Staff are cleaning up the excavated potteries and porcelains.

The riverbank and riverside wooden buildings of Song Dynasties unearthed in the neighborhood of Datang Street

The unearthed figurine is believed to be part of the furnishings of a household of the period.

It was learned from the Institute of Guangzhou Cultural Relics and Archaeology that they have recently implemented a rescue excavation at a construction site west of Datang Street. The Institute has excavated the riverbank and wooden buildings built on the riverside during the Wudai and Song Dynasties. By its location, the riverbank is estimated to be the west bank of the ancient brook known as "Qingshuihao", originating in Baiyun Mountain and flowing into the Pearl River. A preliminary estimation of the width of the "Qingshuihao" during Song Dynasty times was 70 meters.

In 2002 archaeologists excavated riverbank remains at the construction site of the Commercial Building on Datang Street and they cleaned up a quantity of Song relics at another construction site: an ancient watercourse. These two sites and attendant relics proved the existence of the "Qingshuihao" which was recorded in ancient documentations but, until now, not located with certainty. Accordingly, the neighborhood of the current Cangbian and Wenming Roads was actually the "watercourse" during the Tang and Song dynasties.

The riverbank discovered this time is believed to be the west bank, and runs roughly in a south-north direction, and which was built in early and late stages of the period. Judged from the unearthed relics, the early stage was during the Nanhan Dynasty, or earlier, and the late stage was built in about the period of the Beisong Dynasty.

Vice Director Yi Xibing of the Examination Department of the Institute of Guangzhou Cultural Relics and Archaeology claimed that the site also unearthed over 1,000 relics of the Ming and Qing Dynasties as well, including a large number of blue-and-white porcelains, copper spoons, earthen bowls, earthen basins, etc, all of which are all of great historical research significance.

Source : english.gz.gov.cn

(Translated by Guangzhou Association of Foreign Affairs Translators)