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Ruins of 2,500-Year-Old Grand Palace Found in North China
Ruins of an ancient grand palace, dating back over 2,500 years ago, was recently found in Qinxian County, north China's Shanxi Province.
The palace, representing the highest architectural level of the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), was built by Jin Kingdom in north China of that period.
Through thousands of years of history, the traces of the dilapidated palace, Tongti Palace, have been erased by time. After a long time searching, Chinese archaeologists discovered the palace's ruins.
The north wall of the remains were found eroded by a river running at the north of the palace, but the layers filled with rammed earth on the east and south walls are still recognizable.
The southeast corner of the wall is the best preserved. The remains of the corner, six meters high and about 10 meters wide, are roughly in the shape of a column. The layers, filled with rammed earth, are quite clear and the moats around the east, south and west sides of the palace still exist.
According to archaeological surveys, this palace is about 700 meters wide and 1,500 meters long and is in accordance with what historical documents recorded.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, the mergers and struggles among princes for supremacy were fierce. Such tendency was reflected in the construction of the castles and palaces, archaeologists said.
The Jin Kingdom, located in the middle of the Yellow River, reached the highest standard of such constructions due to its highly developed productivity and supremacy. The best representation of these buildings is Tongti Palace.
In the ruins, archaeologists also found three tile-ends between the late Spring and Autumn Period and early Warring States period (475-221 BC), two stone axes of the Neolithic age and pottery utensil for steaming rice made between the late Neolithic age and early Zhou Dynasty about 3,000 years ago.
In addition, the pottery shards representing the early human civilization can be seen everywhere in the ruins. The palace is regarded as a relic of great archaeological value.
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