A man was awarded 200 yuan ($28.7) on Thursday after handing over an ancient bronze sword he dug up at a construction site to a local museum in Xishui county of Huanggang, Hubei province.

The man, surnamed Bi, found the sword among a clump of mud on Jan 5. "I took a look and saw something green. When I brushed it off, it turned out to be a sword. The hilt was green and shiny, and it had a bamboo-joint design," he told media.

The museum has confirmed that it has received the sword. Initial assessments suggest it may be a cultural relic from the Warring States period (475-221 BC), but the official authentication process has not yet begun.

Regarding the 200-yuan reward that has attracted public attention, the museum explained that it was an incentive to commend citizens for turning over cultural relics, and does not represent an evaluation of the relic's actual value. The museum has already conducted an on-site investigation at the discovery location and found no other ancient remains.

China's law on the protection of cultural relics says that all cultural relics remaining underground, in inland waters, and in the territorial seas within the territory of the country are owned by the State. No entity or individual may seize, privately divide, or conceal them.