‘Pyramid of eyes’ discovered at the heart of the 4300-year-old city in northern China

The ruins were thought to be an unexcavated portion of China’s famous Great Wall. But a recent examination has unearthed something much, much older. It’s a 4300-year-old walled metropolis. At its heart is a giant step pyramid — lavishly adorned with stone stylised eyes and faces.

Now called Shimao, its ancient name is long since lost.

But its significance was — and is — enormous.

It was once a thriving Bronze Age trade hub. Covering some 400 hectares, it was also one of the largest cities in the ancient world.

It was also the centre for murderous ritual worship. According to a study published in the journal Antiquity, the city thrived for some 500 years before falling into rubble.

PYRAMID OF THE EYES

It’s not a pyramid in the traditional sense. Its sides are not straight or equal. And it was moulded out of a hill, given its shape with rammed-earth and given strength by stone retaining walls.

But it is an enormous stepped mound covering some 24 hectares at its base, and 70 metres high. In comparison, the Great Pyramid of Giza covers some 5.5ha but reaches some 139m into the sky.

The Shimao structure’s stone buttresses form 11 steps. And these appear to have been heavily decorated. Part-animal, part-human faces have been found etched into its stones along with distinctive eye-like symbols.

These “may have endowed the stepped pyramid with special religious power and further strengthened the general visual impression on its large audience,” the researchers wrote.

The topmost ‘step’ of the pyramid was a large plaza, upon which structures were built. Among the 4300-year-old city, remains are a water cistern, pillars, tiles and fine-quality domestic items, such as pottery.

“(These were) extensive palaces built of rammed earth, with wooden pillars and roofing tiles, a gigantic water reservoir, and domestic remains related to daily life,” the study reads.

Archaeologists have also found a mural at the site, which they think could be among the oldest in China. The pyramid was visible from every aspect of the city, providing a “constant and overwhelming reminder to the Shimao population of the power of the ruling elites residing atop it”.

“At the entrance to the stepped pyramid were sophisticated bulwarks (walls) whose design suggests that they were intended to provide both defence and highly restricted access.”

But it was more than just a retreat for the elite. Valuable craftsmen appear to have been protected by its walls.

“Evidence so far suggests that the stepped pyramid complex functioned not only as a residential space for ruling Shimao elites but also as a space for artisanal or industrial craft production,” the study reads.

HUMAN SACRIFICE

Apart from being a hub of regional trade, Shimao also appears to have been a religious centre. Jade was ritually inserted between most of the blocks in Shimao’s walls. And the remains of what appear to be human sacrifices have been found in six pits at several locations around the outer ramparts of the city.

“The jade objects and human sacrifice may have imbued the very walls of Shimao with ritual and religious potency,” the study says.

“In the outer gateway of the eastern gate on the outer rampart alone, six pits containing decapitated human heads have been found. Morphological analysis of the human remains suggests that the victims may have been related to the residents of Zhukaigou (a nearby city), which could further suggest that they were taken to Shimao as captives during the expansion of the Shimao empire.”

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And it was a city prepared to fight.

The entire suburban sprawl — not just the central pyramid — was protected by walls, ramparts and bastions.

“Analysis and comparison of new archaeological data … have revealed a highly complex society, the political and economic heartland, and possibly the most powerful (civilisation), of the territory of what is today China,” the Antiquity article reads.

“Not only (was Shimao) the largest walled settlement of its time in ancient China, but was also among the largest centres in the world.”

China has unearthed the largest ancient tomb of the Qin Dynasty. Nearly two hundred people were buried

Mentions the ancient tombs of China. The first thing many people think of is the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang, but the tomb of Qin Shihuang has not been fully excavated. Many people may not know that the largest ancient tomb unearthed in China is the tomb of the ancestor of Qin Shihuang.

In 1975, an archaeological team from Shaanxi searched for the relics of the ancestors of the Qin Dynasty in Shaanxi. At that time, the place where the relics of the ancestors of the Qin Dynasty was most likely to exist was Fengxiang County, Baoji. The remains of the ancestors of the country.

Until 1976, strange news from a villager brought new hope to the archaeological team. The farmer’s surname was Zhao. He was a villager from the south of Fengxiang County. The villagers of Zhao said that there was a piece of cultivated land in their village, and the villagers were on it. Nothing grows Even if it is fertilizing and watering, it still does not grow as a dealer.

Later, the cultivated land was panicked and there were no people to plant it. The strange thing is that the land does not grow even weeds, and the weeds on the surrounding ground grow old and tall. The villagers were surprised by the fact that there was almost no grass in one of them.

Later, the villagers repaired houses and yards at their homes, and they all went to this open space to collect soil. This matter also became a topic of chat among the villagers, and was heard by a passing expert.

The expert judged based on experience that this place is probably under an Ancient tomb. soon came to an archaeological team to conduct a series of explorations on this open space.

