Marco Polo Visited China, Scholar Says

An Italian drawing of Marco Polo's caravan from 1375.

For 300 years, historians have argued that Marco Polo did not really visit China, but had fabricated his journeys based on the information from his trips to the Black Sea, Constantinople and Persia and from talking to merchants. Now University of Tübingen Sinologist Hans Ulrich Vogel says he believes Polo.

In his new book, Marco Polo was in China: New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues, Vogel presents a comprehensive review of the arguments for and against, and follows it up with evidence from relevant Chinese, Japanese, Italian, French, German and Spanish literature. The result is compelling: despite a few, well-known problems with Marco Polo’s writings, they are supported by an overwhelming number of verified accounts about China containing unique information given over centuries. 

According to Archaeology News Network:

Professor Vogel examines an area so complex and which requires such a high level of historical expertise that it has largely been neglected – Marco Polo’s descriptions of currency, salt production and revenues from the salt monopoly. Vogel concludes that no other Western, Arab, or Persian observer reported in such accurate and unique detail about the currency situation in Mongol China. 

The Venetian traveler is the only one to describe precisely how paper for money was made from the bark of the mulberry tree. He not only details the shape and size of the paper, he also describes the use of seals and the various denominations of paper money. He reports on the monopolizing of gold, silver, pearls and gems by the state – which enforced a compulsory exchange for paper money – and the punishment for counterfeiters, as well as the 3% exchange fee for worn-out notes and the widespread use of paper money in official and private transactions. 

Marco Polo is also the only one among his contemporaries to explain that paper money was not in circulation in all parts of China. It was used primarily in the north and in the regions along the Yangtze, but not in Fujian and certainly not in Yunnan, where according to Polo, cowries, salt, gold and silver were the main currencies.

This and similar information is confirmed by Chinese sources and by archaeological evidence, Vogel contends. Most of these sources were collated or translated long after Marco Polo’s time, so he could not have drawn on them.

Click here for the complete article.

Ming Dynasty Mummy Remarkably Preserved

The remarkably preserved mummy of a high-ranking woman believed to be from the Ming Dynasty was discovered recently when workers were expanding a street in eastern China.

Discovered about six feet below the road surface, the woman's features ~ from her head to her shoes ~ have retained their original condition, and have hardly deteriorated. The 700-year-old mummy was wearing traditional Ming dynasty costume, and also in the coffin were bones, ceramics, ancient writings and other relics.

The mummy, which was found in the city of Taizhou, in the Jiangsu Province, along with two other wooden tombs, offers a fascinating insight into life as it was back then.

This is the latest discovery after a lull of three years in the area. Indeed, between 1979 and 2008 five mummies were found, all in very good condition. Those findings raising the interest in learning the techniques of preservation funeral of this dynasty and customs in time to bury the dead.

Click here for the article and more photos.

Older Chinese Town May Lie Beneath Ancient One

Ceramic tiles recovered in 2003 from the 2,000-year-old site.

Archaeologists are hoping that sediment from a Yellow River flood has preserved a buried town as well as it did a smaller one discovered in 2003 in Sanyangzhuang in central China. The discovery in 2003 included four walled houses, wells, toilets, ponds and trees, all dating back more than 2,000 years to the Han Dynasty.

Efforts now are focused also on evidence of an even older agricultural field lying deeper than the 2003 discovery, plus the possibility of an even older and larger town buried about two miles away. “If these are preserved in the same way the houses are, it would really turn out to be a staggering development,” says Tristram Kidder of Washington University.

According to Discover News, the 2003 find was buried intact by 28 inches of flood sediments, which formed a protective layer over the village. Kidder thinks massive flooding from the Yellow River hit so quickly that people left behind everything, from large grinding stones to tiny coins.

Click here for the article.

Emperor's Horse Statues Mostly Geldings

Some of the terra cotta horses found in the emperor's tomb.

Most of the horses in the terracotta army in a Chinese emperor's tomb had no testicles, pointing to the possibility of equine castration some 2000 years ago.

