????A
newly found Bronze Age site some five kilometers from Chengdu,
capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province is likely to force
a revision of the accepted ancient history of this region, Wang
Yi, director of the city's Cultural Heritage Archaeological
Institute, announced Tuesday.
????The site proves that there was a very
advanced bronze civilization on the upper reaches of the Yangtze
River about 3,000 years ago, some 500 years earlier than the
archaeologists previously thought.
????The site also indicates connections
with the centers of civilization in the Yellow River valley
and on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Wang said.
????So far, the archaeologists, who are
still working at the site, have found about 1,200 pieces of
vessels, ornaments, figurines and receptacles, most of which
date back to the late Shang Dynasty (BC 16th-11th centuries)
and the early Western Zhou Dynasty (BC 11th century-BC771),
Wang said.
????This is another major relics site found
on the Chengdu Plain, following the discovery of the Sanxingdui
site at Guanghan, Sichuan last year. This latter site has
been dated back some 3,000 to 5,000 years.
????The Sanxingdui site, considered powerful
evidence of the diverse origins of Chinese civilization, contains
the oldest and largest ruins of the ancient Shu Kingdom. The
ancient city wall there is about 2,600 meters long and three
to five meters high.
????(People's Daily 04/05/2001)
