5000 stone statues older than Terracotta warriors discovered in Hunan
August 19th, 2010 - 6:04 pm ICT by ANINew Delhi, Aug 19 (ANI): Archaeologists have discovered a large group of ancient stone statues at the worship site of Guizai Mountain near Hunan province.
According to People’s Daily Online, these statues are a lot more in number and a lot older than the Qin Terracotta Warriors found in the depths of the Nanling Mountains located in Dao County of Yongzhou City.
Tang Zhongyong, director of the Dao County Administrative Office, said that the Guizai Mountain site is a large ancient worship site. There are over 5,000 vivid stone statues at the site, covering an area of 15,000 square meters. They are statues of civil officials, military officers, pregnant women and all kinds of common soldiers and their height varies from 30 to 100 centimeters.
Archaeology experts in Hunan said that there are over 5,000 stone statues on the ground and a large number of stone statues buried about two meters below the ground.
The Hunan Cultural Relics Department also found that the statues are the group of stone portraits with the longest history found in China by far.
Some were carved in prehistoric times about 5,000 years ago, and some were carved during the Qin, Han, Wei and Jin dynasties about 2,000 to 5,000 years ago.
Based on the existing information and field investigations, archaeologists deduced that Guizai Mountain was simply a large altar and that prehistoric people placed stone statues on it. (ANI)
- Remains of largest Stone Age building discovered in NW China - Jan 26, 2011
- Chinese archaeologists unearth more terracotta warriors - May 19, 2010
- Traces of ancient civilisation found in Chinese desert - Oct 18, 2011
- 1000 ancient hieroglyphic rock paintings found in east-central China - May 07, 2010
- Chinese 'Pompeii' unearthed in Hunan - Aug 21, 2010
- 200 ancient forts found in Chinese mountains - Apr 24, 2012
- Like Nalanda, Vikramshila may rise from ruins - Jan 24, 2012
- Stonehenge's secrets to be unravelled through laser scanning - Mar 12, 2011
- Prehistoric villages ruins discovered in North China - Aug 31, 2010
- Headless Egypt king statue could give clues to Cleopatra's tomb - Nov 19, 2010
- Archaeologists in NW China unearth 2,000-year old "icebox" - May 27, 2010
- Previously unknown Himalayan cave culture discovered - Mar 01, 2011
- Enjoy nature on China's Chengdu-Kunming railway - Dec 26, 2010
- 30,000 B.C. cave home found in China - May 11, 2011
- Incense stick sold for over one mn yuan - Mar 07, 2011
Tags: 100 centimeters, ancient worship, archaeologists, archaeology, civil officials, county administrative office, cultural relics, dynasties, field investigations, large group, military officers, New Delhi, pregnant women, prehistoric people, prehistoric times, qin, square meters, stone statues, tang, terracotta warriors