Reputed to be the world’s largest hydro-electric project, the
Yangtze River’s Three Gorges Dam has attracted the attention of
archaeological experts for protection and classification of the
project area’s prehistoric cultural artifacts. Many thousands of
items from prehistory, that include pottery, laquerware and
bronzeware, have been recorded in the area, giving evidence of a
cultural sequence of habitation that began in the Old Stone Age, a
Paleolithic period nearly 2 million years ago. But, comes June
2003, the Three Gorges will be flooded to fill a hydro-electric
reservoir and rise to 135 meters above sea level.
What interest archaeologists around the world is the fact that
within the flood area there are 1,074 historical sites that will
disappear beneath the waterline. In response to the incredulous
concern this raised around the world, the State Council established
a Three Gorges Project Construction Committee, to oversee a huge
salvage operation, begun in June 2000, to record and preserve
artifacts of immense historical importance. The State Council
allocated 1 billion yuan (approximately US$125 million) to the
project, which aims to be complete by 2009 when the Three Gorge Dam
is scheduled to go into operation and the area flooded.
The archaeological aims of the salvage project are, in practical
terms, extraordinary. Some 100 archaeological teams from more than
20 provinces and cities are working at over 120 site-specific digs
in the massive 660-kilometer area.
To
date, work below the 135-meter waterline is near completion; a
total excavation area of over 1 million square meters has produced
6,000 relics of significance. The total area explored, so far, has
been an extraordinary 5 million square meters. As archaeological
evidence requires the lifting of earth and matter in a systematic
dating sequence, or that which is older always being dug from
beneath, the archaeologists at the Yangtze site are now working on
an older prehistory below the 175-meter waterline. Some of the
relics and endangered sites below this level include the
1,700-year-old Zhang Fei Temple, situated on the southern bank of
the river, in Yunyang, and constructed in honor of General Zhang
Fei within the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280). Also found is
Shibao Village, what archaeologists have suggested being one of the
most complex wooden structures ever recorded, belonging to the Ming
Dynasty (1368-1644).
The rich significance of the Yangtze River area, and its sites,
relics and finds, has allowed archaeologists to newly-identify it
as a birthplace of ancient Chinese civilization. An excavation in
1999, at Gaojiazhen and Yandunbao, was to reposition the Chinese
Paleolithic in the Three Gorges area by an extra 50,000 to 100,000
years. The Neolithic period (10,000 BP-2,000 BC) in the Ba and Shu
area unearthed remains dating to around 7,000 BC, while at least 80
settlement sites in this area, remaining unearthed, have dated a
protohistoric sequence, or the period before written records but
after written identifications existing elsewhere, to around 5,000
year BP.
Archaeologists have also found evidence of Daxi, Qujialing and
Shijiahe culture sites in Zhongxian County, giving life to the
belief that in prehistory, the Three Gorges linked ancient cultures
along the Yellow River and Yangtze River valleys.
An
extinct Ba ethnicity, living in the area between the Xia (2100-1600
BC) and Shang (1600-1100 BC) dynasties up to the Zhou Dynasty
(1100-221 BC) was relatively unknown until archaeologists found
remains that indicated environmental change and the formation of
this significant part of ancient Chinese civilization in the area.
Relics and remnants of ancient Ba culture, from over 100 sites,
have provided evidence of a sequence of cultural activity from the
Shang Dynasty to the Warring States Period (475-221 BC). This has
included bronze ware, architecture and smelting evidence. Kilns
found in the excavation at sites in Shuangyantang in Wushan County,
Shaopengzui in Zhongxian County and Lijiaba in Yunyang County have
added further proof of some of the many miracles of the extinct Ba
culture.
The Qin (221-206 BC) and Han (206 BC-220 AD) dynasties have also
been represented. City settlement sites, graves, buildings, kilns
and remains of agricultural activity have produced evidence of
changes in environmental conditions as well as the basic elements
of these ancient times. Artifacts have included Han Dynasty stone
reliefs used in the decoration of tombs and bamboo slips used for
writing on as well as statues of Buddha, Chinese chessmen and stone
carvings that decorated exteriors of tombs and temples. The
collection has brought significant evidence to building a picture
of ancient Chinese life in this period. Architecture from the Shang
and Zhou dynasties has also featured in discoveries at Wanzhou,
while the Chongqing Municipality and city sites of the Song Dynasty
(960-1279) found in Badong County and Fengjie County have
contributed to further knowledge of ancient Chinese times.
In
an attempt to preserve this vital and evocative part of the history
and prehistory of the Three Gorges cultural memory, advanced
techniques have been used. These include thermo luminescence (TL),
accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), and energy-dispersive X-ray
fluorescence. Digital technology has been used to build virtual
models of the excavation area and to apply the work of the various
technologies to the management of archaeological data and
information collection and sharing.
A
protection scheme of particular importance is the Baiheliang or
White Crane Ridge low-water calligraphy monument. Claimed by UNESCO
as the only well-preserved “ancient hydrologic station”, this
1600-meter-long flat rock girder, lying to the west of Fuling City,
bares inscriptions that have been dated back 1,200 years and show
its use as an ancient hydrometer for measuring water levels in the
river. Experts from the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy
of Social Sciences have applied resilient ethyl silicate to
reinforce the stone and used polyester adhesive fabric to protect
it from further erosion. A 3-D model has provided the scientists
with the opportunity to test preservation techniques and amongst
proposals, inspired by the idea of pressure-free containers,
experts have suggested an underwater museum to preserve the
monument, which has been approved and implemented.
While the work continues in the Yangtze Three Gorges area,
archaeologists and concerned lovers of Chinese history await
further developments from this rich and evocative source of ancient
civilization.
(China.org.cn, translated by Shao Da, February 17, 2003)