1,900-year-old celadon kiln site found in Central China's Hunan

CHANGSHA -- Archaeologists have found a celadon kiln site dating back to the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) at a village in Central China's Hunan province.

The site was found in Yongxing village in the city of Liling in April when a group of archaeologists conducted a survey of the Lushui basin.

The ruins of the celadon kiln measure 7.2 meters in length and 2 to 2.15 meters in width.

The roof of the kiln has collapsed, and there are a large number of residual kiln bricks and burnt clods in the kiln, including pottery pieces and celadon pieces with check designs.

These pottery pieces are hard, mostly steel-gray colored and in the shape of pots, kettles, boilers and plates, among others.

Through comparative analysis, archaeologists found that the pottery unearthed in the kiln was the same as the common pottery found in tombs of the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty in eastern Hunan.

Liling has a long history of porcelain production. As early as the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a tradition of large-scale production of porcelain and hard pottery for daily use. According to experts, this archaeological discovery has updated the previous cognition of porcelain making history in Liling.

The excavation provides new information for studying the development history of Hunan's ceramic industry and the technical development of the kiln industry in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River during the period, said Wen Guoxun, director of the archaeological department of the museum of Zhuzhou City which administrates Liling.