More than 1,700 pieces of pottery and bone tools have been unearthed in a tomb group dating back 3,600 to 3,800 years in northwest China's Gansu Province, said Mao Ruilin, a researcher with the Gansu Provincial Archeological Institute, on Tuesday.

Located in Lintan County, the tomb group consists of over 280 tombs belonging to the prehistoric Qijia Culture of the late Neolithic period.

The newly discovered items contain more than 1,270 pieces of terra cotta and gray pottery as well as over 500 tools made of bone, stone and bronze, Mao said.

The unearthed funerary objects will provide important information for research on the lifestyle and funeral customs of the prehistoric people of the Qijia Culture, Mao said.