Archaeological work was carried out in Shijiaoshan ancient city in Qujiang district, Quzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, on May 23, according to local media reports.

The discovery of the site of the ancient city of Shijiaoshan is of great significance to research on early civilization in Quzhou.

The site of Shijiaoshan ancient city in Shijiaoshan village, Qujiang district, Quzhou, Zhejiang. [Photo/WeChat account: qz828-news]

The site of Shijiaoshan ancient city was discovered by an archaeological team of the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Wang Wei, president of the Institute of Archaeology, on Dec 14, 2021, when they carried out an field investigation in Shijiaoshan village.

Since high-standard ancient tombs of the Western Zhou Dynasty (c.11th century-771 BC) were discovered in the Mengjiang village of Yunxi River, it is very likely that there were also ancient cities in the surrounding areas where human beings lived together in the same period, said Zhang Sen, leader of the archaeological team of the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.

After further investigation on May 31, it was discovered that the inner city wall of Shijiaoshan ancient city was about 8 meters wide, and the inner city covered an area of about 20,000 square meters.

In addition, the outer trench of the city was about 10 to 35 meters wide, enclosing an area of about 70,000 sq m.