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5th century clay ship found in Mie tomb

TSU, Japan - Photo shows a clay model ship excavated for the first time in Japan from a fifth century tomb in Mie Prefecture, western Japan. A municipal official holds a clay sword that was used to decorate the ship, which measures 1.4 meters long and 25 centimeters at its widest part. Local archaeologists said April 10 that the ship was thought to carry away the souls of the deceased to heaven. ''It must have been a ship for dead people to make a journey to the afterworld,'' said Kazuhiro Tatsumi, an archaeologist at Doshisha University's archaeological museum, noting the similarity to custom in ancient Egypt.