Cultural relics spanning 5,000 years discovered in Three Gorges region

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Cultural relics spanning 5,000 years discovered in Three Gorges region

Archaeologists claim that cultural relics they discovered in Yunyang county, southwestern China's Chongqing municipality, cover each culture of a 5,000-year period with distinct cultural stratums.

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Archaeologists claim that cultural relics they discovered in Yunyang county, southwestern China's Chongqing municipality, cover each culture of a 5,000-year period with distinct cultural stratums.

"We discovered human traces of each period from the Neolithic Age to the imperial Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, which covers 5,000 years," said Prof. Luo Erhu with the archaeological department of prestigious Sichuan University.

Nearly 1,000 articles were unearthed at the site.

Luo acknowledged that "essential historical articles were discovered at each cultural stratum, especially those after the Shang (16 century B.C.-11 century B.C.) and the Zhou (11 century B.C.-221 B.C.) dynasties, which are well preserved and uninterruptedin age."

During the excavation which started on Feb. 28, archaeologists unearthed four spiral trapeziform ash pits with a diameter of one meter of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), the first of its kind ever spotted in the Three Gorges Reservoir region and seldom seen around the country.

"The function of those pits is still under investigation," saidLuo, "but it should be related to certain religions or customs."

"Such an accumulation of cultural relics spanning a complete 5,000 years is very rare in China. It is cited as another significant archaeological finding in the Three Gorges Reservoir region only next to the discovery of the Wushan man," said Luo.

So far, more than 4,000 square meters have been excavated at the site and further excavation is underway.

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