China's Top-Ten archaeological discoveries of 2003 were
announced in Beijing on April 12:
1. Niuheliang Ruins in Lingyuan, Liaoning Province.
Dating back to the Neolithic Age.
2. City Ruins at Zhengzhou, Henan Province. Dating
back to the Dashigu Xia Dynasty (c.2100 BC?- 1600
BC).
3. Bronze-ware in Yangjia Village, Meixian County,
Shaanxi Province. Western Zhou Dynasty (c.1100 BC - 771
BC).
4. Zhouyuan bronze workshop in Fufeng, Shaanxi
Province. Western Zhou Dynasty.
5. Terracotta warrior pits and kilns at Weishan
Mountain in Zhangqiu, Shandong Province. Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD
220).
6. Inkstone washing pond and tomb in Linyi, Shandong
Province. Jin Dynasty (265 - 420 AD).
7. North Sima Gate, Zhaoling Mausoleum, Shaanxi
Province. Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 AD).
8. Khitan Tomb at Tuerji Mountain in Tongliao, Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region. Liao Dynasty (916 - 1125 AD).
9. Jining City Ruins, Inner Mongolia Autonomous
Region. Yuan Dynasty (1279 - 1368).
10. Imperial kilns in Zhushan of Jingdezhen, Jiangxi
Province. Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing (1644 - 1911)
dynasties.
1. Niuheliang Ruins in Lingyuan,
Liaoning Province.
Excavated by: Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and
Archaeology.
Team leader: Zhu Da.
Era: Neolithic.
Occupying a central location in the Niuheliang ruins of the
Hongshan Culture is Site-1 where ritual sacrifices once took place.
Some 4,500 meters southeast is site 16. East of this are Site-13
where large earth and stone buildings stood in antiquity and
Site-14 with its silent procession of evenly spaced stone-mound
tombs.
New finds made last year include stone-mound tombs and artifacts
made and used in the later period of the New Stone Age and in the
later Xiajiadian culture of the early Bronze Age.
The stone-mound tombs are the most significant relics of the
Hongshan culture. Now twelve of them are well enough understood to
have been split into four categories depending on when they were
built.
The most important of these is a tomb designated M4. Unlike
previous finds of tombs in pits or wind-eroded bedrock, this tomb
was cut into the hard granite of the mountainside. It is 3.9 meters
long, 3.1 meters wide and 4.7 meters deep. Its south wall is a
steep drop while steps have been cut in the sloping north wall. The
tomb was backfilled with the same rock that had been excavated
during its construction. Close to the mouth of the tomb, ancient
Chinese people built a stone structure in the form of a well,
polygonal in plan and capped with a stone slab. At the bottom of
the tomb they placed a rectangular stone coffin and protected it
with 17 layers of stone slabs.
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The burial articles included six jade-ware items. Of these a jade
figurine and jade phoenix were unlike previous finds. The jade
figurine is true to life and of great significance to the study not
only of ancient religious and sacrificial activities but also to
human posture and form as viewed in antiquity. The jade phoenix has
sculptural lines which are at once simple, vivid and elegant. Its
location under the head of the deceased points to some ritual
significance.
Not only was M4 a large scale construction but its 30 cubic
meters of excavation in solid rock must have represented a very
considerable expenditure of effort given the methods of these
times.
The Niuheliang Ruins have provided rare source materials for
research into the Hongshan culture. They are shedding new light on
these distant days through the study of the distribution of the
stone-mound tombs, their methods of construction and the burial
customs. They have brought fresh insight into the use of jade in
antiquity and have helped archaeologists place these Neolithic
tombs in sequence within a time-line.
2. City Ruins at Zhengzhou, Henan
Province.
Excavated by: Zhengzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and
Archaeology.
Team leader: Wang Wenhua.
Era: Dashigu Xia Dynasty (c.2100 BC - 1600 BC).
From March 2002 to December 2003, the Zhengzhou Cultural Relics
Archaeological Research Institute undertook a salvage excavation at
the Dashigu site. It is located in the northwestern suburbs of
Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province. The dig, over
an area of 540 square meters, confirmed the site as Bronze Age
(21st-17th centuries BC) and belonging to the middle and later
periods of the Erlitou culture.
A city wall and moats enclose a level, rectangular site of some
510,000 square meters. The remains of the city wall were generally
nearly a meter below today's ground levels. All the relics
uncovered were found inside the city wall and moats.
