Barley seeds inside a Tibetan reliquary or chörten provided a carbon-14 date of A.D. 1230 ± 65 years. The chörten also contained a bit of bear hide, devotional inscriptions on birch bark, a pair of child-size footprints on silk and two ink drawings on paper. The metal alloy of the object was analyzed by wet chemical methods as a high zinc brass, with tin almost totally absent, and small amounts of lead and iron present. (Cu 71-76%; Sn n.d.; Zn 20-25%) The zinc content, while high in terms of copper analyses for the period, can be explained. The object was probably made from a fairly pure copper, possibly with some ironcontent, and alloyed with zinc by the calamine process. The inference is that Tibetan metallurgy of the period was sophisticated. -- AATA