At Yangdong, a small village of Yangjiang City in Guangdong Province, a "Zhouheng Copper Drum" buried over 1700 years is unveiled to the world by the rain wash.

According to the heritage experts' research, the Copper Drum aged around the late Eastern Han Dynasty and cateorized as the Northern Flow Pattern Copper Drum is over 1700 old. Its size is ranked after the Copper Drum of Guangxi's Beiliou County and the Copper Drum No. 6597 of the Shanghai Museum as the country's third; but, with its height "the first in the country".

The city is developing a preservation program and "Zhouheng Copper Drum" will be likely neighboring "Nanhai-I" and prohibited at th Maritime Silk Road Museum.

"Zhouheng Copper Drum" has a large body with a thick wide flat drum top, a stretched edge out of the drum neck, and an anti-arc-shaped body waist. Been buried for so many years, the Copper Drum has emerged with mottled surface. The waist and the top are carved with delicate fine lines. There is a pattern of 8 suns with rays rediating out engraved at the center of the drum top.

"Zhouheng Copper Drum" has two pairs of round stem drum ears and six paired frogs, profiled small and unpompous, arranged at the top with frogs facing each other in pairs.

Ancient Copper Drums were mostly used by the Li tribe. From the Li ethnic culture, the frog is the totem and known as the "Son of the Sun", as a symbol of "the more sons, the more blessings".

Copper Drum can be used to situate the intelligence and commanding information of the battlefield in directing of the war; can also be used in assembly, worship and so on. In addition, the craft of Copper Drum is very particular about the size of the drum which is used to distinguish and reflect different connotation; the bigger of the drum, the greater of the power for the person possesses the drum.

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