BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Over 30 years ago, a batch of bronze ware with invaluable inscriptions from the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046-771 B.C.) was unearthed at Liulihe, some 43 km southwest of downtown Beijing, proving Beijing was the capital of the ancient Yan State.
Archaeological research also identified Liulihe as the earliest traceable source of urban civilization in Beijing, and Liulihe has since been hailed "the origin of Beijing."
The site is currently undergoing new excavations by Chinese archaeologists, who are employing advanced technological means and modern interdisciplinary concepts to further explore the origin of Beijing.
"People are curious about what the capital looked like and how its ancient people lived. There are a lot of mysteries to be solved," said Wang Jing, a researcher from the Beijing Cultural Relics Institute who is in charge of the Liulihe excavation.
First discovered in the 1940s, the Liulihe site is about five-sixths of the scale of the Forbidden City, scattered with the remains of city walls, tombs, palaces, handicraft workshops and a large number of cultural relics.
Wang's colleague Zhao Fusheng was one of the first students at Peking University to major in archaeology. He participated in the excavations at Liulihe in the 1970s and 1990s.
"After attending courses for our major for just two months, our professor guided us to begin onsite excavations, and we had to learn in practice," said Zhao.
China's young archaeologists today are much luckier. Wang, who graduated in 2018, received systematic archaeological training and is already able to lead technical workers in excavation efforts.
Since 2019, the Beijing Cultural Relics Institute has been coordinating with Peking University and many other institutions to carry out excavations at Liulihe, focusing on the core and tomb areas. With the help of modern science and technologies, many new archaeological discoveries have been made.
"This time, we carried out a plant archaeological analysis of the unearthed natural relics, and identified carbonized plant seeds such as millet, wheat, soybean and barley," said Yin Da, a doctor at the institute.
The seeds were brought to an archaeological workstation in eastern Beijing. Magnified by a high-power microscope, the veins of the plant seeds -- with diameters of less than 1 millimeter -- were clearly visible after the image was projected onto a computer display screen.
After thorough analysis, Yin concluded that the Yan State mainly relied on millet planting as well as the production of wheat and soybean, forming a stable agricultural economy and an effective production pattern.
"The relics represent both the agricultural production mode in central China and the grassland culture in north China, demonstrating Liulihe's important role in cultural exchange between early farming and nomadic civilizations," said Wang.
"In 2019, there were 23,386 pottery sherds found at Liulihe, and follow-up matches, repairs and painting are underway. This work requires a great amount of time, but with advanced technologies, the efficiency will be greatly improved," Wang added.
According to the Liulihe Relics Protection Plan (2020-2035) ratified by the National Cultural Heritage Administration earlier this year, a relics park with a museum will be built at the site to better preserve and display objects from the Yan State, and to carry forward traditional Chinese culture.
The researchers plan to apply an archaeological information system and a three-dimensional geographic model to further clarify the site's layout and identify the scope and content of the tombs.
"We will also conduct multidisciplinary archaeological research regarding pottery, metallurgy, environment, anthropology, archaeobotany and zooarchaeology in an endeavor to determine the geographical conditions of and the ancient social life in Liulihe," said Wang. Enditem
