Walking along a 20-meter path underground, Chang Yimin was stopped by a giant stone gate decorated with bas-reliefs of unfamiliar animals and birds.
After months of work, Chang and his colleagues managed to open the gate in July, 2002. They were then overwhelmed by a world 8.1 meters beneath the earth.
Inside the gate was a tomb. The square room was covered with murals depicting more than 200 men and women involved in various ceremonies.
"The spectacular murals, covering 330 square meters, are distinctive because of their shining colors and the artists' painting techniques which create the impression of flight," said Chang, researcher with the archaeological research institute of north China's Shanxi Province and leader of the excavation team.
The tomb of Xu Xianxiu, senior official of Northern Qi (AD 550-577), in Shanxi Province, is among the top 10 archaeological finds of 2002 announced on Sunday by the Chinese Archaeologists' Society.
Archaeologists and scholars from the society browsed through vast numbers of unearthed artifacts before they selected 10 from the 23 candidate finds around the country.
"It was hard to make the decision since competitive finds are mushrooming with the improvement of archaeological research techniques and rapid infrastructure construction," said Xu Pingfang, a leading Chinese archaeologist and chairman of the society.
While the top 10 finds of 2001 covered all historical eras from the Old Stone Age to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), those of 2002 center on "the latter part of Chinese history -- after the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC)," noted Xu.
The only discovery that shed light on the pre-Qin period was a historical site in Baise, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The site was believed to be a "factory" during the New Stone Age, where early humans produced stone implements.
Scattered at the site are large stones with flat surfaces, which primitive man leaned on and used as chopping blocks. Around the stones are stone hammers, hatchets and other implements.
"The 'factory', which remained intact for more than 10,000 years, surpasses other finds from primitive society in China because of its large size and the quantities of artifacts unearthed," said Xie Guangmao, leader of the excavation team from the Guangxi Cultural Heritage Working Team.
Primitive society in China ended in the 21st century BC when the Xia Dynasty (2070-1600 BC) was founded. According to modern historians, a system of slavery prevailed across the country and carried on until the 5th century BC, when the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) started and the feudal system was established.
The Warring States Period, during which the country was divided into seven kingdoms, was also a great era for Chinese philosophers, who exchanged ideas on politics, life and nature. It ended when Emperor Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, conquered the kingdoms and reunited the country.
Mystery surrounds the powerful 14-year-long Qin Dynasty and the millennium before it because Emperor Qin Shihuang burnt all books and historical records, and buried alive intellectuals whom he considered potentially harmful to his administration.
Researchers didn't expect much when excavation started last year on the remains of an ancient city which prospered in the Qin Dynasty, in the obscure county of Liye, Central China's Hunan Province.
The ruins, 210 meters long and 100 meters wide, include alleys, workshops, government offices and wells. Archaeologists investigated one of the wells, which, paved with wooden tablets inside, remained well-preserved for 2,200 years.
And they found, unexpectedly, 36,000 wood and bamboo slips on which more than 200,000 characters were written clearly with brushes in the ancient lishu (official script) style.
The characters on the slips provide an encyclopedic record of the dynasty's political, military and economic situation, said Zhang Zhongpei, renowned archaeologist with the Chinese Archaeologists' Society.
They also shed light on the ethnic groups, laws, cultures, postal services, geography and government hierarchies of the period.
The well contained 20 times the number of slips bearing Qin Dynasty records than previous discoveries, noted Zhang.
The slips escaped the dynasty's early cultural purge because they were official documents instead of "alien" philosophies. They were believed to have been thrown into the well in the war that ended the dynasty, said Wu Rongzeng, professor with Peking University.
Scholars almost unanimously selected the find, made by Hunan Provincial Archaeological Research Institute, as one of the top 10.
One highly-rated discovery is a tomb from the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) in Rizhao, east China's Shandong Province, in which more than 500 lacquer artifacts and quantities of silk fabrics were unearthed. Another is the remains of a wooden pagoda in north China's Hebei Province, which dated back to the Northern Dynasties (AD 386-581).
The remnants of an ancient county in Badong, central China's Hubei Province, which prospered from the fourth to the 13th century, and relics from a Song Dynasty (960-1279) porcelain warehouse in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, also make the list.
So too do the ruins of a 700-year-old spirit distillery in Lidu, central China's Jiangxi Province.
The distillery, covering 15,000 square meters, retains its original well, cellar, stoves, pipelines, distilling equipment and walls. In the Yuan (1279-1368) and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties, the Chinese made tons of high-quality spirits with gaoliang (Chinese sorghum) there.
The discovery helps end the argument over the origin of distilled spirits in China, said Liu Qingzhu, director of the Archaeological Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Chinese legends said liquor was first produced in the Xia Dynasty in 21st century BC.
But the alcohol our ancestors had before the 13th century might not have been as strong as the spirits we have today, said Liu.
Apart from these finds, which shed light on the mainstream culture, two other discoveries on the top 10 list could rewrite the history books on ethnic cultures in China's border areas.
One of the finds was made in Yanbian, northeast China's Jilin Province, in a small village called Xigucheng.
The village was called "cheng," which means "city" in Chinese, because it used to be a great city in the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907). It was the Zhongjing (central capital) of the Bohai Kingdom, which occupied Northeast China, the sea-border areas of Russia and part of the Korean Peninsula from AD 698 to 926.
According to historical annals, the kingdom, built by the Mohe ethnic group, was an autonomous power under the Tang Dynasty. It reached its peak of prosperity since trade with Russia, Japan and the Korean Peninsula, and its capital was built in the style of Chang'an (today's Xi'an), the Tang capital.
In AD 926, the Khitan army surrounded the Grand Capital of the kingdom.
Historical records say that, after days of fruitless struggle, the Bohai king walked along the city's Phoenix Avenue, wearing white robes and holding white banners, and surrendered before the horse of the Khitan king.
Three years later, the Khitans forced 94,000 Mohe households to move south to today's northeast China's Liaoning Province. To prevent the Mohes from returning to their hometowns, the Khitans burnt down the magnificent Bohai capitals.
About 400 years after the fall of their kingdom, Mohes disappeared from the history books. Some scholars believe Koreans surnamed Tai descend from the Mohes.
Today, only the ruins of a few palaces in the kingdom's capital have been brought to light.
But archaeologists have found at the latest site a glazed green porcelain artifact in the shape of an animal head, according to Song Yubin from the Jilin Provincial Archaeological Research Institute.
With its clenched big, sharp teeth and flying horns, the dragon-like animal combines the Tang style with those of the ethnic culture.
The second find in the border area, also in Northeast China, consists of the remains of a grand palace in Acheng, Heilongjiang Province.
The palace, covering 50,000 square meters, was built by the Nuzhens in the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234).
The 10 discoveries announced over the weekend do not include many also worthy of in-depth research, such as the Jiuliandun Tomb in central China's Hebei Province and a city from the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC) in central China's Henan Province, said Xu Pingfang.
But the list facilitates research on and protection of the excavated relics, said Zhang Bai, deputy head of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.
Zhang said some archaeologists today have almost no time to carry out research as more and more new finds are emerging.
"Effective research and publicity are important if the excavations are to inform not only archaeologists but also the public about China's past," said Zhang.
(China Daily April 16, 2003)
