Tianjin, 29 Dec (Xinhua) -- On 29 December, this reporter learned from the Tianjin Municipal Cultural Heritage Protection Center that archaeologists at the junliangcheng site in Dongli District, Tianjin City, found a large-scale rammed earth platform foundation and a Tang Dynasty salt-making workshop area in the Tang Dynasty, and unearthed a large number of specimens of Tang Dynasty artifacts with obvious characteristics of the times.
Archaeologists work at the excavation site of the ruins of The City of Military Grain.
It is reported that the ruins of Junliangcheng are located in the north of the first phase of Junliangcheng Demonstration Town in Dongli District, Tianjin (formerly Liutai New Village), archaeological excavation work began in April 2021, and a total excavation area of 8,000 square meters has been completed so far, a large rammed earth platform foundation of the Tang Dynasty and a salt-making workshop area of the Tang Dynasty have been found, more than 200 relics such as wells, kilns and ruts have been cleaned up, and more than 20 stove sites and housing foundation sites in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties have been found.
Ash ditches, ash pits, stove sites, ruts and other relics cleared from the ruins of the Military Grain City.
This archaeological excavation found the remains of brine wells, ash pits, salt stoves, ash ditches and so on. "These relics should be directly related to the salt-making processes such as brine extraction, brine-making, frying brine and drying, constituting a relatively complete Tang Dynasty salt-making workshop area." This is the first time that tianjin archaeology has discovered the remains of ancient salt production, which provides the latest and important physical data for systematic research and understanding of the development history of the ancient salt industry in northern China and the west coast of Bohai Bay. Gan Caichao, the person in charge of the archaeological excavation project and deputy research librarian of the Tianjin Cultural Heritage Protection Center, said.
Brine wells cleared from the ruins of the Military Grain City.
This archaeological excavation also unearthed a very rich variety and number of artifact specimens, mainly clay pots, clay pots, green glazed bowls (cups), white glazed bowls (cups), black glazed bowls (cups), three-colored pots and other living utensils, plate tiles, cylinder tiles, lotus tiles and a large number of small square bricks and hooked bricks and other building components, as well as a small number of copper coins, copper armor pieces, animal bones and other specimens.
Tang Dynasty porcelain bowl excavated from the ruins of Junliang City.
"These excavated artifacts provide an accurate era of Tang Dynasty remains in the Tianjin area." Gan Caichao said.
Experts said that combined with some Tang Dynasty sites and Tang Dynasty tombs that have been found in the military grain city area in the past, these sites and tombs are centered on the large rammed earth platform foundation found by this archaeological discovery and distributed around it. This discovery makes the area where the ruins of junliang city are located the best choice for the Tang Dynasty "Sanhui Haikou" recorded in the literature, which is of great significance to the study of the change of Tianjin port.
Source: Xinhua Net