In a spin-off from the West-to-East Gas Transmission Project, the
world of archeology has already gained no fewer than 18 previously
unknown ancient cultural relic sites. The recent discoveries came
to light in the
Gansu
section of the pipeline.
Sites already authenticated include by far the earliest remains of
the Neolithic Culture ever to be found in the Hexi Corridor (an
area to the west of the Yellow River). In addition there are two
sites of the ancient Horse Culture.
In
a bid to make this major project a "green pipeline," experts
established the principle right at the very beginning that
construction work should give way to the needs of environmental and
cultural protection.
The departments responsible for pipeline construction are required
to cooperate with the archeologists in both excavating and
protecting cultural relics found along the line of the project. In
the Gansu section, a total area of 378,000 square meters has been
excavated and archeologists are telling of exciting results.
Yawan Relics in Wuwei and Wulian Relics in Huangyang have been
verified as belonging to the Majiayao Culture making them the
earliest Neolithic relics ever excavated in the Hexi Corridor.
Liangzigou Relics and Mahuanghe Tombs excavated in Yumen have been
confirmed as belonging to the Horse Culture. This is quite unique
to Gansu Province and dates back to the Bronze Age. The only
previous discovery of this particularly rare type of cultural relic
was in Yumen in 1958 during the construction of the Lanzhou-Urumqi
Railway.
Archeologists from the Gansu Provincial Cultural Relics Institute
describe the 18 newly-found ancient cultural relic sites as
embracing not only the Majiayao and Machang Cultures of the
Neolithic Age, but also the Siba and Horse Cultures of the Bronze
Age. They consider the excavations to be of great significance to
research into Prehistoric and Bronze Age cultures not only in the
context of the Hexi area to the west of the Yellow River, but also
in a much wider cross-China context.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, February 4, 2003)