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Largest Ancient Sacrificial Site Found in North China
A 4,000-year-old site used to hold sacrifice ceremonies was discovered recently in the Aohan Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in north China.
It is the largest sacrificial site ever found in China both in terms of its size and the amount of sacrificial altars, according to Chinese archeologists.
Covering an area of 150,000 square meters and encircled by a two-meter-high stone wall, the site is arranged in a central region surrounded by another four.
There are more than 200 stone alters in the site, the largest being about 13 meters in diameter and the smallest one, four meters in diameter.
A five-meter-high and eight-meter-long pig head sculpture found in the southwest area of the site was considered to be the largest pig sculpture in China, said Liu Guoxiang, assistant researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Other discoveries include some stone implements and polished megaliths, whose usage is still a mystery to archeologists.
Liu said that the discovery of the site may help them to study the origin of the nation, while the pig-head sculpture is precious proof tracing Chinese religious history and the ancient art and culture.
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