4000 year-old city excavated in Central China
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-03-22 11:37

Archaeologists have confirmed that the Dashigu cultural relics of the Xia Dynasty (21 century B.C-16 century B.C.) in the suburb of Zhengzhou, capital of Central China's Henan Province, date to a large city site of the middle and later Erlitou Culture, part of the Bronze Age from 21 centuryB.C. to 17 century B.C.

Covering an area of 510,000 square meters, the Dashigu citysite lies near Mangshan Mountain and the Yellow River."The position of the ancient city is of great strategicimportance, so we infer that it may be a military city or capitalof a subordinate kingdom of the Xia Dynasty," said Wang Wenhua, aresearch member with the Zhengzhou cultural relics archaeologicalresearch institute.

From March 2002 to December 2003, Zhengzhou cultural relicsarchaeological research institute excavated the Dashigu city site,during which an area of 540 square meters was unearthed.The flat rectangular city site consists of two parts: the citywall and the moat.

Most parts of the city wall were discovered nearly one meterbelow the earth's surface.

"Relics of the city wall were composed of several soil layers,showing that the wall had been renewed or restored many timesbefore," said Wang.

The two moats of 2-2.8 meters deep were located parallel witheach other.

Foundation remains, tombs, ash pits and ash ditches and a largeamount of other remains were discovered inside the city site,mainly of the second, the third and the early fourth phase of theErlitou Culture.

Archaeologists discovered a large number of fragments ofearthen drainpipes in the ash ditches. "It shows that largerconstruction foundations must exist in the middle of the city site,which is to be further excavated," said Wang.

Another important discovery is a ring moat of the early ShangDynasty (16 century B.C.-11 century B.C.), which lies between thecity wall and the moats of the Xia Dynasty, and in parallel withthe Xia moats.

Abundant remains of the Early Shang Dynasty were discoveredinside the ring moat, "It shows that in the early Shang Dynasty,the city site remained an important residential settlement," saidWang.

"The Dashigu city site of the Xia Dynasty is the only city sitewhich can be surely defined as the Erlitou culture type discoveredso far in China, filling the archaeological blanks in discoveriesof city sites of the Xia Dynasty," Wang said.

"As abundant historical remains of the Xia and Shang dynastieswere discovered in the city site, this discovery will be of greatsignificance to the research on the relations between the Xia andthe Shang dynasties, which is still unclear," said Wang.

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