The Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has announced its list of China's six most important archaeological discoveries of 2021.
The list of projects, which was announced in Beijing on Friday, is as follows: the Paleolithic ruin sites in the southwestern province of Sichuan; the Neolithic jade workshop remains in central China's Henan; the legendary Sanxingdui Ruins site in Sichuan; two sites of ancient tombs from the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) belonging to royals in Jiangxi and nobles in Hubei; and the tomb complex of the royal families of Tuyuhun in Gansu.
The jade workshops excavated in Henan have filled a gap in knowledge of the jade handicraft industry in the Neolithic period in the central plains and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, according to the institute. It provides an important clue for exploring the specialization and social division of labor within the handicraft industry at that time.
The new relics unearthed at the Sanxingdui Ruins will promote research into the civilization of the Shu Kingdom, dating back some 4,500 to 3,000 years, and provide further evidence of the ancient Shu civilization as an important part of the Chinese civilization, it said. The new finds include a giant bronze mask as a signature artifact of the ruins.
It also said that the discoveries in the tomb of the royals of Tuyuhun, a neighboring kingdom of the Tang empire, have shown a new direction to enrich and advance research on the cultural system of the Silk Road.