The museum of the central province of Binh Thuan has unearthed a 2,500 year-old earring, the first of its kind ever to be found in the province, according to museum official.

Nguyen Xuan Ly, museum director, told the English language daily Viet Nam News that, although thousands of ceramic antiques from Sa Huynh Culture have been unearthed throughout the area, this is the first time such an earring has been found in the province.

Similar earrings have been discovered in other central provinces such as Quang Nam and Quang Ngai.

The earring, made from light blue glass and decorated with two animal heads, was found inside a buried ceramic jar together with various ceramic objects and working tools, made from stone and copper, at an archaeological site in Ham Thuan Bac District.

Ly, refusing to reveal the site's whereabouts for fear of antique robbers, added that a local farmer had accidentally found an additional stone musical instrument near the site in 2006. The instrument consists of eight stone bars and is the only Sa Huynh stone instrument ever found in Vietnam.

Antiques from the Sa Huynh culture, which flourished in central and southern Vietnam between 1,000BC and 200AD, have been unearthed throughout the province since 1923, when the French expanded the then 1A Highway./.