HERITAGE AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL NEWS BRIEFS

MUMMIES IN XINJIANG BETTER PRESERVED THAN EGYPTIAN ONES

The mummies found at the Xiaohe tomb complex at Lop Nur in Xinjiang, listed as one of China's Top Ten Archaeological Excavations of 2004 (qv), were "better preserved than those found in Egypt," Zhu Hong, director of the Frontier Archaeology Study Department of Jilin University was quoted as saying by Xinhua News Agency on 25 April 2005. "Even the lice on the heads of the deceased are preserved," Zhu said.

Archaeologists have unearthed 167 tombs of the Xiaohe cemetery, which sprawls over a 2,500 sq m elliptical dune, 174 m from the ruins of the Loulan kingdom, an ancient civilisation that vanished 1500 years ago. The complex contains about 330 tombs, and although about 160 of them were robbed, most objects found remain untouched.

Many mysteries surround the Xiaohe cemetery. For example, although few bronze items were unearthed, many of the timber objects were obviously made with bronze implements. This suggests that bronze was possibly too rare to be buried in the form of funerary objects. The dating of the tombs is also problematic. In listing these tombs, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage said that they were estimated to date to the beginning of the second millennium BCE, but no definitive dating has yet been carried out. A number of unusual timber figurines were erected at the graves to indicate the gender of the deceased and these are carved into a variety of shapes from columns to prisms. Timber from the graves will be dated using dendochronology at the testing laboratories attached to Zhu Hong's institute.

ANCIENT WALLS DISCOVERED

On 30 May 2005, Xinhua reported the discovery in the Helanshan mountains running along the border between Inner Mongolia and Ningxia of two sections of wall made of stone and tamped earth. The stone wall is only 7.3 m in length and less than 1 m high; the earth rampart is approximately two kilometres long but less than 0.5 m in height, although rising in some places to 2.1 m. The foundations of several beacon towers were also discovered. Archaeologists have yet to determine when these sections of wall were built, but a preliminary examination suggests that the stone section was built either during the Warring States period or Qin dynasty, while the tamped earth rampart was built during the Han dynasty or later.

On 20 April 2005, Xinhua News Agency reported that the second phase of renovation of the Huanghuacheng section of the Ming dynasty Great Wall in Huairou, Beijing, has begun (see "The Great Wall of China" in Features, China Heritage Newsletter No.1, March 2005). The second phase of renovation targets a 12.4 km section of the Great Wall taking in 13 battlements, two gates and 3,300 m of wall on a four-kilometre stretch. Other sections of the Ming wall at Jiankou, Chadaocheng and Gubeikou will also be renovated this year.

17 ANCIENT TOMBS FOUND IN NORTH CHINA

A number of major archaeological finds have been made in the Chifeng district of eastern Inner Mongolia. The neolithic material from this area is crucial for examining the links between the stone building neolithic cultures of China's north-east and those who worked with tamped earth construction on the Central Plains. Xinhua News Agency reported on 30 May 2005 that 17 ancient tombs believed to have been built in the Warring States period were found in a recent rescue excavation at an express highway construction site at Chenjiaying village in the Songshan district of Chifeng. The burial style featured inhumation in jars, pots or basins which were then placed in the tombs in nearby Chenjiaying village in Chifeng's Songshan district. These tombs were located in the vicinity of an ancient Xiajiadian Lower Level culture village dating back some 4,000 years which was discovered by professionals from the Inner Mongolia Cultural Relics and Archaeology Institute. Axes, stone adzes and stone spades, along with some pottery and potsherds, were unearthed at the ancient village site. The tombs and the village were exposed when the express highway connecting Chifeng and Tongliao, another city in the autonomous region, was being built. The excavation is expected to be completed in August 2005.

TANG DYNASTY WOODEN SCULPTURE DISCOVERED IN SICHUAN

On 20 May 2005, Xinhua reported the discovery of an exquisitely crafted Tang dynasty wooden sculpture of a goddess in Sichuan province. The goddess sculpture is 30.5 cm high and 20.5 cm wide and is carved from of a solid wooden block. After being weathered for centuries, the paint on the sculpture has totally flaked away but it is still well preserved. "Experts say the plumpness of the goddess is an excellent example how beauty was perceived at the height of the Tang dynasty", Xinhua reported.

