Remains of 'oldest kingdom' unearthed
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-12...ent_6296232.htm
Archaeologists are excited at the prospect that the remains of a 4,000-year-old city - larger than the Forbidden City - unearthed on the east coast could be the oldest kingdom in the nation's history.


The Liangzhu ancient city ruins - found in Yuhang county of Zhejiang Province - can be traced back at least 4,300 years, and cover an area of 2.9 million square meters with the city walls 4-6 meters in width.

The first discovery was made in June last year when apartment buildings were to be built in Putaoban Village of Yuhang. Archaeologists were called in because the village is part of the Neolithic Liangzhu Culture protection zone. It is centered on Yuhang and extends to present day Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui and Jiangxi provinces as well as Shanghai.

The Liangzhu Culture of 5,300-4,000 years ago in East China has yielded many exquisite artworks for religious use, most notably jade artifacts.

Under a patch of rice field, archaeologists found a 40-meter-wide ancient ditch built of hardened earth, in which were large amounts of pottery shards, Liu Bin, a researcher at the Zhejiang Archaeological Institute, said over the weekend.

When archaeologists dug a deep hole on the eastern bank of the north-south ditch, they were surprised to find a large area built of hammered soil and pebbles.

Further excavations showed that the ditch was a canal outside the city, and the area to its east was the remains of part of the city wall.

The walls extended 1,500-1,700 m from east to west and 1,800-1,900 m from north to south. The city covers an area of 2.9 million sq m, 200,000 sq m more than the Forbidden City.

It is the largest Neolithic city discovered in China, said Yan Wenming, a professor at Peking University.

"The city could have been the capital of the Liangzhu Kingdom," he was quoted by the Hangzhou-based Metropolitan Express News as saying.

Historians have long speculated about the existence of such a kingdom 4 millennia ago, Liu Qingzhu, director of the Archaeological Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told China Daily Monday.

Further evidence is needed to prove the city was the capital of the kingdom, he said. "There should be remains of palaces if there used to be a political power. The essence of statehood lies in its government, not just in the walls."

If a political power existed so long ago on the east coast, it is a mystery as to how it faded away, he added.

Other than the usual causes of War and/or Natural Disasters, another big reason I can think of how some past kingdoms fade away was that the people themselves gave up supporting the kingdom. They probably thought it wasn't worth living there so just move away little by little.
This could relate to War and/or Natural Disasters, or maybe Cruel and uncaring leaders, anything. No people, no city.

Another archeological proof that China is a multi-centered civilization. Not just Yellow River Zhongyuan centric but also Sichuan, Hangzhou, Shandong....

That's an easy one. Think of Amarna in Egypt. Someone comes into power and does their best to sweep away the old regime. The first step is to move the capital.

Thanks for the article. It was pretty cool!

Pattie, you are as usual, right on point; and the next usual step is to destroy, or obliterate all possible physical evidence that would identify what the current power wishes never existed. The mindset would be to extinguish to the degree possible, in so far as history goes, the very existence of the offenders. And in truth, I wager, in more instances than not, the obliterators, came close to achieving their goal.

I read this news about the discovery last year in Zhejiang province of the wall of the largest (at the time) ancient Chinese city in Zhejiang province. This city wall and city belong to the Liangzhu culture, which is now the subject to be considered when defining what are the sources of Chinese ancient culture. Here is the article:

On 29 November 2007, archaeologists from the Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Institute announced that their survey of the site of a walled city of the Liangzhu culture at Mojiaoshan in Zhejiang, conducted since last year had revealed the discovery of the largest prehistoric walled city uncovered in China to date. The city measures between 1.5 and 1.7 kilometres from east to west and between 1.8 and 1.9 kilometres from north to south. It covers an area of 2.9 million square metres, the size of the Garden of Perfect Brightness (Yuan Ming Yuan) outside Beijing. The walls have a course of stone at the base and are up to 60 metres in thickness at the base, more than three times the thickness of the Ming dynasty city walls in Xi'an which are the thickest extant city walls known in China.

Archaeologists continue to digest the full implications of the discovery which will result in a substantial rewriting of the history of urban development in prehistoric China. It is not merely the size of the site that has staggered archaeologists. The unearthed graves vary in structure and the tomb chambers reveal different levels of sophistication. This reveals that the Liangzhu culture was a fully fledged civilisation and that this city might have been located at its centre. The Liangzhu culture flourished between 5000 and 4000 BCE, and its influences extended as far as Shanxi in the north and Guangdong in the south. Professor Yan Wenming of Peking University has described this as the greatest archaeological discovery in China since the unearthing of the Shang dynasty capital Yinxu, and one that might reveal the origins of Chinese civilisation that clearly still remains a subject of debate.
http://www.chinaheritagequarterly.org/brie...c&issue=012

Did we have a post on this subject already? Do you have any other sources or comments about the significance of this discovery? Or is this a "We'll see" until more research is done?