"The remains of the city wall were composed of several different
layers of earth, showing that the wall had been renewed or restored
again and again in antiquity," said team leader, Wang Wenhua.
Two moats each some 2.0-2.8 meters deep ran parallel with each
other.
Remains of foundations, tombs, ash pits and ash ditches together
with many other relics were discovered inside the city site. They
were mainly of the second, third and early fourth phases of the
Erlitou Culture. What's more, the archaeologists discovered a large
number of fragments of clay drainpipes in the ash ditches.
Another important discovery was a ring moat of the early Shang
Dynasty (16th-11th centuries BC). It lay between the old city wall
and the Xia Dynasty moats with which it ran parallel. Unlike the
moats of the Erlitou culture, the Shang ring moat was shaped like a
trumpet in cross-section, 13-15 meters wide at the mouth and just
1.5 meters wide at the bottom. Its depth varied from 4.0 to 6.8
meters.
An abundance of Early Shang Dynasty remains was discovered
inside the ring moat, showing that the city site had survived as an
important residential settlement to that time.
The Xia Dynasty, Dashigu city site is the only one of its kind
so far discovered in China which can be classified with certainty
as representing the Erlitou culture. It helps fill the gaps in the
archaeological understanding of the city sites of the Xia Dynasty.
It gives us precious reference materials for the study of city
development together with state and social structures in the Xia
Dynasty. It even casts new light on the very origins of Chinese
civilization.
A wealth of discoveries relating to both the Xia and Shang
dynasties were uncovered in this city site. These finds will be of
great significance to research on the relationship between these
two ancient dynasties.
3. Bronze-ware in Yangjia Village,
Meixian County, Shaanxi Province.
Excavated by: Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and
Archaeology, Baoji City Archaeological Team and the Meixian County
Culture Center.
Team leader: Wang Zhankui.
Era: Western Zhou Dynasty (c.1100 BC - 771 BC).
It was on January 19, 2003 that some rural laborers from Yangjia
Village in western China's Shaanxi Province inadvertently uncovered
a cellar containing 27 priceless bronze vessels dating back some
3,000 years.
When the province's archaeological departments excavated the
cellar and some 300 square meters around it, they found 16 tombs
(five of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the others pre-Zhou), one
chariot pit and one horse pit.
The bronze-ware cellar is composed of a rectangular pit together
with a near circular niche. The pit measures 4.7 meters north to
south and 2.5 meters east to west. It had originally been dug 2.5
meters deep but over the ages it had become buried deeper and
deeper. When excavated, the bottom of the pit was no less than
seven meters below today's ground level. To the south lies the
niche, 1.1 meters deep and having a diameter of 1.6 to 1.8 meters.
The gap between them was sealed up with rammed earth. It was in
this niche that 27 well preserved, bronze vessels were found.
The bronze vessels belonged to the Shan Clan, an official family
which enjoyed high status in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Never before
have so many bronze-ware items of this degree of archaeological
interest, attributable to a single family been uncovered together.
What's more every one carries an inscription to enrich the
historical records surviving from these times.
Most striking is a bronze plate bearing a 350-word inscription.
This is longer than any inscription found on any vessel excavated
since 1949. Taken together the finds provide the clan with a
written historical record running to no fewer than 4,048 words.
This is unprecedented for the period. Most of the vessels are
magnificent artifacts in their own right and have been much
appreciated for their design quality.
Of great significance to broadening an understanding of these
far off days are the 12 bronze dings (cooking vessels with two loop
handles and three or four legs) for each bears a rare 300-word
inscription. These records, kept safe in bronze down all these
years, are unique for they list 11 of the 12 Western Zhou Dynasty
kings. Only King You, the last of his Dynasty is not included.
What's more, the inscriptions record the parallel relationships
between eight generations of the Shan Clan and the 12 Western Zhou
kings. Not only do they put dates on the Western Zhou but they are
also proving valuable in establishing a timeline for the Bronze Age
of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the chronology of the Xia, Shang
and Zhou dynasties. Meanwhile the inscriptions have been providing
important reference materials for understanding the clan history of
the Shan family and the relationship between the Zhou Dynasty and
northwest ethnic groups.
Further excavations outside the cellar have been adding
background information to aid the study of these bronze
treasures.
4. Zhouyuan bronze workshop in
Fufeng, Shaanxi Province.
Excavated by: School of Archaeology and Museology of Peking
University, Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and
Archaeology and the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy
of Social Sciences.
Team leader: Xu Tianjin.
Era: Western Zhou Dynasty.
