A bronze statue of a sleeping female tiger, which, initial report said, dates back 2,000 years, was found in central Ha Tinh Province.
According to Vice Director of the Ha Tinh Museum Le Ba Hanh, the statue portrays a mother tiger that is sleeping in a very comfortable posture.
It is 30cm in length and weights around 12kg.
According to cultural researchers, the statue belongs to the Sa Huynh Culture, the name given to an urnfield (jar burials) culture on the coastal plains of central and southern Vietnam.
Roughly contemporaneous with the Dong Son Culture in the North (circa 1000BC and 200 AD), it possesses distinctive decorative style of bronze axes, daggers and ornaments.