Beijing unearths 3,000 pieces of cultural relics in first half of 2017

This year Beijing has excavated and protected more than 1,300 ancient tombs of different times in history, unearthing over 3,000 pieces or sets of cultural relics as of May 30.

From February 2 to May 14 this year, the capital city’s sub-center in Tongzhou District has seen 276 ancient tombs excavated over a total area of 99,884 square meters for archaeological prospection. More than 1,000 pieces or sets of cultural relics were unearthed, including pottery, porcelain, bronze, gold and silver wares.

In Yanqing District, on the 2.54 million-square-meter area of archaeological prospection, a total of 1,100 tombs have been discovered, 845 of which have been dug out, including the brick-chambered tombs of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wei and Jin Dynasties, Tang Dynasty and Jin Dynasty as well as the earth pit tombs of the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. Among them, seven were well-preserved family cemeteries of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, which are rare in Beijing.

In the first half of this year, during the archaeological excavation of the Ruyuan Garden in the Old Summer Palace, the overall layout including the pavilions, open halls, rockery and roads have been uncovered for the first time. Nearly 1,000 pieces of cultural relics have been discovered in the garden, such as gold bricks, tiles and the stone inscription of Emperor Jiaqing’s handwriting.