A noted archeologist says recent archeological findings in the Three Gorges
area might prove the diversified origins of China's millenniums-old
civilization.
Wang Chuanping, deputy director of the Chongqing Municipal Culture Bureau,
said that archeological evidence found during the past few years had added a
clue to the widely debated theory that civilization emerged independently in the
country's different areas.
Wang said part of China's civilization originated from the Yangtze River
valley, as evidenced by artifacts dating back to Old and New Stone age cultures
discovered in the Three Gorges area.
The highly-developed ancient cultures spotted along the Yangtze River rivaled
those originating in central and north China's Yellow River valley, which was
long seen as the "cradle of the Chinese people."
Personalities in the Chinese academic circle have long debated whether
civilization arose in the Yangtze River independently of the already widely
acknowledged roots in the Yellow River valley.
Few scientists agreed that there might have been another origin Chinese
civilization, which is long believed to have developed from "Zhongyuan", a
popular Chinese term referred mainly to the Yellow River valley in central and
north China.
But it has become increasingly apparent and clear that great prehistoric
highly developed cultures developed along the Yangtze River, especially in the
Three Gorges area, as more and more artifacts have been unearthed in the area
facing inundation.
A complete map of how China's ancient civilization developed and flourished
in the Yangtze River valley can now be clearly seen, said archeological experts.
Experts said the Three Gorges area had long served as a bridge for cultural
exchanges between China's east and west, south and north, proof of the multiple
origin theory of China's civilization.
Last year China blocked the gigantic Yangtze River at the Three Gorges,
creating the world's biggest reservoir.
However, the building of the Three Gorges dam sparked anxiety and worries
among some renowned archeologists that a wealth of cultural relics providing
evidence of prehistoric cultures would be submerged and lost for ever.To salvage
the centuries-old legacy of their ancestors, more than 7,000 noted archeological
experts, academics and technicians were summoned from across China to protect
artifacts in the Three Gorges area.The dam's sluice gate was shut on June 1 to
officially begin water filling.
Artifacts scattered around the vast reservoir area include prehistoric
cultural relics dating back to the Old Stone Age over 2 million years ago,
cultural sites of successive ancient dynasties from the Xia Dynasty (21st
Century BC to 16th Century BC) to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)."These
archeological findings unearthed in Three Gorges area fully show that the area
is a major part of China's ancient cultures," You said, adding that such
invaluable findings would have great significance to China's cultural
history.Approximately 9 million square meters of the reservoir area had been
surveyed and examined by April, with more than 6,000 precious cultural items and
60,000 other cultural heritage items recovered.China began its cultural relic
salvation work in the reservoir area in 1992 when a protection and rescue
program was launched, at a cost of one billion yuan (US$120
million).