Yuan Jing, an archaeologist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, studied the more than 600 terracotta horses within the tomb of Qinshihuang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, who ruled from 221 BC to 207 BC. He noted that all the 520 horses that pulled chariots had penises but no testicles, some of the 116 cavalry horses were found to have them. Yuan said his findings gave some indication of how horses may have been handled by humans.

Researchers believe the terracotta army ~ which includes archers and infantrymen ~ was to help Qinshihuang rule in the afterlife.

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Birth of China Culture May Have Been Fragmented

Stretch of the Yellow River in early evening.

New research casts serious doubt about China’s founding dynasty, dispelling the concept that the civilization arose as a single national culture along the Yellow River.

Since 2004, archeologists headed by Wang Wei of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing have begun tying together a broader picture of China's origins.

“Most of us accepted that the Yellow River was the origin of Chinese civilization. But as we’ve done more research, we have found other cultural areas," Wei says.

In particular, the Xia dynasty ~ written about as the founder of the Chinese state by Confucius around 600 B.C. ~ seems suspect.

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China May Unearth Another 5,000 Clay Soldiers

Chinese archaeologists today began a new excavation to find more terracotta warriors in hopes of unraveling the mysteries surrounding the ancient figures buried in the tomb of the first emperor.

The new dig is in the site's largest pit, which is believed to be still hiding around 5,000 of the life-size figures. This is the third excavation in the pit ~ one of three at the site near Xian, the capital of northern Shaanxi province ~ since 1974 when the army of terracotta warriors and horses was discovered by a peasant digging a well.

"This time, the excavation could open many unresolved mysteries, such as whether there are civil servant officials in the pit as well as soldiers," according to an official statement. According to the official China Daily newspaper, the majority of the discovered figures are archers, infantrymen and charioteers that the Qin Emperor, who had the site built, hoped would follow him into the afterlife.

Less than 10 armored generals have been unearthed with the army, part of a burial site for Qin Shi Huang, who presided over the unification of China in 221 BC and declared himself the first emperor of the nation.

In past excavations, according to the China Daily, richly coloured clay figures have turned an oxidized grey when they have been exposed to the air. The Terracotta Army is one of the greatest archaeological finds of modern times, and was listed as a World Heritage Site in 1987.

Click here for the Sydney Morning Herald article.

High-Tech Reveals More of China's Great Wall

A section of the Great Wall in disrepair.

China’s famed Great Wall has gained another 180 miles due to infrared range finders and GPS devices enabling researchers to find portions previously concealed by hills, trenches and rivers.

The newly mapped parts of the wall were built during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) to protect China against northern invaders and were submerged over time by sandstorms that moved across the arid region, according to China’s national mapping agency.

The additional parts mean the Great Wall ~ construction of which began more than 2,000 years ago to prevent incursions into China by the Mongols and others ~ spans about 3,900 miles through the northern part of the country.

Recent studies by Chinese archaeologists have shown that sandstorms are reducing sections of the wall in Gansu to "mounds of dirt" and that they may disappear entirely in 20 years. These studies mainly blame the erosion on destructive farming methods used in the 1950s that turned large areas of northern China into desert. In addition, portions of the wall in Gansu were made of packed earth, which is less resilient than the brick and stone used elsewhere in much of the wall's construction.

China in recent years has begun restoring parts of the wall as well as trying to curb commercial development on or next to the ancient structure.

Click here for the Guardian UK article.

Clay Figures May Be Servants, Not Soldiers

A small portion of the terracotta figures, either soldiers or servants.

A Chinese professor says the famed terracotta soldiers of Xi'an aren't soldiers at all ~ they're royal servants and bodyguards, most likely modeled after high-ranking Qin dynasty officials.

Most historians believe the 2,200-year-old clay statues buried near the emperor's tomb represent an army to guard him in the afterlife. But Liu Jiusheng of Shaanxi Normal University argues ordinary soldiers weren't allowed to get close to the emperor, even in death.

Furthermore, Liu says the figures stand at around six feet, much taller than average Chinese past or present. Liu theorizes the clay statues were probably made taller to show their elevated social status. Though not widely accepted, experts say Liu's argument is worth studying.