EVIDENCE OF ENFORCED MIGRATION

An intact tomb epitaph of the Jiajing reign of the Ming dynasty, unearthed in the eastern part of Zhaoxian county, Hebei province, provides material evidence of the "enforced migration into the area of people from Shanxi province during the reign of the Yongle Emperor", according to a report in Guangming Daily on 17 May 2005. Accidentally discovered by a local farmer the epitaph, weighing around 500 kg, was found at a tomb of one of the emigrants and the clearly legible text provides details of the migration. Zhaoxian, known in the Ming dynasty as Zhaozhou, was an area devastated and laid waste by the warfare between the Jin and Yuan polities, and a series of ensuing natural disasters. The decision of the Yongle Emperor to revive the economy of the area by repopulating it was one determined by the strategic importance of the area. Prior to the discovery of this epitaph, written records mentioning the migration were scanty and limited to pudie materials. Over the past century, the texts inscribed on unearthed tomb epitaphs, usually inscribed on stone, have been one of the richest sources of information for Chinese historians.

Evidence of ecological disaster in this same general area of Hebei following the end of the Yuan dynasty (following 1341 CE) was provided by the discovery by archaeologists from the Hebei Cultural Relics Research Institute of an ancient village located near Liumengcun village in Cangzhou. Archaeologists are yet to determine whether the village, clearly abandoned nearly 700 years ago, was buried as a result of an earthquake or flooding, or possibly both. The excavation, which began in mid-April, has led to the unearthing of copper coins of Song and Yuan reign periods that have enabled archaeologists to verify dates and conjecture that the village was a commercial centre in the Song-Yuan period. Historical records mention four floods and a major earthquake in this area at the end of the Yuan dynasty.

ANCIENT MURALS AND KILN UNEARTHED IN CHONGQING

Chongqing, once one of the major cities of Sichuan province and China's capital (better known as Chungking) for a time during World War II, was designated an independent municipality in 1997 as an administrative gesture, among others, to prepare the area to handle the large influx of people being displaced by the rising waters resulting from the Three Gorges Dam project. Overnight, Chongqing, with its newly drawn boundaries, displaced Shanghai as China's most populous city.

For archaeologists, the area is significant because it might provide information on the ancient Ba culture that was a vital link in the development of civilisation in south-western China. Archaeological work has also been prioritised in the municipality, and reports of new discoveries regularly emanate from the area:

• A mural depicting figures, flowers and plants was discovered inside the entrance of a Song dynasty tomb at the Tuchengpo cemetery in Wushan county, now located in Chongqing municipality, it was reported in mid May by Xinhua News Agency. Murals were also found on the northern wall of the tomb, depicting ten figures against a background of rooms, a balustrade corridor and a courtyard. Several porcelain bowl and pots, as well as a lamp stand, were found in the grave. To date some 37 ancient graves have been excavated in the Wushan area.
• On 18 May 2005, Xinhua News Agency reported the discovery on the banks of the Jialing river within Chongqing municipality of the remains of a Yuan dynasty kiln. The Tushan kiln was a major local kiln from the mid-late Song dynasty to the early Yuan. The main items unearthed at the site are everyday use ceramic items.
• Han dynasty tombs in Chongqing, once excavated by the Sichuan-born veteran archaeologist, scholar and political survivor Guo Moruo (d.1978) recently yielded more than 300 artefacts during a recent salvage excavation, it was reported by Huasheng bao on 19 May 2005.

GROUP OF ANCIENT TOMBS UNEARTHED IN HEBEI

Xuanhua county in Hebei province is best known for its Liao dynasty tombs with murals. However, there was a long tradition of tombs with painted murals in the area. On 10 May 2005, Xinhua News Agency reported a discovery by archaeologists of an ancient group of tombs "of considerable size", including three Han dynasty and four Tang dynasty tombs in Xuanhua county. One Han dynasty tomb covered an area of 98.7 sq m and comprises eight coffin chambers. Another Han tomb was 18.6 m in length and 10.3 m in width. The tombs had been robbed, but archaeologists found a number of pottery models, figurines and vessels in the Han tombs.

TALL NEOLITHIC MAN FOUND IN SOUTH CHINA

On 27 April 2005, Xinhua News Agency reported that archaeologists in Guangxi province had unearthed remains of a 180 cm tall man dating back more than 6,000 years. The find was made at a neolithic site in Gongyuan village, Yangxu town, Bose city. The archaeological team from Bose who excavated the site noted that the human bones scattered at the site were thicker than those of modern people. They were also reported to be "awestruck" by a penis-shaped stone totem unearthed there.

Archaeologists also found a large number of stone tools such as hammers and chisels, and remains of animals including bears, monkeys and deer. Whether the discovery implies the existence of a tall ancient race requires further study.

With an area of 800 sq km, the Bose basin, where the neolithic site is located, lies between south China's Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and Southeast Asia, a crucial location in the study of the origins, evolution and migration of ancient peoples. Archaeologists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have been digging at the site since 1973. In 2000, a paper in the journal Nature argued that finds of stone tools there dating back 800,000 years undermined the Movius Line theory, which contended that East Asian cultures were stagnant compared to contemporary cultures in western Eurasia and Africa.

