La ruina del complejo se halla en las afueras de la ciudad de Hangzhou, capital de la provincia. Está compuesta por once diques de diferentes alturas que se ubican en la boca de un valle y entre algunas colinas, formando un área triangular que serviría de represa con una superficie total de 9,39 kilómetros cuadrados.
El complejo hidráulico podía protegerse de grandes inundaciones, estimaron los arqueólogos, quienes confirmaron la edad de la obra a través del método de datación por radiocarbono.
Descubrieron además, que los chinos de hace cinco mil años ya sabían cómo realizar paquetes de paja y barro para construir diques.(VIC/JUA). CRI Online
Link 2: Chinese archeologists discover 5,000-year-old Liangzhu water project - Xinhua
HANGZHOU, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese archeologists said they have discovered a large water project dating back about 5,000 years in east China's Zhejiang Province.
The finding, which includes 11 dikes, is located on the outskirts of the provincial capital Hangzhou, and is the oldest large water system ever found in China. It is believed to have combined functions of flood control, transportation and irrigation.
The dikes are near to the ancient city of Liangzhu that existed about 4,500 to 5,300 years ago and was discovered in 2007 in Hangzhou's Yuhang District.
Between July 2015 and January 2016, archeologists excavated three of the 11 dikes, identifying pottery shards of the Liangzhu Culture, said lead researcher Wang Ningyuan with the provincial institute of cultural relics and archaeology. A "mound" excavated between 1996 and 2010 has now been identified it as a dike.
Carbon-dating tests on construction material -- straw and bamboo -- taken from the dikes showed dates of the site as between 4,700 and 5,100 years old.
High dikes erected along the mountains and low ones linking the mountains may have formed three reservoirs, one apparently covering 9.4 square kilometers -- about 1.5 times the area and four times the volume of Hangzhou's iconic West Lake.
Liu Jianguo with the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who carried out geographic information system (GIS) studies, said high dikes were able to resist continuous rainfall of more than 800 millimeters and low ones 1,900 millimeters.
"Maybe our ancestors designed them to counter typhoons that brought torrential rain," he said.
A group of senior archeologists visited the dikes over the weekend. Professor Xu Shijin of Nanjing University speculated that one important purpose of the dikes was to water paddy fields, as poor yields at the time required large-scale planting.
"There were many craftsmen who made jade articles in Liangzhu 5,000 years ago, so they needed a large amount of grain," Xu said. The Liangzhu culture is well-known for exquisite jade.
Researchers said search should be continued to look for spillways and ditches and called for better protection of the site.
Professor Zhao Hui of Peking University said the discovery indicates that the settlement at Liangzhu was highly advanced.
Actualización: 5,000-year-old levees to control floods discovered in E. China’s Hangzhou
Chinese archaeologists said they have discovered a large water project dating back about 5,000 years in east China's Zhejiang Province...The finding, which includes 11 dikes, is located on the outskirts of the provincial capital Hangzhou, and is the oldest large water system ever found in China. It is believed to have combined functions of flood control, transportation and irrigation.
The dikes are near to the ancient city of Liangzhu that existed about 4,500 to 5,300 years ago and was discovered in 2007 in Hangzhou's Yuhang District.
Between July 2015 and January 2016, archeologists excavated three of the 11 dikes, identifying pottery shards of the Liangzhu Culture, said lead researcher Wang Ningyuan with the provincial institute of cultural relics and archaeology. A "mound" excavated between 1996 and 2010 has now been identified it as a dike.
Carbon-dating tests on construction material -- straw and bamboo -- taken from the dikes showed dates of the site as between 4,700 and 5,100 years old.
High dikes erected along the mountains and low ones linking the mountains may have formed three reservoirs, one apparently covering 9.4 square kilometers -- about 1.5 times the area and four times the volume of Hangzhou's iconic West Lake.
Liu Jianguo with the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who carried out geographic information system (GIS) studies, said high dikes were able to resist continuous rainfall of more than 800 millimeters and low ones 1,900 millimeters.
"Maybe our ancestors designed them to counter typhoons that brought torrential rain," he said.
A group of senior archeologists visited the dikes over the weekend. Professor Xu Shijin of Nanjing University speculated that one important purpose of the dikes was to water paddy fields, as poor yields at the time required large-scale planting.
"There were many craftsmen who made jade articles in Liangzhu 5,000 years ago, so they needed a large amount of grain," Xu said. The Liangzhu culture is well-known for exquisite jade.
Researchers said search should be continued to look for spillways and ditches and called for better protection of the site.
Professor Zhao Hui of Peking University said the discovery indicates that the settlement at Liangzhu was highly advanced.
Actualización: 5,000-year-old levees to control floods discovered in E. China’s Hangzhou
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| 2/4. Credit: Xinhua |
Actualización: Ancient waterway system discovered in China traces back 5,100 years to prehistoric Liangzhu culture
Archaeologists in China have discovered one of the ancient world's largest water engineering projects in what is today the Zhejiang Province. After four years of excavations and study, the research team was able to confirm that the water system along the Yangtze River Delta dates back 5,100 years, making it the oldest project in the world; 200 years older than a similar site discovered in Mesopotamia which was built around 4,900 years ago.
The scientific crew, made up of researchers from various Chinese institutes, believes that the intricate system was built by approximately 3,000 workers and took nearly a decade to be completed.
The structure which includes a series of high and low dams, as well as levees, was built by the Liangzhu society (circa 3300 BC to 2300 BC) — an agricultural Neolithic culture famous for its use of jade.
"The recently excavated Liangzhu hydraulic system in the Yangtze Delta has pushed back the date of formalised water engineering in China to approximately 5,100 years ago. The results are unprecedented in learning about the timing, structure, and function of a large-scale complex of dams, levees, ditches, and other water-controlling features in ancient China," the researchers state in their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal...
Actualización: Sistema hidráulico hallado en China de 5.100 años! - Taringa!
Cuatro años de excavaciones han desenterrado un inmenso proyecto de ingeniería del agua creado en China hace unos 5.100 años. Esto es anterior al sistema comparable más antiguo conocido, que es de Mesopotamia y data de hace unos 4.900 años...
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Actualización: 5,000-year-old levees to control floods discovered in E. China’s Hangzhou
Actualización: Ancient waterway system discovered in China traces back 5,100 years to prehistoric Liangzhu culture
Actualización: Sistema hidráulico hallado en China de 5.100 años!
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