The excavations took place to the west of Lijia (Li Family)
Village of Fufeng County, Shaanxi Province. Two rich sources of
bronze treasures were found lying respectively several hundred
meters east and southwest of the village. All together, 123 garbage
pits, 8 house sites, 2 wells, 35 tombs and 1 chariot pit were
unearthed in this 875 square meter site.
The most important finds arising from the Lijia bronze
workshops must be the thousands of pottery moulds of the Western
Zhou Dynasty. These were the actual moulds that were used in
ancient times to produce such artifacts as ding, gui (round-mouthed
food vessels with two or four loop handles), li (tripod cooking
vessels with hollow legs), jia (round-mouthed three-legged wine
vessels), kettles, vessel lids, small tinkling cart bells, horse
curb bits, bronze buttons, bells and tools, as well as some other
previously unknown items. The hands of ancient artisans had
decorated some of the pottery moulds with intricate designs.
Before this important new find was made, the modern world had only
a few pottery moulds from the early Western Zhou Dynasty. These had
been found in Luoyang, Henan Province. The Lijia Village
discoveries fill a significant gap in what is available for
research for not only were so many moulds found but there are so
many different kinds and together they span the whole of the
Western Zhou Dynasty.
Zhouyuan has been an archaeological treasure trove of
bronze-wares for decades, but never before has a bronze workshop
been excavated. It has brought a new understanding not only to the
study of the settlement at Zhouyuan but also to the techniques of
bronze production during the Western Zhou Dynasty as a whole.
5. Terracotta warrior pits and kilns
at Weishan Mountain in Zhangqiu, Shandong Province.
Excavated by: Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and
Archaeology, Jinan Archaeology Research Institute and Zhangqiu
Museum.
Team leader: Wang Shougong.
Era: Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220).
Weishan Mountain rises above the plains in the western part of
Zhangqiu in east China's Shandong Province. Here archaeologists
found three burial pits in close proximity (there had once been a
fourth, but it had not survived) together with 30 tombs and three
pottery kilns. The artifacts they discovered included a large
number of colored pottery chariot, horse and guard-of-honor
figures. All three pits lie on a north south axis.
Pit-1 is 9.7 meters long and 1.9 meters wide. Its terracotta
warriors are deployed frozen in time, providing an armed escort for
an ancient aristocratic trip. The relics of this scene include 173
pottery figures, 56 horses, 4 pottery carriages and more than 90
shields.
Pit-2 is on a rather smaller scale. It once held eleven wooden
boxes of treasures but most of the relics have long since decayed.
However four of the boxes have yielded up a pottery carriage, a
horse and some human figures, mostly female. This has provided an
insight into the construction and use of horse drawn carriages. As
a bonus for the experts in the field, these artifacts had been
painted and still retain their colors sufficiently to provide
important new sources for research into the costumes worn back in
the Han Dynasty.
Pit-3 yielded up five pottery chariots, some with one and the
others with two shafts. Apart from the axles and canopy poles, the
chariots were made from fired pottery which has stood the passage
of time well. Ancient chariots could have more than 100 component
parts and these are significant finds in the study of Han Dynasty
chariots.
Based on a study of the backfill and the materials discarded around
them, the experts have been able to confirm that the three kilns
were indeed those which were used for firing the chariots, horses
and figurines. Broken terracotta warriors and a large number of
broken pottery figurines together with the moulds used in the
production of the chariots and horses will all provide a further
resource of research materials for future study.
Investigations into a tomb on top of Weishan Mountain have
revealed information on its shape, structure and scale. On the
northern slope of the mountain, the tombs there and the pits that
accompany them have also been giving up their secrets. Besides
burial goods, many weapons have also been found. These include one
particular crossbow in which part of the operating mechanism had
been embellished with designs inlaid in gold and silver.
From an analysis of the pottery and funerary objects,
archaeologists have been able to conclude that the terracotta
warrior pits and earthenware kilns belonged to the early or middle
period of the Western Han Dynasty. The materials obtained are of
significance to the study of the Jinan Kingdom in the Han
Dynasty.
6. Ink-stone washing pond and tomb in
Linyi, Shandong Province
Excavated by: Shandong Provincial Institute of Culture Relics and
Archaeology and Linyi Culture Bureau.
Team Leader: Zheng Tongxiu.
Era: Western Jin Dynasty (265 - 316).