Additional interesting article from China Daily on Aug 13, 2008:

The Zhejiang Archaeological Institute sparked widespread interest in Liangzhu Culture late last year when they announced the discovery of ruins of an ancient city.

Relics found at the base of an ancient city wall in Yuhang, a county of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province led scientists to believe previously discovered ruins belong to the Liangzhu Culture (3400-2250 BC), the last Neolithic jade culture in the Yangtze River Delta.



The latest discoveries were first unearthed in 2006 during excavation work for apartment buildings in Putaoban village of Yuhang.

Archaeologists were called in because the village is part of the Neolithic Liangzhu Culture protection zone.

Under a rice field archaeologists then found a 40-m-wide, 1-m-deep ancient ditch made of hardened earth that held large numbers of pottery shards classified as belonging to the Liangzhu Culture.

When archaeologists dug a deep hole on the bank beside the ditch, they were surprised to find the high land next to it was actually built of hammered soil and laid with pebbles at the bottom.

Locals say such stones - with clear edges and corners and apparently processed by hand - were spotted elsewhere in the region.

Based on these clues, archaeologists came to a preliminary assumption that the high land where the Putaoban village is located could be a manmade river embankment from the Liangzhu Culture period.

Some archaeologists made even bolder assumptions that the ruins, located only 200 m to the west of the Mojiaoshan archaeological site, could be a section of city wall that many historians have believed existed and have searched for.

Mojiaoshan, a 300,000-sq-m pounded earth platform built during the Chalcolithic period (3300-2000 BC), is part of a Liangzhu complex site at Yuhang in Zhejiang.

Inspired by the findings, the Zhejiang Archaeological Institute undertook a careful excavation surrounding Mojiaoshan.

Starting from the raised earth in Putaoban village, archaeologists followed the pebbles at the bottom of the remains. By last April they were certain that a section of 1,000 m long and 40 to 60 m wide belongs to the Liangzhu period.

By last November it was almost certain that the old city was protected by four walls built of stones at their base and yellow clay in the walls themselves.

Covering an area of 2.9 million sq m, roughly four times the size of the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Liangzhu site is the largest Neolithic settlement discovered in China.

Through analysis of pottery shards excavated outside the walls, scientists estimate the city fell into disuse around 4,200 years ago. Its exact time of construction, estimated to start from 5,000 years ago, needs further study.

There is also evidence that the city was well planned. Its walls were not only defensive for military purposes, but also offered protection from natural disasters such as floods.

It was already known that Mojiaoshan and the possible remains of a palace from the Liangzhu Culture period are the centerpiece of a culture that dates back more than 5,300 years. Ruins of a sacrificial altar and tombs were found earlier within or around the site .

It could be called "China's first city", said State Cultural Relics Bureau expert Zhang Zhongpei. "It is unique in the country, with its value comparable to Yinxu."

Yinxu, a palace in the late Shang Dynasty (c. 16th century-11th century BC) located in what is now Henan province, is one of the oldest and largest archaeological sites in China. It is considered one of the ancient capitals of China and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Other historians made even wider speculation. "The Liangzhu ancient city could have been the capital of a Liangzhu Kingdom," said Yan Wenming, a professor with Peking University.

Historians have long speculated about the existence of such a kingdom four millennia ago, said Liu Qingzhu, director of the Archaeological Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Further evidence is needed to prove the city was the capital of a possible kingdom, he said. "There should be remains of palaces if there was political power. The essence of statehood lies in its government, not just in the walls."

If a political power existed so long ago on the east coast, it is a mystery why it faded away. But the discovery has generated streams of visiting government officials, scholars, the media and an interested public.

The Liangzhu Culture Museum, already popular with history buffs and lovers of jade and antiques, has received more than double the number of visitors following the discovery.

Liangzhu Culture

Named after the locale where it was first discovered in 1936, Liangzhu Culture dates back to 3310 - 2250 BC. Chinese historians generally regard it as the first peak of Hangzhou's development. The civilization's history can be traced further back to 8,000 year ago, starting with the Kuahuqiao Culture that lived in what is now the city's suburban Xiaoshan district.

The ruins are 20 km northwest of the city center. Surrounded by mountains, more than 130 Liangzhu Culture sites are scattered over an area of 40 sq km.

Liangzhu Culture had advanced agriculture including irrigation, paddy rice cultivation and aquaculture.

Yet to many the most remarkable feature of Liangzhu Culture is the huge number and high quality of green jade artifacts, and their religious importance.

Two types of jade, called bi and cong, were used ritually by the ancient culture.

Bi jade circular rings were used to worship heaven and cong was an elongated square used to worship the earth.

Over 5,000 jades have been discovered in the Liangzhu ruins to date. The congs have the earliest known beast designs for masks as a part of their inscriptions.

Liangzhu Culture also had broad division of labor, which gave rise to rapid polarization of classes.


Link to article with pictures: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2008-08/...ent_6930185.htm