The expert’s inspection results were shocked. There are buildings below and two basketball courts large enough for them. Experts further excavated. The survey gradually cleared out the outline of the underground building.

After cleaning up, it was discovered that this ancient tomb showed a “Zhong” shape. During excavation, experts discovered that the ancient tomb was divided into three floors, with a depth of more than 20 meters, which was as high as the current 8-story building. The ancient tomb is really rare, and such a tomb has never been excavated.

In 1976, archaeologists formally excavated the ancient tomb. Unexpectedly, some circular openings were discovered during the excavation process.

After careful inspection, it was found that these openings were formed later, which shows that the tomb was once dug by tomb robbers. The expert suddenly felt cold.

After, under the leadership of Deputy Captain Tian Yaqi, the staff cleaned up the three-story ancient tombs. A total of 247 robbing holes were cleared out.

These robbing holes are simply more than the mouse holes. So far, the archaeological staff has no idea about the tombs. Have some hope, but continue to dig in accordance with the regulations.

In the next cleanup, the staff cleared out more than 20 remains, which were randomly placed and formed. Afterwards, a large number of remains were discovered. After statistics, as many as 186 remains.

Experts confirmed that these remains were all martyrs. , And then cleared out a large number of bronzes. has cleared a total of more than 3,500 artifacts.

According to the inscriptions on the bronzes, it can be known that this is the tomb of Qin Jinggong. This person is the 14th monarch of Qin and the 18th ancestor of Qin Shihuang. He reigned for 40 years and belonged to Qin. During the heyday, it was just this way that they had the financial resources to build such a huge tomb.

130-Million-Year Old Proteins Still Present in Dinosaur-Age Fossil

Microscopic pigment structures and proteins that graced the feathers of a Cretaceous-age bird are still present in its 130-million-year-old fossil, a new study finds.

The results, which confirm the oldest evidence of the structural protein beta-keratin, show that molecules can survive in their original state for hundreds of millions of years without fossilizing and that researchers can use modern techniques to identify them, the researchers said.

The tiny and ancient structures were found on Eoconfuciusornis, a crow-size early bird that lived in what is now northern China during the Early Cretaceous.

Eoconfuciusornis is one of the first birds known to have a keratinous beak and no teeth. (Not all avian predecessors were toothless. For instance, Archaeopteryx, a transitional animal between dinosaurs and birds, had sharp teeth.)

The Eoconfuciusornis specimen came from the Jehol Biota in northern China, a site known for its well-preserved fossils.

The specimen is currently housed in China’s Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature, the world’s largest dinosaur museum, according to a 2010 Guinness World Records award.

At first, the researchers suspected that the fossil held pigment structures called melanosomes. However, to make sure that the tiny structures weren’t simply microbes that had accrued over the millennia, they had to do a number of tests, said Mary Schweitzer, a professor of biology at North Carolina State University with a joint appointment at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

Schweitzer co-authored the study with researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“If these small bodies are melanosomes, they should be embedded in a keratinous matrix, since feathers contain beta-keratin,” Schweitzer said in a statement. “If we couldn’t find the keratin, then those structures could as easily be microbes, or a mix of microbes and melanosomes,” which would lead to inaccurate predictions of pigmentation.

To learn more, Schweitzer and her colleague’s used scanning and transmission electron microscopy to get a better view of the fossilized feathers’ surfaces and internal structures. In addition, using a technique called immunogold labelling, the scientists attached gold particles to antibodies. These gold antibodies then bind to specific proteins (in this case, keratin), which makes them visible under an electron microscope.

In addition, the scientists used high-resolution imaging to map the copper and sulfur within the feathers.

The sulfur was broadly distributed, as would be expected in a keratinous material, as “the keratin protein family incorporates high concentrations of amino acids rich in sulfur,” the researchers wrote in the study, published online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

READ ALSO: SKELETON WITH BIRD SKULL IN ITS MOUTH IDENTIFIED AS A 12-YEAR-OLD SCANDINAVIAN GIRL FROM 17TH CENTURY

In contrast, copper is found in melanosomes but not in keratin. After the mapping analysis, the researchers found the copper only in the fossil melanosomes, they said. This indicates that the Eoconfuciusornis specimen has 130-million-year-old melanosomes and that it wasn’t contaminated during its decomposition and fossilization, the researchers said. 

“This study is the first to demonstrate evidence for both keratin and melanosomes, using structural, chemical and molecular methods,” said study author Yanhong Pan, a researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“These methods have the potential to help us understand — on the molecular level — how and why feathers evolved in these lineages.”

This isn’t the first time that researchers have found ancient structures within fossils. Schweitzer and her colleagues have also found an 80-million-year-old blood vessel belonging to a duck-billed dinosaur, and collagen proteins from a Tyrannosaurus rex. Despite these discoveries, it would be extremely challenging to use these findings to clone a dinosaur, she said.