During excavations in the Shanxi province in the north of the country, Chinese archaeologists discovered the ruins of a powerful structure from five to seven thousand years old, the purpose of which has not yet been established.
Archeology News Network tells about the discovery. It was made by the staff of the Shanxi Archaeological Institute. A strange structure was discovered near the village of Lulian.
At the moment, the area of the ruins released from the ground is about five thousand square meters. Presumably, the structure was built by the Yangshao Neolithic culture. It consists of a group of rectangular and oval buildings and rooms, as well as a stone pentagon.
During excavations, fragments of vessels were found in the ruins. The ruins of the largest "house" cover an area of 137 square meters. It has a hearth with a diameter of 1.7 meters and a stone doorway.
“The sheer scale of construction, the orientation to the sun, and the unusual location of the hearth suggest that this building was unlikely to be residential,” said He Nu from the PRC Academy of Social Sciences. "Perhaps the tribal leaders held some kind of ceremony here."
However, other experts disagree with him. In their opinion, the found pottery does not meet the standards of the ancient ceremonies of the Yangshao civilization. In a word, it has not yet been established for what purpose this structure was built.
Denis Peredelsky