Race against time at Three Gorges
Archaeologists from two thirds of China’s archaeological institutions have been racing against the clock to rescue cultural relics facing submersion under the Three Gorges Reservoir (South West China). A taskforce of more than 7,000 archaeological experts, academics and technicians have turned the reservoir area, some 1,000 kilometers from Beijing, into the world’s largest archaeological site. The sluice gate of the Three Gorges dam was set to close on June 1st following which the water level was set to rise rapidly over 15 days to a depth of 135 metres.
Excavations began in 1992 in line with a protection and rescue programme budgeted at one billion yuan (120 million US dollars). “It is unprecedented in China’s history of cultural relics salvage,” said Qiao Liang, one of the policymakers who defined the rescue programme. By April 2003 some nine million square metres of the reservoir area had been prospected. More than 6,000 valuable artifacts and 600,000 other cultural items have been recovered. Finds include prehistoric relics dating back more than two million years to the Old Stone Age and ancient cultural sites ranging from the Xia Dynasty (C21 BCe to C16 BCe) to the Qing Dynasty (1644 to 1911 CE).
Advanced modern techniques, including remote sensing, ground-penetrating radar and global positioning technology, have been used to ensure that the rescue of relics from below the 135 metre level was completed on schedule. Plans are now in place to continue salvage after the initial raising of the water level. The Three Gorges Reservoir is due for completion in 2009, when 632 square kilometers of land will be submerged.
Source: People’s Daily (1 June 2003)
Excavation of former Leetsdale island completed
The deepest stratified dig of its kind in Pennsylvania (USA) has now been completed after three years of work by archaeologists, geologists, botanists, geophysicists and volunteers. The site, a section of Leetsdale Industrial Park, was formerly a sandbar, and then an island, in the Ohio River before attaching itself to the mainland. It has never been ploughed or otherwise disturbed, allowing archaeologists to locate perfectly segmented layers that have been sealed by sediments deposited by periodic flooding.
The dig ranges from 16ft to 18ft in depth. Portions of the excavation have revealed evidence of activity from Archaic periods (6,000 BCe to 1,100 BCe) and the Early Woodland period (1,100 BCe to 200 CE). The separated layers show where the occupants moved from hunter gathering to settled agriculture. Artifacts include chippage from the production of stone arrowheads and spearheads, stone tools, and a 3,000 year old sandstone bowl weighing 8 lbs. Archaeologists also found steatite (soapstone) discs, uncharacteristic of southwestern Pennsylvania but common in southeastern Pennsylvania and Maryland. Soapstone was used for making bowls and the discs may indicate that the inhabitants migrated from the eastern part of the State.
The state museum commission will be responsible for long-term documentation of the artifacts. Exact time periods will be determined by analysis of soil samples, including red and oxidised soils that provide evidence of shallow fire pits. At the same time researchers will provide a unique picture of climate change over the period of occupation, down to the present day.
The site was discovered by an archaeological survey undertaken prior to the replacement of the Braddock Dam, which was due to begin in 1999. Construction planning was refined to allow the excavations, which began in 2000. The site will now be back filled and returned to the industrial park at the end of July 2003.
Source: post-gazette.com (4 June 2003)
