Period: Xia (21-16th century BC) and Shang Dynasties (16-11th century BC)
Listed in: 2004
Excavated by: the Archeological Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Social Science
Archeological team leader: Xu Hong

  Site description

In July 2004, archaeologists discovered the remains of a palace at Erlitou in Yanshi City of Central China's Henan Province. Palaces and walls as well as rammed-earth foundations have been excavated. Covering 108,000 square meters, the rectangular city is about 300 meters wide from east to west, and 360 meters long from north to south. In the palatial area, nine large-sized building sites have been dug up, with two groups of them revealing obvious axial lines. The ruined sites, with a history of more than 3,600 years, reportedly makes up the earliest palace ever found in China.

The crisscross roads formed the transportation network in the palace's central area. The palace, the large-scale building complex, and the roads were all lined up in the same direction, showing the palace city had a clear layout, which might have served as the model for the construction of later imperial palace cities.

Important relics, such as wheel tracks, large rammed earth bases, and the remains of turquoise-making workshops, were also found. The discovery of small-sized two-wheeled tracks pushed back the appearance of two-wheeled vehicles in China to as early as the Xia Dynasty.

  Significance

In addition to the discovery of the said tracks, a large turquoise dragon ware was excavated. The dragon, about 70 centimeters long and made up of 2000-odd various fine turquoises, is a rare dragon-designed antique in early China in terms of scale, exquisiteness, and weight.

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