The Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Administration announced on
Monday the discovery of a grandiose village that has been dated to
the West Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 25) era. Experts say the village
was submerged more than 2,000 years ago when the Yellow River burst
its banks in a flood.
"This is an absolutely exciting find," remarked Xu Pingfang,
chairman of the Chinese Society of Archaeology and expert in the
Han (206 BC-AD 220) and Tang Dynasty (618-907) archaeology.
"The Sanyangzhuang archaeological site presents us with a vivid
description of Han Dynasty society, especially of its vast
countryside, which has not been well recorded in literature," Xu
said.
The remains of the village were discovered along the ancient
course of the Yellow River in Sanyangzhuang Village, Neihuang
County, Henan Province. Experts have compared the discovery to the
unearthing of the lost ancient city of Pompeii.
After two years of prospecting and excavating, seven courtyards
have been identified. Excavation work on four of the seven
courtyards have unearthed a wealth of relics including tiled roofs,
walls, wells, toilets, cropland and trees, together with items that
could shed some light on social and economic structures of the
time.
Like Pompeii, the Sanyangzhuang Village was preserved intact.
Life, as it were, stood still. The layout of courtyards, roads,
farmland where crops were growing, and the walls of various
buildings remain standing. Tiles, round ones and flat ones, were
found in what is believed to be their original positions on the
roofs after the walls collapsed. So, too, were articles for daily
use such as stone and metal items and pottery apparently abandoned
by families trying desperately to escape the flood.
In one courtyard, excavations reveal that the master room was
undergoing maintenance when the flood hit, putting an unexpected
end to the work. Unused flat tiles lay in heaps, together with
abandoned construction materials and a puddling pit.
"This kind of archaeological finding is extremely rare,"
according to Sun Yingmin, vice director of the Henan Provincial
Cultural Relics Administration.
Also excavated were large areas of farmland, still intact, on
which crops were grown. Experts said this provides first-hand
material evidence for research into agricultural systems and the
economy of the Han Dynasty.
(China.org.cn by Wind Gu, February 23, 2006)
