A 2500-year-old dagger was unearthed in central China's Hubei Province. The finding might prove that Sui dynasty was actually the same as the state of Zeng in the history of Eastern Zhou Dynasty in ancient China.
The dagger is now being kept in the basement of Suizhou Museum, wrapped and kept in an air-raid looked like shelter. It is 21cm long and has a history of more than 2500 years. The nine-character inscription on the surface literally means "the dagger is offered to the Great Minister of War of Sui". The dagger was buried with the owner of the tomb, who might be the Defense Minister of the state of Sui. Suizhou Museum preserved amount of historical relics in the history. Among them, a suit of jade pieces tied together with gold wire, a set of chime are the most precious historical relics in China.
Archaeologists excavated more than 1,000 pieces of historical relics including bronze vessels and weapons, most of them are from Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770 - 256 BC) in Suizhou, Hubei Province. Except for the dagger, most of the relics are inscribed “the State of Zeng”. Although the dagger looks quite ordinary compare to the abundant relics which were unearthed in Suizhou, the character “Sui” on the surface makes it priceless due to the dagger represents the state of Sui, a vassal state of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.
The discovery of the dagger might be an important clue to solve the long-debating puzzle of Sui and Zeng states.