Ruins of large scale building complex found in China's Chongqing

Ruins of a building complex have been found at the site of Diaoyu City, an ancient fortress in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, during recent excavation work.

The site was named after the hill on which it was built in the latter period of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). During the war between the Song imperial army and Mongolian troops in the 13th Century, Diaoyu City, as an essential part of the defense system of the present-day Sichuan Province and Chongqing, withstood outside aggression for 36 years, a miraculous feat. 　

The Diaoyu site is located in the Hechuan District of Chongqing, covering an area of 2.5 square km. The recent archaeological work completed the excavation area of 914 square meters, and newly cleared the city gate, city wall, stone wall, courtyard gate, high platform, a well, pool, road, house site, drainage ditch, and ash pit, among another 33 ruins. It unearthed more than 300 pieces of other cultural relics.

Yuan Dongshan, deputy head of Chongqing's institute of cultural relics and archaeology, said the unearthed gates, passageways, piers, and stone walls show that there had been a huge courtyard. The stone size and masonry technology found at the ruins have never been seen before.

According to Yuan, the new findings effectively fill in the blanks of the cultural relics of the Song Dynasty in this area and provide new evidence for the study of the defense system, layout, and structural function of the mountainous city of the Song and Yuan Dynasties (960-1368), and play an important role in further reconstructing the spatial pattern of Diaoyu City in the late Southern Song Dynasty.