The 1,000-strong terracotta army was discovered near Xi'an in 1974 and was listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO in December 1987.

Brick Kilns Discovered Near China's Great Wall

Archeologists have determined kilns in North China's Hebei province were dedicated to producing bricks for the Great Wall. The site is the closest brick production base to the Wall discovered so far.

The 600-year-old site is located in the coastal city of Qinhuangdao on farmland about 110 yards from a local section of the Wall at Chengziyu.

Archaeologist have unearthed more than forty brick kilns, all built in the Ming Dynasty, during the same period.

The Great Wall was first built by order of Emperor Qinshihuang over two thousand years ago. Its most recent large-scale reinforcement came in the early Ming Dynasty, when the empire's northern frontiers were seriously threatened.

Click here for the CCTV.com article.

Sections of Great Wall are Disappearing

Some 20 percent of the Inner Mongolian stretch of the Great Wall of China has disappeared, archaeologists said this week. The affected stretch is about 98 miles long. In recent centuries, the Great Wall ~ built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) ~ has been damaged by weather and human activities, leading to the disappearance of some sections.

The Great Wall was China's line of defense. Different sections meander across thousands of miles, passing through many provinces and autonomous regions, including Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei and Liaoning in north China.

Construction began during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC), when sections were built in scattered strategic areas. The most visually striking part is generally considered to be a well-preserved 4,000-mile section from the late Ming Dynasty.

Click here for the Xinhua News Agency article.

Chinese May Have Worn Red 15,000 Years Ago

Researchers believe the color red could have been used in Chinese clothing 15,000 years ago.

According to Li Zhanyang, a researcher with Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, an excavation team at the Xuchang ruins recently found from the soil strata dating back 15,000 years ~ the late Paleolithic Era ~ more than 20 pieces of hematite, one of iron oxides commonly used as a dyestuff, alongside three dozen thin instruments made of animal tooth enamel, plus seven needles made of the upper cheek tooth enamel of a rhinoceros sub-species now extinct.

It is the first time in China that iron oxide of such high concentration has been excavated from the ruins of the late Paleolithic Era, said Li. "Through excavation, we are confident that these hematite were deliberately brought to the Xuchang ruins from afar by ancient people, as Xuchang does not produce such minerals."

The Xuchang ruins made headlines in foreign media in January when Chinese archaeologists found a human skull dating back at least 80,000 years in the ruins.

"I believe the people who lived there might have used hematite to dye clothes, which was quite different from Upper Cave Man at Zhoukoudian of Beijing who used hematite as a sacrifice to the dead, or from Europe, where ancient people there used hematite to draw cave murals."

Li said lab work proved the thin instruments made of animal tooth enamel might have be used as articles similar to buttons in present times.

"There has been evidence suggesting people dating back 15,000 years could have made advanced fur apparel. If that is true, the most popular color might have been red," said the Chinese archaeologist.

Click here for the China View article.

New Bone-Oracle Symbols Discovered in China

Example of ancient Oracle Bone Script on a turtle's shell.

Archaeologists in China’s Shaanxi province recently unearthed more than 1,100 oracle bone characters, shedding new light on their symbolism.

The find was made at a cluster of tombs in Qishan county that date back to the Western Zhou Dynasty in the 11th Century BC. Among the finds is the character for "king,” which could help archaeologists learn more about the lives of the Zhou kings and the region in which they lived.

Zhou Chunmao, a researcher with the Shaanxi archaeology research institute, told China Daily this week that the discovery of the new oracle bone scripts has great significance for the understanding of the formation of the Western Zhou dynasty and the structure of society at that time.

Since the first oracle bones were found in 1898, Chinese archaeologists have unearthed more than 100,000 pieces of bone and tortoiseshell inscribed with characters. Oracle bone script is the earliest recorded form of Chinese writing, dating back to the Bronze Age.

The oracle bones ~ also known as Dragon bones ~ were made of turtle shell, burned and inscribed in a process of divination known as pyromancy. Due to the fundamental importance of fire in society, it is quite likely that this was one of the earliest forms of divination.

Click here for the article in China Daily.