X-post from Tim 't Hart's EastAsianArch list.
With kind permission.

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China Reports Discovery of Ancient City

Tue May 9, 10:59 PM ET

BEIJING - The ruins of a 2,000-year-old walled city have been found in a
reservoir on China's northeastern border with North Korea, China's
official news agency reported Wednesday.

The mud-covered ruins were exposed when the water level in the Yunfeng
Reservoir was lowered for repairs, Xinhua News Agency said, citing
government officials. The reservoir is on a tributary of the Yalu River,
which forms the border of the two countries.

The report said the ruins, near the present-day city of Ji'an, are
believed to date to China's Han Dynasty in 202 B.C.-220 A.D. But Korea's
Koguryo kingdom ruled the area at that time, and Xinhua said the city
included tombs of Koguryo design.

Another burial area found some 12 miles away on the reservoir floor has
2,360 tombs also believed to date from Koguryo, Xinhua said.

Rest at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060510/ap_on_sc/china_ancient_city_2


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china daily. 2006-05-10
City ruins by Korean border may date to Han Dynasty
(Xinhua)

Chinese archaeologists have discovered ruins of an ancient city that may
date back to the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-220 A.D.) and legions of tombs of
the ancient Koguryo kingdom.

The ruins were found in a major reservoir on the border shared by China
and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The tombs were
found 20 kilometers away.

The ruins were spotted during repair work on the Yunfeng Reservoir
situated in the outlying mountainous regions near the SINO-DPRK border,
said Zhang Fuyou, Chairman of the Mount Changbai Cultural Society of
Jilin Province in northeast China.

As a leader of a three-member research team, Zhang has just concluded a
month-long inspection tour of the 1950s reservoir, also a tributary of
the Yalu River flowing along the SINO-DPRK border. The water level in
the reservoir was lowered by a depth of 41.13 meters to facilitate the
repairing efforts.

The ancient city ruins, now covered by thick mud, are in a square
formation and have a city wall 1.5 meters tall and four meters wide.
There is also evidence of a moat around the city wall.

The 180-meter-long western side and a six-meter-wide gate on the western
side are still visible, along with the 220-m-long northern side. The
eastern side was buried by housing foundations built in later years and
the southern side was destroyed by water from a local river.

A dozen tombs were also found inside the city ruins and in an area to
the north.

Judging from the structure and construction style, the city ruins might
have been built during the ancient Han Dynasty, acknowledged Zhang, who
said this could not be confirmed until further excavation into the ruins
had been carried out.

The team also found a sprawling tomb stretch, with 2,360 individual
tombs in all, in the same reservoir but some 20 kilometers away from the
location of the ancient city ruins. The massive tombs are believed to
belong to the ancient Koguryo kingdom, which existed from the first to
the fifth centuries AD.

The reservoir is proximate to Ji'an, a Chinese city on the SINO-DPRK
border that drew global attention in July 2004 when it was included on
the World Heritage List for being home to an even larger number of
tombs, over 6,000, from the ancient Koguryo kingdom.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-05/10/content_586056.htm

with kind regards,

Matthias Arnold (Art-Eastasia list)

http://www.chinaresource.org
http://www.fluktor.de

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