<p>In a chance discovery, a young man in China who stopped for a roadside pee break found a centuries-old porcelain figurine hiding in a mound of soil which washed away when he urinated.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The 20-year-old man, surnamed Xu, pulled over on his way home to answer nature's call on a mound of soil in Chengdu, Sichuan province.<br /><br />While urinating, he uncovered the head of a ceramic figurine in the soft earth.<br /><br />Xu recently delivered the figurine to local cultural authorities, who identified the piece as a kowtowing female dating back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279), 'Global Times' reported.<br /><br />Tan Ying, an employee at the Cultural Relic Management Institute of Pixian county, explained that such figurines were commonly used in Song funeral rites.<br /><br />"These figurines were usually buried in pairs near tombs to ward off evil," said Li Tiechui, a senior consultant from the Ancient Ceramic Research Center in Sichuan Province.</p>
<p>In a chance discovery, a young man in China who stopped for a roadside pee break found a centuries-old porcelain figurine hiding in a mound of soil which washed away when he urinated.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The 20-year-old man, surnamed Xu, pulled over on his way home to answer nature's call on a mound of soil in Chengdu, Sichuan province.<br /><br />While urinating, he uncovered the head of a ceramic figurine in the soft earth.<br /><br />Xu recently delivered the figurine to local cultural authorities, who identified the piece as a kowtowing female dating back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279), 'Global Times' reported.<br /><br />Tan Ying, an employee at the Cultural Relic Management Institute of Pixian county, explained that such figurines were commonly used in Song funeral rites.<br /><br />"These figurines were usually buried in pairs near tombs to ward off evil," said Li Tiechui, a senior consultant from the Ancient Ceramic Research Center in Sichuan Province.</p>