Mar 1, 2015 1 min read

CINCINNATI (AP) — A museum says a rare Native American artifact dating back to the fifth century has been discovered by a crew doing utility work in a southwest Ohio village.

The suburban Cincinnati village of Newtown and the Cincinnati Museum Center said this week that a shell pendant called a gorget was recently found amid Native American human remains and artifacts uncovered while a crew dug a trench. The decorative pendant is engraved with an unidentified animal.

Archaeologists hope studying of the pendant will teach them more about the early late Woodland period and the people who once lived in the area.

An archaeology curator at the museum says gorgets with animal depictions are rare and there are only about eight of that style and period in the U.S.