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New Archaeological Achievements of Guyang City-site of Han Dynasty

 

The Guyang city-site, located at 1 km south of the downtown of Guzhen County in Bengbu, Anhui, on the southern bank of Hui River. Administratively it belongs to Guyang village, Liancheng Township of Guzhen County. Early in WesternHan period Guyang County was established here. At present, only sections of city walls are preserved on the surface, among them the south and west walls are in good condition. Judged from the length and extension of walls, the city is basically in rectangular shape with each side ca. 1000 m long, covering an area about 1 million square meters.

Although many city-sites of Han period have been found across the country, they are quite rare on the reaches of Huai River. Entrusted by Anhui Antique Bureau and Anhui Provincial Archaeological Institute, archaeologists from Nanjing University have conducted a two-month excavation to the site.

The fieldwork started from middle September 2011, and ended in middle November. Firstly in the northwest part of the site 22 pits assigned in south-north direction each measuring 5m×5m were excavated. Then pits in the middle part and northeast part were dug. Archaeologists found 5 kiln sites, 11 ceramic remains, 3 house sites, 9 foundation trenches, 2 ash ditches, 1 tomb, 69 ash pits, 1 drainpipe, 1 curbstone and 6 urns. The most important finds are a group of kilns at the center of the excavation area, including Kiln YL1, Kiln YL3 and Kiln YL4. The Kiln YL1 is in nearly an oval shape and is well-preserved. It consists of a flue, a kiln bed and a vent. The kiln is sealed with tiles. In the filling earth there remain many pieces of slag and animal bones. The Kiln YL3 is in irregular shape, with the east part higher than the west, and is in poor state of preservation. The Kiln YL4 has an oval-shaped plan and is also seriously destroyed.

Archaeologists found a road and a section of drainpipe. The road is located in the southeast area. It remains a row of bricks as the curbstone and a large elongate area of red burnt earth, which probably were the road surface. The pipe made of red clay ceramic was found at the east of the road, only remaining the lower part in arc shape. The road and the pipe were buried in the same layer with that of the kilns. Therefore they could be dated to the approximate periods.

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