Was Shanghai a small fishing village some 600 years ago? This assertion might be overthrown once and for all.

　　On September 5, after 9 days of excavation by experts in the archeological department of the Cultural Relics Committee of Shanghai, the real situation of the site of a Yuan Dynasty stone lock-gate at Zhidan Garden situated at the intersection of Zhidan Road and Yanchang Road in Shanghai was revealed. Two huge limestone columns stood at the northwest corner of the excavation pit at the site, clearly showing the upper half of the stone lock-gate built during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). Very soon, the true features of the 1000-square-meter structure paved with large-sized stone-slabs two-meters underneath that have been already detected will also be exposed.

　　Such large and sophisticated ancient stone lock-gate has never been seen in the country, testifying to the flourishing shipping business in Shanghai some 600 years ago. It is the most significant finding in Shanghai's archeological history and one of the major findings in the country.

　　A surprising discovery

　　It is entirely accidental that the site was discovered. In 2001 in the course of building an 18-storied shopping center attached to the Zhidan Garden, the construction workers found that the pile driver couldn誸go deeper at the depth of 7 meters. Ma Pingping, head of the project, bought a 12,000 yuan (US) diamond bit to continue the work and unearthed some iron-alloy buckles and stone-slabs.

　　On May 3, a resident who was enthusiastic about cultural relics preservation telephoned the Cultural Relics Committee of Shanghai. Arousing the high attention of Song Jian, director of the archeological department of the committee, he lost no time in sending Chen Jie, member of the archeological team who lived nearby the site to make an on-the-spot investigation.

　　Apart from the iron buckles, Chen also found a 25mm-thick stone-slab and a 15mm-thick base slab joined by iron buckles beneath it. Further underneath, there was a huge beam with rivet slots supported by wooden piles.

　　Chen immediately ruled out the possibility of an ancient tomb and reported his findings to Mr. Song. The long-term experience in archeological work told Mr. Song that it could be a site of a large-scale under-water stone works and he asked the construction unit to suspend the work and protect the site.

　　Under the sunshine again

　　Excavation work formally started on August 26. On the spot, relics such as bricks and tiles, blue-and-white ceramic pieces and celadon bowls belonging to the Yuan and Ming (1368-1644) periods can be seen everywhere. Several big wooden piles were discovered at the depth of 5 metes at the southeast and southwest corners of the site.

　　The Yuan lock- gate was built with two huge limestone columns 680mm apart on a south-north line. The top of the columns is 150-250mm above the ground surface and the exposed part of the columns is 330mm high with a width of 90mm. The four sides of the columns are smooth and the edges are clear. In the middle of the facing sides of the two columns runs straight from top to bottom a 28mm-wide and 17mm-deep slot with a flat and smooth end. It is even bigger in size, more sophisticated in workmanship and better preserved than the site of the water pass of the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) in the then Zhongdu and now Beijing area, which was cited as one of the ten new major archeological findings of China in 1993 and has now been built as a museum for relics of the Song (960-1279), Liao (916-1125) and Jin periods.

　　Historical documents show that the site is close to the Luzipu and Hudu section of the old course of the Wusong River which, emptying directlysintosthe Yellow Sea was the most important waterway in Shanghai before the Ming Dynasty and played a significant role in Shanghai's upsurge and development. The river gradually silted up since the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Ren Renfa, Supervisor of Water Conservancy in the Yuan Dynasty, was once instructed to dredge the Wusong River, installing a number of stone and wooden lock-gates to halt the tides and sands from the sea. It is very likely that the stone lock-gate just discovered is related to Superviser Ren's work toharness the river.

　　Jiang Chingzheng, a leading person at the Municipal Cultural Relics Committee, said, the site of the Yuan Dynasty stone lock-gate just discovered is the largest in the country. In particular, the two stone columns are most extraordinary. The site is beyond comparison with the site of the Jin Dynasty water pass in Beijing. It is even more extraordinary that this has happened in Shanghaiswheresthere have been few major archeological discoveries.

　　There are some descriptions in the books about the vicissitudes of the Shanghai city, the changes of Shanghai's waterways and the city's water conservancy works but nobody can tell the whole story. The old architecture seems very important in Shanghai but it is insignificant in the country.

　　Revising history

　　The Yuan Dynasty lock-gate is something important not only for Shanghai, but also for the whole country, and it can be ranked at the top in the country. This is a great honour for Shanghai.

　　Vice Director of the Committee Chen Xiejun was even more confident when he spoke to this correspondent: This is the first time in Shanghai and it is of most extraordinary significance. The site is most likely to be cited as one of the ten new major archeological findings of China.

　　On September 5, the leadership of the Cultural Relics Committee of Shanghai formally disclosed that in view of the large size of the site at the Zhidan Garden and its good shape that made it a very significant finding in the history of archeology, the committee has thus decided to build an on-the-spot museum at the original site. It is said that this will be the only on-the-spot museum in the city proper of Shanghai, and if everything goes well, construction will start within the year.