Another graveyard of the Spring and Autumn Period in central China's Henan Province was also one of the top 10 selections of 2008. Ma Juncai, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relic Research of Henan Province, said at the media briefing that the mausoleum was confirmed as the tomb of an emperor from the third century B.C. The artifacts unearthed and the structure of the mausoleum filled in many blanks about this period, said Ma.

Ma and his team began the excavation in 2006, and the excavation area reached 12,000 square meters. Ma told reporters that to the surprise of archaeologists, the cultural relic protection work carried out to cooperate with an important water project of China, called South-to-North Water Diversion, brought about a big archaeological outcome.

The water diversion project is an important construction that the Chinese Government carried out to relieve the water shortage of the northern area of the country. According to the project, part of the water of the Yangtze River in the south will be transferred to the northwestern and northern areas of the country. The project will be carried out along three routes. The middle line was completed in 2007 and the eastern line is planned to be finished in 2010. According to the primary statistics, the project might unearth more than 700 historical sites. To protect and rescue the cultural relics related with these sites, Chinese archaeologists have been busy in discovering and conserving these relics.

SACH's Tong said that the infrastructure construction is sometimes in contradiction to cultural relic protection, and so how to well conserve the cultural heritage while modernizing the country poses a major task for archaeologists.

In the past, he added, people paid less attention to this problem, and so some cultural heritages have been devastated, and some even disappeared. But in recent years, with enhanced awareness of cultural relic protection by the public and also the government, cultural heritage protection has been a big concern of the Central Government in relation to modernization.

Taking the Three Gorges Project for example, Tong said that before the construction, archaeologists did careful investigation and research. Almost all experts in cultural relic protection were assembled to the areas along the Three Gorges Project construction line, trying their best to rescue the cultural relics there.

As for the South-to-North Water Diversion, archaeologists reaped much during the archaeological investigation before the start of the construction. The construction area covers the hinterland of the Chinese civilization, such as Henan, Hubei and Shandong provinces, a region where past civilizations once prospered.

CASS's Xu echoed Tong's opinion, saying that in recent years, one of the big focuses of China's archaeologists is to carry out excavations that cooperate with construction projects. "The South-to-North Water Diversion Project extends through areas that contain sites of the Paleolithic Age (thousands of years ago) to the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, which is very important," said Xu, adding that without the big development most sites would not be found.

China's Top 10 Archaeological Discoveries in 2008 The Yangguanzhai ruin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province The only entire round-moat site for a settlement of the Miaodigou Cultural Period (4,000-3,500 B.C.) The Bronze-Age graveyard in northwest China's Gansu Province A site of graves of the Qijia Culture (2,000-1,900 B.C.), a civilization from the upper reaches of the Yellow River Salt-making site in east China's Shandong Province Dating back to the Shang (16th century to 10th century B.C.) and Western Zhou (1046-771 B.C.) dynasties, the site is the largest group of sites of salt-making found in the coastal area of China Zhougong Temple in northwest China's Shaanxi Province A large-scale burial site of Zhou Gong (around 1,100 years B.C.), an outstanding politician, strategist and thinker in Western Zhou Dynasty. The site owns the most relics of scripts on tortoise shells and animal bones found in China The Bronze-Age site in southwest China's Yunnan Province The largest site of the baluster-style architecture in the Bronze Age, providing precious examples for the research of the prehistorical settlement types The ruins of an ancient city of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.) in central China's Henan Province The discovery of the site and related relics is of great significance to the research of the settlement and culture of the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 B.C.) The capital of Wu State in the Spring and Autumn Period in east China's Jiangsu Province The only site for the capital of the Wu State confirmed today. The 2 km-long stone city wall is proved to be the earliest and largest Great Wall found in south China A tomb of the Spring and Autumn Period in central China's Henan Province It was the tomb of a seigneur in the Spring and Autumn Period. The structure and design inside were rare among similar discoveries of the same period. A graveyard of the Spring and Autumn Period in Henan Province It was confirmed to be the mausoleum of a king of the Han State of the late Warring States Period. The arrangement of the tombs is important to the research on the patriarchal clan and burial systems of the state. Ruins of an ancient city of the Tang and Song dynasties in southwest China's Sichuan Province The brick-paved street and barrel-drains conserved well were discovered in the site. Other relics, including porcelains and Buddha statues made in that period, were found there. Such a large scale site of the Tang and Song dynasties is very rare in China (Source: ccrnews.com.cn)

30 Years of Archaeological Research China's archaeology has achieved remarkable outcomes during the 30 years after the carrying out of the reform and opening up policy. In theoretical research, various archaeological theories and genres have been introduced to China, which have influenced the development of the archaeology of China. In research techniques, many natural scientific and technological skills have been applied in archaeological research, bringing a root change of China's archaeology. These new techniques include methods of environment survey, DNA analysis, remote sensing, structural and chemical analysis of ancient extinct life. In development of research institutes and organizations, provincial archaeological institutes have been established one after another, totaling 40 to date. Archaeological discoveries have benefited greatly from the cooperation with infrastructure construction. Excavation projects have reached several hundred, and the funds for digs total hundreds of million yuan. Over 80 archaeological groups throughout the country participated in the archaeological work related to the Three Gorges Project, finding and protecting nearly 1,100 projects. The exploration area covered 31 million square meters, of which 1.8 million square meters was the excavation area. The ongoing South-to-North Water Diversion Project has over 50 archaeological institutes involved, with 16 million square meters of exploration area and 1.7 million square meters of excavation area. In the aspect of cultural heritage protection, with the promulgation of the Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics in 1982, the Chinese Government has paid more and more attention to the cultural relic protection work, and the public has had growing awareness of protecting cultural heritage. Increasing and frequent exchanges with foreign archaeologists has also greatly broadened the vision of Chinese archaeologists and expanded their research thinking. Also of great importance is the fact that many blanks in China's archaeological research have been filled in through painstaking efforts. The three major tasks of the archaeology-origin of man, origin of agriculture and origin of civilization-have made remarkable progress. China is a world leader in research on the origins of the humankind and their evolution. The archaeological research on ancient capitals has achieved a lot. The evolution of cities in ancient China and their changes during different stages have been gradually exposed. The living conditions of people in the pre-historic and historic ages were basically known, and a new understanding has emerged about the development of productivity. In addition, Chinese archaeologists have paid more and more attention to the research of the spiritual world of ancient people. In the past 30 years, more than 200 archaeological papers have been released and several hundred academic works and tens of thousand theses have been published. (Source: Guangming Daily)