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February 21, 2017

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Preserving an archaeological treasure site

By Wu Huixin | February 21, 2017, Tuesday | Print Edition

THE Liangzhu Archaeological Site, which contains relics dating back to between 3300-2300 BC and is the first Neolithic city unearthed along the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, is being proposed for inclusion on UNESCO’s world cultural heritage list.

The 909-hectare site, located in Hangzhou’s Yuhang District, has been under archaeological excavation for more than 70 years, according to the application for listing on the UNESCO website.

“People thought that Chinese civilization began 3,600 years ago, when the Shang Dynasty (c.16th century-11th century BC) created a nation and characters,” said Jiang Weidong, director of the Liangzhu Heritage Management Bureau. “But the Liangzhu excavations prove that the ancient China could date back as far as 5,000 years, alongside civilizations like ancient India, Egypt and Babylon.”

During the last 10 years of excavation, the ancient city of Liangzhu has emerged as a settlement of 3 square kilometers at the core and 100 square kilometers of surrounding agricultural area. A water storage system discovered there is the earliest and biggest water system of its kind found anywhere in the world.

“Liangzhu Archaeological Site is a peerless site with abundant and complete underground remains and rich information about the initial stage of human civilization, which are rarely seen in other sites of the same period or in sites of the same kind,” the application says.

Tombs and ritual relics have been unearthed, along with tools and jade objects. The city was clearly divided into different sections with different functions. It was surrounded by clay walls, with six gates. Historians consider it the origin of the city layout of ancient China.

“Tons of carbonized rice were discovered,” said Jiang. “Agriculture was advanced as shown by plowing techniques. It means that ancient Liangzhu had the capability of maintaining the normal operations of a civilization.”

The city had social classes. Jade, silk, ivory and lacquer artifacts were unearthed in sites for burial of the elite, while pottery was found in burial plots of poorer individuals.

The Liangzhu Culture actually stretched to present-day Shanghai and northern Jiangsu Province.

“In the widest sense, the Liangzhu culture contains many of the same sorts of relics found in Shanghai’s Guangfulin Relic and Huzhou’s Qianyangshan Relic sites,” Jiang said. “They share cultural similarities, especially in jade artifacts made in similar fashion. It shows that Liangzhu was not simply a tribe, but a mature civilization.”

Liangzhu-style jade artifacts are characterized by finely incised motifs. Among the most exciting finds were yucong, or cylindrical jadeware engraved with patterns of mythical creatures. The shape symbolizes the orbits of the sun and moon orbits in the Liangzhu Culture.

In particular, the “King of Cong,” a large jade piece with a hole in the middle, exhibited the most typical deity and animal mask pattern of the religious features of the agricultural civilizations in the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins, the application says.

“Linguistic experts found more than 600 symbols on the Liangzhu antiques, both pictographic and abstract,” said Jiang. “They were the origins of Chinese characters.”

Unlike ancient Egypt, India and Babylon, Liangzhu was nestled amid wetlands used for rice cultivation. Due to clay and wood construction materials, only a few foundations of the ancient settlement remain today.

Researchers believe the demise of the Liangzhu Culture was the result of environmental changes, such as floods.

“Liangzhu provides the world with a new sample of civilization,” said Jiang, who was curator of the Liangzhu Culture Museum when it opened in late 2008.

A 3.66-square-kilometer national heritage park is expected to be built in Liangzhu. It will retain the original appearance of the site, melding with the natural environment of waterways and wetlands.

“Protection is the priority,” Jiang said. “The park will serve as a platform to display the millennial civilization to the public and showcase its universal value.”

Local residents are being relocated to protect and preserve the relic site. Industry and farming in the adjacent area is being tightly restricted. To compensate relocated villagers in 11 hamlets, government has allocated more than 10 million yuan (US$1.45 million).

“In fact, protection work started in the mid-1980s,” said Jiang.

“The Hangzhou government has implemented regulations to preserve the area and provides financial aid to support research and excavation.”

Hangzhou


 

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