Near the Fanshan king's mausoleum, where the largest jade cong of the Liangzhu Culture, a testimony to the existence of Chinese civilization at least 5,000 years ago, was once discovered, Chinese researchers have found large courtyard complexes. Research showed that these complexes feature structures such as waterways, tombs, buildings, passages and pools. This new archaeological discovery was shared on Sunday at the 3rd Liangzhu Forum. The archaeological method used by the Chinese team - an integrated approach - drew the keen interest of guests from many countries.
The 3rd Liangzhu Forum, which opened on Saturday in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, has attracted over 300 participants from more than 60 countries and regions, including heads of cultural heritage protection and management institutions, museum directors, archaeologists and historians, according to the press release from the organizing committee. This year's event includes one main forum, four sub-forums and six supporting activities. The four sub-forums are set to explore topics including archaeological site protection, museum innovation and world cultural heritage preservation.
This new archaeological discovery was presented by Wang Ningyuan, a researcher from the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, during one of the sub-forums held on Sunday. Wang's archaeological team used an integrated "sky-air-ground-digital" paradigm to carry out the research. "Sky" refers to satellite remote sensing, "air" refers to aerial remote sensing and drones, "ground" covers traditional archaeological investigation and excavation, while "digital" reveals fully digitalized records such as GIS (Geographic Information System). Using these techniques, the team unexpectedly discovered a four-sided enclosed wall structure outside the Fanshan king's mausoleum in Liangzhu ancient city. Covering an area of about 25,000 square meters, it is almost the size of a small residential community.
Wang pointed out that because no written language has yet been discovered from the Liangzhu period, archaeologists must rely on information from buildings and tombs to reconstruct the social organization of that era. If the enclosed wall structure is confirmed to be a mausoleum wall, it would indicate that Liangzhu nobles already had the concept of royal mausoleums, breaking the traditional view of Fanshan as merely an earth-mound cemetery. This could also represent the origin of China's ancient mausoleum system.
During other sub-forums, many researchers from different countries also shared their findings.
For example, Patrizia Piacentini, a professor from the University of Milan in Italy, shared research on about 500 newly discovered tombs and architectural structures surrounding a mausoleum in West Aswan, Egypt. Associate Professor Kubota Shinji from Kumamoto University in Japan introduced ethnographic examples of cooking methods such as boiling, cooking, and steaming discovered in East and Southeast Asia, along with use-wear analysis results of pottery unearthed from the Liangzhu site cluster. He suggested that the Liangzhu Culture played an extremely important role in the development of steaming as a technique of cooking rice.
Nicola Masini, research director at the Institute of Heritage Science of the National Research Council of Italy, shared applications of remote sensing technology in the investigation and protection of large archaeological complexes and historic architectural heritage.
During the forum, cultural activities such as the Liangzhu cultural and creative products market and China·Hangzhou Art and Technology Biennale were also held. The biennale brought together works by more than 160 artists, scientists, and other creators from over 20 countries and regions worldwide. Through themed exhibitions and dialogues among civilizations, it deepened exchanges and mutual learning, presenting the trajectory of cultural ecology reconstruction and the future landscape in the process of technological iteration.
