New Liao and Jin evidence in the Jilin province

  China Daily   By Wang Zhen ( ejilin.gov.cn ) 

2014-11-18

Archaeologists say that there are startling implications in discoveries made over the past two years at the well-preserved Chengsijiazi site, near Baishan, Jilin province, of Liao (916-1125) and Jin (1115-1234) dynasty relics that are at least 400 years old and are considered strong evidence of the socioeconomic and cultural conditions.

An archaeologist showing large relics from the Chengsijiazi site. [Photo/Xinhua]

The remains include city infrastructure, courtyard walls, drains,stove sites and house foundationsat a rammed earth site covering 600square meters, and were discovered by a team led by Liang Huili, of the provincial Relics and Archaeology Institute, who made the comment, on Nov 12, in an interview.

Liang explained, "We had to discontinue our digging at the end of 2013 terrible weather. Then we went back to look for remains of the city construction this past April."

She went on to say, "We found roof components such as plate tiles,semicircular tiles and eave tiles and a great number of porcelain shards.We were really excited, because these things were only used in royal architecture."

Archaeologists discover handprints on excavated bricks. [Photo/Xinhua]

Archaeologists found the characters ‘da’an’inscribed on many of the relics, as well as ‘da’an ba nian’, or ‘ba’an eighth year’ and ’da’an jiu nian’, or ‘ba’an ninth year’, referring, according to is the scientists, the reign title of the Liao’s Yeluhongji emperor (1032-1101).

Liang suggests that this site was once the emperor’s palace, based on the relics and of studies of historical documents, but, inspite of the fact that the Chengsijiazi site was first discovered in the 1960s,scientists haven’t had a chance to do extensive research until now.

They say the city site was established during the Liao and was used up to the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). It was a center of politics, economic activity, culture and the military from the Liao and Jin periods to the early Ming dynasty (1368-1644).

The site produced some tiles with inscribed characters. [Photo/Xinhua]