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02.jpg (Photo : www.telegraph.co.uk)

The head archaeologist of the Baoji City Archaeological Research Center, Dr. Liu, says archaeological work has been underway at the Wester Zhou (era) tombs at Dangu mountain since August, and that 11 of the graves have yielded eight bronze pieces.  This brings to 48 the total pieces of ancient bronze recently found in the area.

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In 2012, residents digging the foundation of a house in a small village near the site found bronze pieces, prompting Baoji City's Cultural Preservation Department to get a restoration permit for the site. This has been the largest archaeological discovery of any Chinese graves in recent years.

According to workers at the site, the graves have been divided into sections. At the center, there are two medium-sized graves and five smaller ones. Further to the south west, there are five more smaller graves.

So far archaeologists have already excavated dishes, weapons, small tools, earthenware cooking tripods and jars of pottery from the 10 small graves and one medium-sized grave. They have also found some jade jewelry and shell pieces.

Dr. Liu explained that the medium-sized grave they are currently excavating, M4, is to the south of the medium-sized grave they excavated last year called M3. They have already discovered a wooden canopy with markings at M4. By comparison, M4 and M3 structures are very similar, though M4 is a little larger. On the second level, a meter of seating area with eight places was discovered along the North, West and East walls.

Dr. Liu explained that the dig produced expected results. So far M4 has yielded 4 pieces of bronze ware; 3 food vessels which were found together and one round food vessel was found separately. It is believed that the round piece is rarely found in the Shanxi region.

Baoji City is called the "warehouse" as it is situated in the west of the Chinese plains, which is considered the birthplace of Zhou and Qin dynasties. Since the Han dynasty, hundreds of thousands of bronze pieces have been excavated from this area. This total includes many exceptional pieces with carvings of great importance, which is why the area is called the "land of bronze."