Wang Xizhi was the greatest and most revered calligrapher in
China. The pool he is said to have used for washing his brushes and
ink-stones is known as the Xiyan (ink-stone washing) Pool. Many of
today's calligraphers, both professional and amateur, find
themselves drawn to it along with other admirers of Wang Xizhi.
Early in 2003, residents of Wang's hometown, Linyi County of
east China's Shandong Province, decided to give the calligrapher's
former residence a facelift. This was to be part of their
contribution towards the preparations for a local festival to be
held that October to celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of Wang's
birth. Then one day in May, a worker struck something hard with his
shovel that turned out to be long-buried brickwork. And so the
modern world found two previously unknown ancient brick tombs
beside the pool.
That same day, archeologists and county officials rushed to the
site. What they found lying buried some 30 meters apart were the
biggest and best preserved tombs of the Han (206 BC - AD 220) and
Jin (AD 265 - 420) dynasties ever discovered in Shandong. Built
like houses at ground level they had stone-built entrances but were
otherwise entirely of brickwork.
One of the tombs turned out to be the last resting place of
three children who had lived their young lives in the days of the
Jin Dynasty (265 - 420). It is the only well-preserved, brick-built
tomb to have escaped the work of the grave-robbers, so far
discovered in Shandong Province. Its two rooms were to yield up the
province's greatest single find of relics from a Jin burial.
The archaeologists excavated more than 250 artifacts from this
one tomb. They found precious relics worked in antiquity in bronze,
porcelain, pottery, lacquer, iron and gold. The world of
archaeology has listed some of these treasures alongside the finest
cultural relics to be found in recent years.
One particularly striking item is a pottery container in the
shape of a man in armor riding on a lion. A long forgotten artist
fashioned this piece in fine detail. He rendered the bearded rider
staring straight ahead with large deep-set eyes and gave him a
prominent nose. His lion held its head high, a fierce looking beast
with piercing eyes and bared teeth.
This was the first time that the province's archaeologists had
recovered so many Jin tomb-goods of such value. What's more,
sources in the Shandong Provincial Archaeological Research
Institute, which carried out the excavation along with the Linyi
Cultural Bureau, say that Jin Dynasty tombs this big are rarely
discovered anywhere in China.
The other tomb had one room with a broad corridor in front and
is the biggest single-chambered tomb to be found in Shandong.
Although it had been plundered twice it remained structurally sound
and still held more than twenty relics.
7. North Sima Gate, Zhaoling
Mausoleum, Shaanxi Province.
Excavated by: Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Culture Relics and
Archeology.
Team Leader: Zhang Jianlin.
Eras: Tang (618 - 907) and Qing (1644 - 1911)
dynasties.
When Emperor Taizong (Li Shimin) fell ill and died in 649 he was
taken to his last resting place in the Zhaoling Mausoleum, which he
has shared down the years with his Empress Wende. He was the second
emperor of the Tang Dynasty.
Zhaoling was built sitting on top of Mt. Jiuzhong, 20 km
northeast of Liquan County, in Shaanxi Province, its major features
being the Scarlet-Bird Gate and the Sacrificial Hall to the south;
the Sacrificial Altar, North Sima Gate and residences to the north
and to the southwest the Imperial City with most of the
buildings.
The Tang dynasty (618 - 907) is often referred to as a
golden-age in which ancient Chinese civilization reached its
zenith. However, researchers had little idea how a Tang royal
mausoleum was laid out. They were to find significant new clues
when they excavated at the Zhaoling Mausoleum. Their finds advanced
the study of imperial burial rites and mausoleum architecture in
ancient China, especially in the Tang dynasty.
It was in July of 2002 that staff of the Shaanxi Provincial
Institute of Culture Relics and Archeology began to dig the site.
Over the next two years they would excavate more than 5,100 square
meters, uncovering relics mainly of the Tang and Qing
dynasties.
They excavated a Tang Dynasty site 86 meters long by 61 meters
wide. This site was symmetrical about the mid-line between a pair
of ancient city gates. It held relics from both the inner and outer
cities. Inside the city gates there were three house sites; one
rectangular, one square and one constructed around a corridor. The
outer-city sites comprised the city gates themselves and a
rectangular house site lying beyond the gates.
They unearthed many examples of ancient building materials such
as rectangular and square bricks and tiles, together with bricks
and tiles of other shapes. There were eight steles of the Tang
Dynasty and epitaphs from both the Ming and Qing dynasties. The
site also yielded up stone statues of fourteen dukes and six
Zhaoling bas-relief stone horses. This stone statuary is considered
to be of great artistic merit.
