An archaeologist at Washington University in St. Louis is helping to reveal for the first time a snapshot of rural life in China during the Han Dynasty, says a Washington University press release.
The rural farming village of Sanyangzhuang was flooded by silt-heavy water from the Yellow River around 2,000 years ago. Working with Chinese colleagues, T.R. Kidder, PhD, professor and chair of anthropology in Arts & Sciences, is working to excavate the site, which offers a exceptionally well-preserved view of daily life in Western China more than 2,000 years ago.
“It's an amazing find,” says Kidder of the site, which was discovered in 2003. “We are literally sitting on a gold mine of archaeology that is untapped.” What researchers find fascinating and surprising, says Kidder, is that the town, though located in a remote section of the Han Dynasty kingdom, appears quite well off.
Exploration has revealed tiled roofs, compounds with brick foundations, eight-meter deep wells lined with bricks, toilets, cart and human foot tracks, roads and trees. There is an abundance of metal tools, including plow shares, as well as grinding stones and coins. Also found have been fossilized impressions of mulberry leaves, which researchers see as a sign of silk cultivation.
“One could make the argument that this is where the Silk Road began,” Kidder says.“This sedimentary archive goes to all the way back to the Pleistocene era,” says Kidder. — Our Bureau
