After six months' excavation, archaeologists claim that the
imperial palace site they discovered last October in Xi'an, capital
of west China's Shaanxi
Province, is of great significance to the study of the imperial
palaces of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-24).
The unearthed ruins of the imperial palace, covering an area of
2,000 square meters, is located in a northern suburb of Xi'an, once
the capital of the Western Han Dynasty and known as Chang'an then.
And it lies in the northwestern part of the palace group of the
Changle Palace, the imperial palaces of the Western Han
Dynasty.
At the center of the terrace which did not exist any longer, an
underground palace was discovered, the main body of which is 24
meters west-to-east and 10 meters wide north-to-south.
"The palace was probably a two-story one comprising both the
above ground and the underground part," said Liu Zhendong, a
research member with the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences who leads the archaeological team
investigating the Chang'an city site.
Relics of the palace are over one meter from the earth's
surface. More than 40 base stones of palace columns were orderly
arranged with the space between adjacent columns only two
meters.
From signs of the palace relics, it can be judged that the main
hall was exquisitely furnished. The floorboard of the main hall and
its northern and southern passages is made of wood and is 50 to 60
kilometers over the earth to prevent it being affected by
dampness.
At the eastern part of the terrace, there are six connected
rooms. The largest room is a square one of more than 40 square
meters, the floor of which was painted in bright red. To the north
of the room, sidesteps whose surface was painted in bright red were
discovered too.
"It conforms to the historical record that the red-surface
sidesteps is of the highest rank and only could be used by the
emperor," said Liu.
Over ten pieces of fresco fragments were discovered at the
palace site. All of them are the size of a large palm with bright
colors including red, cyan, purple, yellow and white, and the
patterns are mostly of geometrical design.
"This is the first time for us to discover frescos in the palace
of the Han Dynasty, although we had read about them in the
historical records before," Liu said.
"This discovery filled the blank in the research of the frescos
in the Han palace," Liu said.
Wells, boundary walls and drains were discovered at the west of
the site.
According to Liu, the main hall is the place where the emperor
and his officials handled the government affairs while houses at
the east of the site are the residential region of the emperor and
his royal family.
"The imperial palace was probably built in the early time of the
Western Han Dynasty while destroyed in war at the end of the
Western Han Dynasty," Liu said.
"The discovery of the imperial palace will provide valuable
clues for the research of the layout and architectural techniques
of the imperial palaces of the Western Han Dynasty," said Liu.
(Xinhua News Agency April 4, 2004)