Sunken warship listed among China's top archaeological finds in 2015

An archeological team from the National Center of Underwater Cultural Heritage has salvaged more than 100 items from the shipwreck that was code-named "Dandong No 1" during the past two months. [Photo/Xinhua]

Chinese archaeologists selected the discovery of a sunken warship from the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), a Yangtze River Delta tomb and four others as the greatest archaeological finds of 2015 on Tuesday.

The warship, found near waters off Dandong in Northeast China's Liaoning province, was confirmed to be the Zhiyuan, a famous vessel of the Beiyang Fleet that sank on Sept 17, 1894 during the First Sino-Japanese War.

The discovery has provided precious material for the study of China's modern history, the war and the development of naval ships, said Zhou Chunshui, an official with the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH).

In the Liangzhu culture tomb in East China's Jiangsu province, archaeologists have found more than 700 rare cultural relics that have for the first time expanded the area of the Neolithic jade culture north of the Yangtze River.

The results were chosen from dozens of new archaeological discoveries in 2015 by judges from the SACH, the Institute of Archaeology under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Peking University, the National Museum and other archaeological institutions.