China News Service, Taiyuan, August 15 (Reporter Hu Jian) The Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology released new archaeological findings on the 15th. Local archaeologists discovered the ruins of porcelain kilns in the Sui and Tang Dynasties at the ancient city site of Jinyang, which is the earliest in Shanxi.
Jinyang Ancient City Site is located in Jinyuan Town, Jinyuan District, Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province. Because the site is deeply buried and well-preserved, it has been designated as a major protected site by the national "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" to "14th Five-Year Plan".
In October 2010, it was included in the list of the first batch of archaeological site parks in China.
Y1 fire chamber.
Photo courtesy of Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology
From 2012 to 2020, local archaeologists successively excavated the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 building foundations in the northwest area of Jinyang Ancient City.
Among them, the No. 2 building site and the No. 3 building site are relatively close and have the same age.
In March 2021, archaeologists conducted archaeological excavations in the area between the above-mentioned two building foundations and discovered a porcelain kiln site.
After a quarter of archaeological work, archaeologists have found 3 porcelain kiln sites, 9 ash pits and a large number of kiln furniture and porcelain pieces and other relics.
At present, three kiln remains have been found in the porcelain kiln site, namely Y1, Y2 and Y3.
These three kiln remains are all horseshoe-shaped steamed bun kilns, and more inverted umbrella-shaped kiln columns, trumpet-shaped kiln columns, strip supports, washers, gaskets, and tiles have been unearthed.
In addition, archaeologists also found nearly 10,000 pieces of porcelain at the kiln site, including celadon, urns, white porcelain, porcelain sculptures, etc., as well as kiln furniture such as supports and cushions.
Y2 kiln remains.
Photo courtesy of Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology
According to Han Binghua, the team leader of the Jinyang Ancient City Ruins Archaeology Project, before that, some kiln furniture and porcelain pieces had been unearthed sporadically in the Jinyang Ancient City Ruins, but the kiln ruins had never been found.
The porcelain kiln site discovered this time is located in the southern part of the palace area from the Northern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty. It is different from many porcelain kiln sites and has more unique value.
Han Binghua said that from the analysis of the remaining relics of the porcelain kilns, the three porcelain kilns are all horseshoe-shaped steamed bread kilns, which are composed of a fire chamber, a kiln chamber and a flue.
A large amount of charcoal ash was found in the fire chamber, proving that the fuel used in the kiln was charcoal.
Judging from the relics and unearthed relics, the use time of the porcelain kiln is very short, and there are not many kinds of fired products.
Comprehensive analysis shows that the period of the porcelain kiln site is roughly from the Sui Dynasty to the early Tang Dynasty.
The kiln site is the earliest discovered in Shanxi, which fills the relevant research gap and is of great significance in the study of ancient Chinese ceramics.
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