in the burial mound in 1986, and later designated as a national cultural asset.

Shogo donated his treasure to the city.

Watch the ANNnews clip on Youtube

小学生が公園で拾った”宝物”・・・実は国の重要文化財(13/10/09)