CHANGSHA, April 11 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese farmer who found and handed over five 2,000-year-old bronze swords was rewarded with 15,000 yuan (2,400 U.S. dollars) by the city government of Lianyuan Tuesday.

The 56-year-old farmer Li Xinding from central China's Hunan Province discovered the swords in August last year when he was herding sheep in a river bank after a flood.

He brought them home and reported them to the police.

Experts spent months examining the swords before dating them to the Warring States period (475-221 B.C.).

"The bronze swords have a rusty surface and sharp tip. One of the swords was broken, while another four were well preserved," said Gao Chenglin, deputy head of the Hunan archaeological research institute.

Gao estimated that the place where they were found may have been a drill ground in ancient time, or that passerby had buried the swords in the riverbank in an emergency.

"The bronze swords are valuable cultural relics for China and significant to the study of the history and culture of Lianyuan," said Liang Yuqing, head of the city's publicity department.