Tang Taizong is generally considered as the most capable and
able-minded of all the emperors. His reign saw the Tang Dynasty at
its peak representing the most prosperous of China's ancient feudal
societies. It was at the North Sima Gate at the Zhaoling Mausoleum
that archaeologists were able for the first time to excavate intact
the architectural components of an imperial mausoleum of the Tang
Dynasty. The general arrangement of the site was symmetrical and
its architectural features were clearly defined within boundary
walls. This excavation has given the world of science a deeper
understanding of the architecture and workings of a Tang imperial
mausoleum.
8. Khitan Tomb at Tuerji Mountains in
Tongliao, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region
Excavated by: Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Institute of Culture
Relics and
Archaeology.
Team Leader: Ta La.
Era: Liao Dynasty (916 - 1125).
A chance discovery in a quarry led to the discovery of a tomb of
the Khitan aristocracy. And it turned out to be the only the second
large, well-preserved tomb from the Liao dynasty to be found so far
in China.
When archaeologists excavated the site from March through May
2003 they discovered a stone tomb comprising entrance tunnel,
gates, corridor and main burial chamber with flanking side
chambers.
They made their way into the tomb through a 48 meter long
entrance tunnel. Some 10 meters high, it led to an underground
courtyard of some 20 square meters. On one side of the courtyard
they saw a slab of red and brown stone about 2.0 by 1.5 by 0.5
meters. Moving it aside they discovered wooden doors, still closed
and sealed with an iron lock. Each door was decorated with three
lines of golden nails, six nails to a line. Opening the doors, they
found the main burial chamber extending to more than 10 square
meters flanked by rectangular side chamber also secured by wooden
doors.
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In the main chamber they found murals depicting the sun and the
moon on each wall and the coffin, which was the most precious of
all the relics. It rested undisturbed on a platform of eight
colored supporting tiers where it had been placed all these long
years ago. The red and black outer coffin, 2.3 meters long, 1.3
meters wide and 0.9 meters high, was decorated with images of
cranes, phoenixes, peonies and clouds. The gilded cranes and
peonies shone bright and wonderful for they had not lost their
colors even though a millennium might have come and gone in the
world outside. Wrapped in silk, the inner cypress wood coffin was
some 1.6 meters long with colored golden dragons and flying
phoenixes worked in bas-relief on the lid.
It held a young noblewoman who had been laid to rest wearing no
fewer than 11 layers of clothing, one being a silk robe that was
still intact after all these years. It carried a pair of phoenixes
elaborately depicted in the style of the late Tang Dynasty.
The researchers discovered many copper, silver, gold, silk,
lacquer and wood pieces. In the chamber, they found more than 200
mostly gilded, copper artifacts together with silver boxes and
chopsticks, gold cups, glass cups, lacquer boxes and plates inlaid
with silver, saddles overlaid with gold and silver and a quantity
of silk fabrics.
Most of the gold and silver pieces were engraved with animal and
human figures. Many jewels and other treasures had been interred,
among them the most precious finds were two gold tablets inscribed
with patterns of the sun and the moon. Indicative of a ritual
significance, they had been placed one on each shoulder.
From a study of its shape and the relics it contained, the
experts have established that this was a tomb of a Khitan
noblewoman, in the style the style of the late Tang and early Liao
Dynasties. Its colored coffin and coffin platform were each the
first of their kind to be discovered in Inner Mongolia.
Archaeologists have found a rich variety of new research
materials. They offer new insights into the history of the Khitans
and the exchanges this ethnic group had with the late Tang and
early Liao Dynasties. These finds are particularly valuable for
they shed new light on the study of the society, customs, fashions
and art of the Liao Dynasty.
9. Jining City Ruins, Inner Mongolia
Autonomous Region.
Excavated by: Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Institute of Culture
Relics and Archeology.
Team Leader: Chen Yongzhi.
Era: Yuan Dynasty (1279 - 1368).
The engineers got quite a surprise when they stumbled upon the
ruins of a Yuan dynasty city during a survey for highway
construction in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The site just
to the northeast of Jining lies on the route of the highway between
there and Hohhot, the regional capital. They found the ruins in
Tuchengzi Village of Bayan Tal County in the Qahar Right Wing Front
Banner of the Ulanqab League. The site turned out to be especially
significant for its ancient caches where archaeologists unearthed
valuable pottery and porcelain items from the royal kilns of the
Yuan dynasty.