FURTHER ARCHAEOLOGICAL WORK AT SANXINGDUI

A new season of archaeological work began at the Sanxingdui site in Sichuan province in March 2005. Eclipsed by finds over the last couple of years at the Jinsha site in Chengdu, Sichuan's capital, Sanxingdui has not seen archaeological excavation since the year 2000. Sanxingdui is renowned for the spectacular and regionally distinctive finds of bronzes and "ritual objects" in 1986 at two sacrificial pits contemporary with the Shang dynasty on the Central Plains, even though archaeological interest in Guanghan-Sanxingdui goes back to 1929. Work has resumed at Qinglongbao, a locus on the northern edges of the Sanxingdui site, and at this site archaeologists are hoping to delineate Sanxingdui's significance as a political centre by discovering the remains of either a palace or shrine. Archaeologists were alerted to the potential of the new site not far from Yazi River by labourers who found ancient tamped earth remains at what is now the new excavation locus. However, for the moment, archaeological opinion is divided on the potential of the new dig.

FOUR THOUSAND YEAR OLD VILLAGE SITE FOUND IN SOUTHERN FUJIAN

In mid April 2005, a spokesman for the Dongshan County Museum in southern Fujian province revealed that, following a tip-off from a local amateur archaeologist looking for ceramic shards, a joint team from the museum and the Fujian Provincial Museum had discovered a neolithic site covering approximately 4,000 sq m facing the dunes on Dongshan Island. Dongshan island is a large, picturesque potential tourist resort better known as the site for amphibious landing exercises staged by the PLA over recent years.

Among the recent discoveries were rock carvings, four rock art sites comprising arrangements of marine conglomerate, and a granite stone urn. Specialists from the Fujian Provincial Museum say that this is an ancient village site.

NEW DANJIANGKOU EXCAVATIONS BEGIN

On 1 April 2005, the Hubei Provincial Archaeology Institute announced that it had begun salvage excavations on the banks of the Danjiangkou Reservoir, above its rising water levels. The excavations are part of a massive undertaking to elicit archaeological data from sites that will be flooded by the South-North Water Diversion Project. The first three sites being excavated are graves at Beitaishanmiao, Niuchang, and Laoxingfuyuan in Yunxian county. Almost one thousand valuable bronze pieces have been discovered in the past at the Beitaishanmiao site on the southern shore of the reservoir. Most of the Niuchang graves, numbering approximately 250 according to preliminary surveys, are scattered on the eastern bank, where Han dynasty brick, bronze and pottery objects have been found. The Laoxingfuyuan graves in Yunxian county cover a large area and have been identified as Chu graves of the Warring States period, the excavation of which, it is believed, will shed light on aspects of the economic, social and ritual history of the period. Yunxian is best known archaeologically as the site where palaeolithic Yunxian man was discovered.

On 12 May,, Xinhua News Agency announced that archaeologists were planning excavations at 11 sites along the Henan section of the water diversion channel, and that work was already in progress at three of these sites - Pinggaotai in Fangcheng county, and Niangniangcun and Xuecun villages in Yingyang city. The other eight sites include Chengou in Wenxian county, Laodaojing cemetery in Xinxiang county, Liuzhuang in Hebi, and the Guoli Han Dynasty cemetery within the jurisdiction of Anyang city.

The Pinggaotai site, outside Nanyang, is the first walled town of the neolithic Longshan culture found to date in south-western Henan. The site was first identified in a provincial archaeological survey conducted in 1961, and again examined in a 1976 survey, but archaeologists have not previously engaged in any excavations at the site. The stratigraphy at the site spans the millennia from the neolithic through to the Han dynasty, providing a valuable record of sequential occupation.

ANCIENT CHROME PLATING REVEALED

In mid March 2005, archaeologists and metallurgists examining bronze swords forged during the Qin dynasty (221-209 BCE) reported evidence that the swords had been chrome plated. Using electron micro-analysis and laser technology, scientists from the China Research Institute of Nonferrous Metals and the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, in an effort to determine why some bronze swords unearthed from the burial pits attached to the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang were not rusted or corroded, discovered that they were coated with an extremely thin layer (10-15 microns) of chromate and dichromate compounds. This chrome plating, which gives bronze a greyish sheen, strengthened swords and preserved their sharpness, while also preventing corrosion and rust. The technology seems to have been lost with the spread of iron weaponry, and chrome plating was only re-discovered by German scientists in the early-20th century and patented in the 1930s. [BGD]