Is there a "sleeping" underwater ancient town here? Huai'an Xinlu ruins reveal the changes of the Grand Canal

Due to a flood hundreds of years ago, the entire ancient town sank silently under the water and gradually accumulated silt. It was not until an archaeological excavation in late 2023 that the ruins of an ancient town reappeared before people's eyes.

34 houses, 8 roads, 10 stoves, 13 drainage ditches, and 370 artifacts including pottery, porcelain, wood, and metal… These are the remains that archaeologists have cleared out at the Xinlu site, which is located in Huai'an District, Huai'an City, about 3 kilometers northwest of the Banzha site.

The strata of Xinlu Ruins are like "Thousand Layer Puff Pastry"

Hu Bing, director of the Huai'an Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology Institute, said that this is a typical street site from the late Ming Dynasty, reflecting the beauty of the daily life and prosperous commercial atmosphere along the canal. For example, three stove remains were found in the F7 house, which is inferred to be a restaurant; the YL2 courtyard is a "shop in front and house in the back" structure, with shops along the street, and other kitchens, side rooms, halls and central courtyards as the owner's private living area, closed on all sides; another example is the F20 house, where a stove was built directly on the road in front of the shop so that it could sell things on the street.

A road about 4 meters wide that runs through the entire excavation area is the most important discovery of the site. It, together with the drainage ditches and auxiliary roads on both sides, forms the main road system of the entire site area. All the houses are distributed in an orderly manner along the north and south sides of the road. Combining historical documents and unearthed artifacts, it is preliminarily judged that the main road in the site may be the Chengongxin Road in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty recorded in the documents.

"The main layout, street direction and building bases of the Xinlu site are clearly visible, and the preservation is quite complete. The most interesting thing is that as we continue to dig down, we can see at least three to five layers of cultural accumulation, with road surfaces stacked on top of each other, like 'thousand-layer puff pastry'," said Chen Gang, deputy director of the Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.

Although the metaphor of "thousand-layer puff pastry" is vivid and interesting, it also reveals from one side that this ancient town on the canal suffered from floods. Qi Xiaodong, the person in charge of the first round of excavation of the Xinlu site and the deputy research curator of the Huai'an Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology Institute, said that the characteristics of the Xinlu site are that the houses and roads are particularly well preserved, and even the fence walls have been preserved to this day, but the number of artifacts left in the house is not large. It is inferred that it was not suddenly submerged by floods, but was gradually abandoned due to repeated water damage.

Submerged ancient town

It is understood that before the Xinlu site was rediscovered, Huai'an also discovered two other large-scale underwater ancient town sites that were well preserved along the canal.

One is the Banzha site, which is the only wooden-bottomed sluice site discovered in China so far. The site reveals the sluice body and ancillary facilities of the Ming Dynasty, and the remains of sluices, ancient river channels, docks, dams, and riverbanks. According to research, the Ming Dynasty set up Banzha, a canal hydraulic facility, here to smooth the water flow and ensure navigation. Because of the sluice, a bank was set up, and because of the bank, a town was built. Banzha Bank and Banzha Town were born, which once "was located at the throat of Lianghuai and the thoroughfare of Huaiyang".

The ruins of the Qing Dynasty streets and lanes on the southeast side of Banzha were submerged by a sudden flood. Most of the walls of the houses tilted and collapsed, and the silt (sand) layer was obviously formed after the flood. A wealth of artifacts were unearthed, including more than 2,000 pieces of porcelain, pottery, metal, jade and stone artifacts, most of which were daily production and living utensils. Various artifacts were stacked in various houses according to their functions, and some artifacts were consciously collected in containers such as pots, basins, and backpacks. "For example, a grocery store, after uncovering it, there were piles of goods on the ground. It can be inferred that the flood came suddenly and the people left in a hurry." Hu Bing said.

The second is the Sizhou City Ruins, located in Xuyi County, Huai'an City. The ancient city of Pompeii in Italy was buried by a volcanic eruption, and Sizhou City is the only state city site in China that is completely submerged under water.

Sizhou City was built in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, destroyed in wars during the Sui Dynasty, and rebuilt in the Tang Dynasty. From the Tang Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, it was a water transport center with constant traffic of merchant ships and cargo ships. It was once prosperous and was known as the "water and land metropolis". As the Yellow River took over the Huai River and the water was stored in the clear water and washed away by the yellow water, Sizhou City suffered frequent floods. In the 19th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, Sizhou City, which had been prosperous for nearly a thousand years, was completely submerged in a rainstorm that lasted for dozens of days.

"Compared with the ancient city of Pompeii, which was engulfed by volcanic magma in an instant, the city of Sizhou was engulfed by floods and buried by mud, protecting it from weathering and human destruction. In some respects, its degree of integrity is no less than that of the ancient city of Pompeii," said Chen Gang.

Why does Huai'an have three underwater ancient towns?

"Xinlu, Banzha and Sizhou City ruins are the 'historical snapshots' of the frequent floods in Huai'an." Dai Fuqing, a member of the Water Conservancy History and Heritage Committee of the Chinese Hydraulic Engineering Society and a specially appointed cultural and historical expert of the Huai'an CPPCC, said that Huai'an is located at the intersection of the Grand Canal and the Huaihe River and prospered because of the canal. During the more than 600 years since the Yellow River took over the Huaihe River, this place became the intersection of the Yellow River, Huai River and Yun River. The Yellow River brought a lot of silt, and the river network and water system were often silted up.

In order to ensure smooth water transport, relieve the suffering of Panba and avoid the danger of wind and waves, many water conservancy facilities such as dikes, gates and dams were built along the Huai'an Canal during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Later, the two major offices of the Governor of Water Transport and the Governor of Rivers were set up in Huai'an to be in charge of water transport and water control. Despite this, the combined effects of the large amount of silt brought by the Yellow River, the floods of the upstream Huaihe River and the plum rain season still led to frequent floods in Huai'an.

The once prosperous ancient towns along the canal sank into the water and were buried under the sand in the mist of history. In recent years, with the continuous advancement of archaeological excavations along the Grand Canal, ancient towns have gradually been unearthed, providing us with room for imagination to restore the lives of the people along the ancient canal and making the history of the Grand Canal more vivid.

Jiang Fang Qiu Bingqing