This ancient walled city was built in 1192. It had a spring
market serving an area that not only extended into today's Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region but also into Hebei and Shanxi
Provinces. It was laid out to a rectangular plan 940 meters on the
north-south axis and 640 meters wide. Two of its five to six meters
thick walls were relatively well preserved and still 0.5 to 2.5
meters high, but two were gone.
The surviving east and west walls each had a single gate. In the
northern end of the east wall, traders once entered the town
through the square fortified entrance of the east-gate. The
west-gate with its outer U-shaped defensive works stood central in
the west wall. Inside the protection of the city walls, six roads
ran north-south and seven ran east-west. These thirteen roads
divided the town into 31 city blocks. In the north, the
archaeologists found the foundations of what had once been
large-scale buildings. To the south, they found the site of the
ancient market.
Today there are farms where the ancient city once stood. From
April of 2002 to November of 2003, experts from the Inner Mongolia
Autonomous Region Institute of Culture Relics and Archeology worked
to rescue the relics.
They excavated an area of 22,045 square meters that included
many individual sites of interest including 91 house sites, 822 ash
pits, 22 wells, 9 roads, 11 tombs, 4 coffins, 23 kilns and 34
caches of relics. Their finds included more than 200 intact
porcelain items, a further 7,416 porcelain items capable of being
restored, 877 pottery items, ten items of gold and silver ware, 351
bronze-ware items, 268 iron goods, 456 bone items, 36,849 copper
coins plus more than 2,000 stone and wooden items.
The various porcelain items were products of all nine of the
countries most famous kilns of these days. Of special interest was
a red-glazed spring vase, the first to be discovered in China.
Never before has porcelain from so many kilns been found in a
site in the northern grasslands. The discovery of these relics has
provided many fresh source materials for the study of the social,
economic and cultural lives of the people of the Yuan Dynasty.
10. Imperial Kilns in Zhushan of
Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province.
Excavated by: School of Archeology and Museology of Peking
University,
Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Culture Relics and Archaeology and
the Jingdezhen Institute of Ceramic Archaeology.
Team Leader: Liu Xinyuan.
Eras: Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing (1644 - 1911)
Dynasties.
Jingdezhen, a city in east China's Jiangxi Province is often
called the 'porcelain capital of China'. It has been renowned for
its porcelain since the Song Dynasty (960-1279). It was here that
archaeologists discovered two important sites during a 788 square
meter excavation of an imperial kiln location that had been in use
through the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Some
of the porcelain and pottery treasures they unearthed are so rare
that it would not be easy to find their likes today even in museums
or in private collections.
The relics unearthed included walls and kilns together with many
houses and other buildings. There were six kilns grouped together,
four of which had already been excavated. All the kilns had been
built according to the same 'gourd-shaped' pattern. They stood
facing west in a straight line. The distinctive features of these
brick-built kilns are their gates, fire chambers, front
compartments, back compartments and supporting walls.
'Gourd-shaped kiln' technology had been developed from 'dragon
kiln' technology and had already been adopted in the folk kilns of
the Yuan Dynasty in Jingdezhen. However this was the first site in
which it had been found among the imperial kilns.
One of the sites contained relatively recent relics from the
Jiangxi Porcelain Company of the late Qing Dynasty. Founded in
1902, the company was the first modern enterprise to be run
cooperatively by officials and businessmen at Jingdezhen.
The older of the two sites comprised a group of kilns dating
back to the early Ming Dynasty. This was the largest group of kilns
at an imperial site ever discovered in China and is providing
valuable evidence for research on imperial porcelain making
techniques in those days.
One remarkable red glazed cup has attracted the attention of
many archaeologists. It stands 10 centimeters tall and is 16
centimeters wide at the mouth. In the center it bears a seal in the
zhuanshu style of calligraphy proclaiming it was 'Made in Reign of
Yongle', a Ming emperor. It is by far the best example of its kind
every found and the experts say that the quality of its vibrant red
glaze could not be replicated using any known modern technique.
Covering an area of 50,000 square meters, Jingdezhen boasts the
largest of the imperial porcelain workshops, with the longest
history and which produced the most exquisite workmanship of all
the feudal empires. So far over 3,000 treasured porcelain pieces
have been restored from the fragments unearthed at Jingdezhen. Many
other relics of great importance were also discovered. Altogether
they are providing researchers with important new sources for their
study of the porcelain making skills practiced in the imperial
kilns of the early and middle Ming Dynasty.
(China.org.cn)
