Bulldozing Chinese antiquities at an Olympian's speedy pace
BEIJING -- When this city began its gargantuan construction job for the 2008 Olympics, an early complication involved dead eunuchs. Workers had discovered a eunuchs mausoleum buried under the site of the skeet-shooting venue on the city's western fringe. And the eunuchs had company.
Along the city's northern rim, surveyors examined the sites for the main Olympic stadiums and discovered archaeological remains tracing back 2,000 years to the Han dynasty. In all, archaeologists excavated 700 ancient burial sites and recovered 1,538 artifacts, such as porcelain urns and jade jewelry, while collecting more than 6,000 ancient coins.
The subterranean Olympics cache would be considered remarkable in many countries, but in a China convulsing with demolition and construction, it amounted to just another work site. Building the new China usually entails digging up the old China. Construction zones across China are uncovering so many antiquities that it might be considered a golden era for archaeology, except that sites and antiquities are often simply demolished by bulldozers or looted.
"There are two enemies of antiquity protection," said Xu Pingfang, president of the China Archaeological Society. "Construction is one. Thieves are the others. They know what they want, and they destroy the rest."
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Along the city's northern rim, surveyors examined the sites for the main Olympic stadiums and discovered archaeological remains tracing back 2,000 years to the Han dynasty. In all, archaeologists excavated 700 ancient burial sites and recovered 1,538 artifacts, such as porcelain urns and jade jewelry, while collecting more than 6,000 ancient coins.
The subterranean Olympics cache would be considered remarkable in many countries, but in a China convulsing with demolition and construction, it amounted to just another work site. Building the new China usually entails digging up the old China. Construction zones across China are uncovering so many antiquities that it might be considered a golden era for archaeology, except that sites and antiquities are often simply demolished by bulldozers or looted.
"There are two enemies of antiquity protection," said Xu Pingfang, president of the China Archaeological Society. "Construction is one. Thieves are the others. They know what they want, and they destroy the rest."