AN ancient village buried underground more than 2,000 years ago has been unearthed in Neihuang County, central China's Henan Province, archaeologists announced Monday (Feb 20).

The Sanyangzhuang ruins were excavated from under the old course of the Yellow River, the second longest waterway in China. It is the only intact remains of an ancient village so far discovered in China, said Xu Pingfang, a top archaeologist studying the Han (206 B.C.-220A.D.) and Tang dynasties (618-907).

The new discovery offered detailed information about life in rural areas in the late Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-24 A.D.), said Xu, who is president of the Archaeological Society of China.

The foundations of seven courtyards have been unearthed over the past two years. From four of the seven courtyards, archaeologists discovered the ruins of rooms, walls, wells, toilets, pools, ridged cropland and trees, as well as a large number of other relics.

Like Pompeii of the ancient Roman Empire, which was buried after the sudden eruption of the Vesuvius, the Sanyangzhuang ruins were well preserved as it was buried under flooding of the Yellow River.

Archaeologists inferred a house was being repaired when the flooding occurred as they found tiles used to rebuild the house, piles of castoff building materials, and a pond where mud was stirred.

All the unearthed courtyards, consisting of major rooms and ring rooms, face the south and are surrounded by cropland. There were venues for public events, pools, wells, facilities for daily life as well as roads.

Farming methods adopted in the Western Han Dynasty had a great influence on China's agricultural civilization.

Some experts even believe that discovery of the ridged farmland could overturn past theories on Chinese farming culture.

Flooding of the Yellow River had been regarded as one of the major hazards in the Western Han Dynasty. Discoveries at the ruins provided new evidence on how the Yellow River was harnessed and changes of the river course in ancient times.

Only a very small part of the ruins have been excavated and archaeologists expect to find more valuable relics.

The State Cultural Heritage Administration will allocate special funds for further excavations at the site and for protecting and restoring the original look of the ancient village.

Editor: Wing