Three-year archaeological excavation in this small county in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture has yielded more precious findings about the New Stone Age than any other excavation in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River.

According to Chen Jian, deputy chief of the Second Department of Excavation and Research in the Chengdu Archaeological Team, the Yingpanshan Ruins cover 150,000 square metres and dates back to between 5,500 and 5,000 years.

Since its excavation started in October 2000 along the Minjiang, a tributary of the Yangtze River in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, the team has uncovered a variety of finds.

They include nine Stone Age houses, eight tombs and pits with people buried alive, four pottery kiln sites, more than 140 dirt pits, 12 furnace ruins and more than 10,000 pottery, jade, stone and bone objects.

Some stones have been painted with cinnabar (a red, mercury-based powder), the earliest discovered cinnabar use in China, Chen said.

Chen's team also has discovered nearly 60,000 stone coffins dating back to some 2,000 years in the Yingpanshan Ruins, which are more than 200 kilometres from the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu. It was very rare to discover such a large number of stone coffins in China at one time, he said.

Chen's team has excavated the 6,000-year-old Boxi Ruins and the 4,500-year-old Shawudu Ruins near the Yingpanshan excavations. Like the Yingpanshan Ruins, both the Boxi and Shawudu sites are located in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River.

The three ruins are earlier than the Baodun, Sanxingdui and Jinsha ruins discovered in the Chengdu Plain. The Baodun Ruins date back 4,500-3,800 years, while the Sanxingdui and Jinsha ruins date back 3,500-3,200 years, researchers said.

The excavation of the Yingpansha, Boxi and Shawudu ruins prove that the origin of Sichuan's civilization may be in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River. That reverses Sichuan's civilized history to 6,000 years ago, Chen said.

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