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Archaeological
Find May Change Chinese History
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????Archaeologists have
uncovered an ancient city site that thrived over 4,000 years ago.
It is located in Taosi Village, Xiangyuan County in Shanxi Province.
This was the legendary center of the Emperor Yao, the first emperor
in China, and his political activities. The key finding pushes the
origin of Chinese civilization back to the Five-Emperor age.
????According to a report of China Central Television, the wall of
the city, known to have existed 4,200 to 4,500 years ago, is about
130 meters long and stretches from east to west. Experts point out
that that time was during the legendary period of the Yao, Shun,
and Yu emperors, and that the city is most probably the place where
the main constructions of that time were erected.
????Further excavation of the ancient city has yet to be started.
Experts point out that the history before the Xia Dynasty, the first
dynasty in China, had been legendary up until now, without any archeological
evidence for its existence.
???? Some scholars abroad have been suspicious of the oral record
for this period. They believed that the history of Chinese civilization
couldn't go back as far as 5,000 years. It is now recognized that
the Taosi site is the only relic existing to confirm the history
much longer than found before. The location of this ancient city
coexists with a graveyard. The site of the graveyard was discovered
in 1958, but the ancient city was not found until recently. Currently,
over 10,000 ancient graves of the Yao-Shun period have been found
here, and a large number of precious relics have been discovered,
including stoneware. jade-ware, wood-ware, crockery, and even early
bonze ware. If the excavation can be carried out smoothly, the record
of Chinese history could be pushed back another thousand years.
(from Beijing Evening News)
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