Archaeologists in northeast China's Jilin Province have unearthed the ruins of a granary, which has been dated back to the Eastern Xia Kingdom about 800 years ago.

Located in Mopan Village in the Korean Autonomous Prefecture of Yanbian, the ruins are 21.25 meters long and 7.5 meters wide, according to the Jilin Institute of Archaeology.

"They are surrounded by a drainage ditch. Ceramic tiles are scattered everywhere in the ruins. Such an architectural form is unique to the Eastern Xia Kingdom," said Li Qiang, who leads the archaeological team.

They also found a variety of scorched crops in the ruins, including a large amount of millet and small red bean, and a small quantity of wheat and buckwheat.

Researchers presume that Mongolian troops occupied the capital of the Eastern Xia Kingdom and burned its state granary. The collapsed buildings buried the unburnt crops and kept them intact underground for eight centuries.

The Eastern Xia was a short-lived kingdom established in today's northeast China by a Jurchen warlord in 1215. It was conquered by the Mongols in 1233.

"The new discovery will be valuable to the study of the dietary patterns, agriculture and economic development of the Eastern Xia Kingdom in the future," said Feng Enxue, an archaeologist with Jilin University.

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