Great discoveries made at Maojiaping historical site

After nearly 10 months of excavation, the joint archaeological team studying early Qin Culture have made important discoveries at the Maojiaping historical site in Gangu county, Gansu province.

The team includes researchers from the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics, the Field Archaeology Department of the National Museum, the School of Archaeology and Museology of Peking University, the School of Cultural Heritage of Northwestern University and the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology. Their discoveries show that the Maojiaping historical site was probably a government site in ancient Jixian county.

The Maojiaping historical site is located on the south bank of the Weihe River. It has a total area of about 600,000 square meters covering two parts – east and west.

North of the west part is the residential area, most of which includes laminated villages. South of the west and east part is the burial area, which was looted in the past.

In 2012, the joint archaeological team studying early Qin (221-206 BC) Culture began to excavate Maojiaping, namely regions known as Point A, B and C. Point A and C were located in the west part, where more than 210 pits were excavated, most of which dated to the Eastern Zhou Period (770-256 BC) and some from the Western Zhou Period (c.11th century-770 BC).

Point B was located in the burial area of the east, where 21 tombs and two pits for horses and carriages were excavated. Tombs were divided into two types, grotto and pit graves, dating from the early Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) to late Warring States Period (475-221 BC).

In 2013, a total of six locations were explored, namely Point D, E, F, G, H and I with an area of nearly 2,700 square meters. A total of 735 remains, like tombs, housing sites, pottery kilns, stove sites and pits, were excavated. Among the sites were 153 tombs and more than 1,000 pieces of unearthed bronze, pottery, jade, bones and antlers, iron and other relics.