New discoveries at Sanxingdui site unlock lost civilization

After five consecutive years of excavations, Chinese archaeologists have unearthed the northern section of the city wall at the Sanxingdui site, and found that the area most likely belonged to the ancient state of Shu in present day Sichuan province, according to the provincial archaeological research institute on Thursday.

Experts say the discovery of the walls finally gives them a complete outline of the city, as the eastern, southern and western parts of the wall had already been uncovered. The lost Sanxingdui civilization is believed to have prospered for nearly two thousand years, from the late Neolithic to the early Western Zhou, says an archaeologist .

Sanxingdui is believed to have once been the largest 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 even older than Rome, which was founded in 753 BC. But Sanxingdui remained hidden for thousands of years, and was only discovered again in 1929.