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Young World
Conserve culture
A group accused of operating clandestine mines across an important but sparsely guarded complex of neolithic Chinese culture is now facing criminal trial, Chinese government officials say. The illicit iron-ore mines, accompanied by crude on-site refining facilities, seriously defaced the Niuheliang site, which holds some of China’s earliest known temples, altars, sacred sculptures, and stargazing structures, according to the officials. Chinese archaeologists began ex
cavating the Niuheliang neolithic site-located in the northeastern province of Liaoning in Manchuria-in the 1980s. Their work unearthed a 19-square-mile (50-square-kilometre) complex of religious ritual architecture decorated with mural paintings; jade carvings of humans, dragons, and tortoises; and elaborate stone tombs on hills throughout the site. Long-abandoned circular temples and astronomical structures were also discovered.
COMPILED BY ROHINI RAMAKRISHNAN
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