Ruins of eight ancient city sites discovered in Xiong'an New Area

SHIJIAZHUANG, April 2 (Xinhua) -- Ruins of eight ancient cities dating back to more than 2,000 years ago were discovered in the Xiong'an New area, suggesting that China's "city of the future" boasts a long history, said local archaeologists.

The earliest ruins, namely Nanyang, included two city sites from the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.). The Nanyang ruins and its surrounding areas covered nearly 18 square kilometers, with the cultural relics spanning nearly 3,000 years from the Neolithic Age down to the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and Jin Dynasty (1115-1234).

Xiong'an was named after two counties Xiongxian and Anxin, where ruins of two cities were found. The Xiongzhou ancient city in Xiongxian was formed in the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907-979), of which a few sections of the city walls are still existent. Anxin was home to the Anzhou ancient city that started in the Song Dynasty, where up to three kilometers of city walls, some 1.5 to two meters tall, are still standing.

In April 2017, China announced a plan to establish the Xiong'an New Area, which includes the Rongcheng, Anxin and Xiongxian counties, as well as some adjacent areas in north China's Hebei Province.

A team of archaeologists started working in May that year for a thorough investigation and survey of cultural relics in the area covering 1,770 square kilometers.

To date, they have excavated more than 20,000 square meters, unearthing more than 4,000 pieces of cultural relics including bronze-ware, jade articles, stoneware, porcelain, and mostly, potteries, and identifying 263 immovable cultural relics.

Lei Jianhong, head of the archaeologist group from the Hebei provincial institute of cultural relics and archaeology, noted that although Xiong'an was known as a futuristic city under construction, the findings showed that it was not a blank piece of paper. "Rather, this area boasts a long history and rich culture," Lei said.

Song Shaojun, vice head of the Institute for Advanced Study of Yanzhao Culture in the Hebei University, believed that the discovery was a testament of the integration and exchanges of multiple cultures in Xiong'an. ■