The National Cultural Heritage Administration held a meeting in Beijing on the 12th on important progress of the major project "Archaeology China," reporting on four important archaeological achievements: the Jizhong site in Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province; the Shajingtou site in Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province; the Jinglongmen site of the Northern Song Dynasty Eastern Capital City in Kaifeng City, Henan Province; and the Qingchengmen site in Huai'an City, Jiangsu Province. Among them, the Jizhong site in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, for the first time confirmed the existence of a large-scale building foundation from the Warring States period Yue state within the ancient city of Shaoxing.

Warring States and Han Dynasty building foundations. Photo courtesy of the National Cultural Heritage Administration

　　It is reported that the Jizhong site in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, is located in Yuecheng District, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province, and is a high-status building site from the Warring States and Han dynasties. To coordinate with local urban construction, and with approval from the National Cultural Heritage Administration, the Shaoxing Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology carried out archaeological excavation in 2024.

Brick-lined well from the Six Dynasties period. Photo courtesy of the National Cultural Heritage Administration

　　The Warring States period remains include one group of large building foundations and one well. The building foundations are distributed within an area about 48 meters long from east to west and about 36 meters wide from north to south, and two different forms of foundation construction can be observed: one composed of square pillars, rectangular base plates, and round logs beneath the base plates; the other a raft-like foundation formed by multiple round logs laid in alternating horizontal and vertical layers. The well has a wooden lining and a diameter of 0.82 meters; carbon-14 testing dates it to about 2,500 years ago.

　　Li Longbin, a research librarian at the Shaoxing Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology in Zhejiang Province, introduced that the Jizhong site in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, has for the first time confirmed the existence of a large-scale building foundation from the Warring States period Yue state within the ancient city of Shaoxing. Carbon-14 dating shows that the related remains date to about 2,500 years ago, providing evidence for the historical record of Goujian establishing the capital and representing a major discovery in the archaeology of the Yue capital. This major discovery resolves the regret that there were no Yue state period remains within the ancient city and provides important clues for exploring the Yue capital.

Ink-written wooden slips from the Han Dynasty. Photo courtesy of the National Cultural Heritage Administration

　　At the same time, the Jizhong site in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, for the first time in the Shaoxing area discovered high-status official government buildings from the Han dynasties, yielding ink-written characters such as "Kuaiji," "Shanyin," and "Ru Lü Ling Li," which are closely related to Shanyin County of Kuaiji Commandery. This is an important discovery in the archaeology of commanderies and counties in the Han dynasties and is of great significance for studying changes in the territory of Kuaiji Commandery.

　　Li Longbin said that excavation has determined that both the Warring States period Yue buildings and the Han Dynasty buildings adopted an architectural form combining underground wooden foundations with above-ground platforms, reflecting the organic integration of the traditional stilt-style architecture of the Yue state in a wetland environment with the Central Plains platform-based architectural civilization, and representing a major discovery in the archaeology of ancient Chinese architecture.

　　Li Longbin stated that the Jizhong site in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, has deep stratigraphic deposits, abundant unearthed relics, dense building foundations, a long period of continued use, and buildings of rather high status in each period. It is important evidence that ancient Shaoxing long served as the political, economic, and cultural center of China's southeastern region.