Ancient skeletons, relics, unearthed in Tianjin suburb

An ancient tomb site is unearthed in Tianjin's Jizhou district. The site in the city's northern suburb contains relics dating back to the Xia (2,070-1,600 BC) and Shang (1,600-1,046 BC) dynasties, according to the Tianjin Cultural Heritage Center on June 19. [Photo/China Daily]

Tianjin recently announced that it has unearthed a group of 50 relics sites in the area of an ancient tomb in the northern suburb district of Jizhou.

Excavations lasted for more than one month, with the earliest relics unearthed  proven to date back to the Xia (2,070-1,600 BC) and Shang (1,600-1,046 BC) dynasties, according to the Tianjin Cultural Heritage Center.

The excavation was carried out in an area of about 1,200 square meters in an ancient tomb site; hundreds of antiques and samples of ceramics were found.

Some of them are proven to date back to the Eastern Han (25-220), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. These include ceramics and household items.

In the 1960s and 70s, several historical relics were unearthed in Jizhou, which contributed to the country's research on culture in the Bronze Age, which was about 3,000 years ago.

This is the second time ancient tombs have been found in the area. The first was about 40 years ago, in around late 1970s.

This excavation was jointly launched by the Tianjin Cultural Heritage Center and Jizhou Cultural Heritage Protection Institute.

In March this year, a property developer found the relics during construction and halted work.

The Jizhou district government announced the launch of the project to unearth the rare relics.

Since 2004, the center has teamed up with leading universities to unearth human skulls in Jizhou. To date, some 600 samples have been collected, some dating back some 600 years ago.

The project is still under way, and more results will be released in the near future, said the Jizhou district government.