By An Bei

ZHENGZHOU, Feb. 15(Xinhuanet)-- Archaeologists claim that the large-scale city remains they discovered in Dengfeng in central China's Henan Province may be the ruins of Yangcheng, capital of King Yu, founder of the Xia Dynasty(21st century B.C.- 16th B.C.).

The discovery was made during the excavations of ruins at Wangchenggang site near Dengfeng from 2002 to 2004, which was cooperatively made by archaeologists from the School of Archaeology and Museology of Beijing University and the Henan Provincial Research Institute of Archeology.

Covering 300,000 square meters, the remains include the ruins of a city, a moat and a city wall.

Preliminary age dating found that the city site belongs to the late Longshan period, a late Neolithic culture which can be dated back to the 21st Century B.C..

"Because the period was generally recognized as the Xia Dynasty,the large city ruins have enough reasons to be judged as the site of King Yu's capital, whether from the location recorded in history or from the scale of the city," said Liu Xu, professor of the School of Archaeology and Museology of Beijing University and head of the excavation team.

Archaeologists have also unearthed relics such as sacrificial pits with human bones, human skulls used for sacrifice and buried under the moat and long hollow pieces of jade with rectangular sides and white pottery, which demonstrated the noble status of the owner.

"These discoveries suggest that the city may have been a major settlement for people in central China some 4,000 years ago," saidFang Yanming, a research fellow with the Henan Provincial ResearchInstitute of Archeology.

The Wangchenggang site, which is now supposed to be the Yangcheng, was discovered in 1959 and became famous in 1977 when archaeologists excavated a small city to the northeast of the newly discovered big city, and relics including fragments of bronze wares, inscribed characters and a dozen foundation pits buried with humans skeletons.

As the first city site of the late Longshan Culture confirmed in Henan Province since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the small city remains, covering just thousands of square meters, were then thought to have been the capital of King Yu by some archaeologists.

However, the small scale of the city was strong evidence for those refusing to accept the small city remains as the capital.

"The discovery of the large city site throws new light on the identification of King Yu's capital," Fang said.

Both cities were constructed in the same manner, though the small city was built a little earlier than the big one.

Some archaeologists argue that the small city may have been used for sacrifices. Others think that the big city may have been constructed after the small city was demolished by the cataclysm during which Yu, a legendary hero and the founder of China's firstslave-owning society, led the people to fight floods some 4,000 years ago.

"There are still many questions waiting to be answered," Fang said.

But Fang said that with more materials to be found, whether thelarge city site was the capital of Yu or not will soon become clear.

China is one of the oldest countries in the world. Existing Chinese historical chronicles, however, begin in 841 B.C. and there is no precise record of nearly half the nation's history. The Chinese government started a project to put precise dates on the three dynasties of Xia, Shang(16th century B.C.- 11th B.C.) and Zhou(11th century B.C.- 3rd B.C.), all the three of which arefeatured in abundant legends and anecdotes.

"There has been a common understanding in archaeological circles on the significance of the Wangchenggang site in discovering the early culture of the Xia Dynasty," Liu Xu said.

"As it is generally recognized that Yu is the first king of theXia Dynasty, once the big city remains are confirmed as the site of Yangcheng, the mystery of the origin of the Xia culture will besolved," Liu said.