The ancient walls of a lost city in southern China have been uncovered in a remarkable find by archaeologists. The northern section of the city was found at the Sansingdui archaeological site located in Sichuan province. It dates back than 3,000 years to the Bronze Age.

The Southern, Western and Eastern sections fo the city have now been uncovered as well, granting archaeologists a full picture of what the settlement used to look like. Three Neolithic tombs thought to have predated the walls have also been unearthed, with one including a full human skeleton.

Sanxingdui is believed to have once been a huge city in southern China during the Shang Dynasty between 1600 BC and 1046 BC, and may have had its own emperor. The ancient Chinese city is actually older than Rome, which was built in 753 BC. Sanxingdui was lost to time for thousands of years, and was only found once again in the year of 1929.

Archaeologists discovered two large sacrificial cavities from the Shang Dynasty in the year of 1986, also unearthing thousands of Bronze Age artifacts. Since that discovery, a group of archaeologists have been working hard to formulate out a more complete idea of what seems to be a missing civilization.

Specialists say they do not know why the cities whole population abruptly left, though the latest guess is that there might have been a major earthquake in the area. Writings of any kind from the civilization have not been discovered, so archaeologists do not have many clues.

They have not yet discovered any tombs of high-ranking rulers or emperors, but archaeologists are sure these tombs will be discovered. The exquisite but damaged artifacts from the sacrificial pits have astonished the world. If the tomb of the emperor could be discovered, there should be countless more incredible artifacts, as many have been discovered in tombs of more recent eras.

via The Vintage News