The Terracotta Warriors is a household name worldwide. Now, 2lst-century science is making astonishing new discoveries of these world famous     1    (wonder). The year was 221BC. In Mexico, the city of Teotihaucan was expanding to become ancient America’s greatest city. In Egypt, the city of Alexandria boasted a 130-meter lighthouse, one of the     2    (tall) buildings in the world. And in China,     3     team of craftsmen began one of mankind’s most incredible creations.

In 1974, farmers     4    (dig) a well near the Chinese city of Xi’an discovered their works — strange pieces of clay sculpted in human form. 8000 clay warriors     5     (bury) in three pits (坑) near the tomb of one of history’s most     6    ( power) men, calling himself Shihuangdi.

More than 2000 years     7    , he unified (统一) seven warring kingdoms into a single empire called China, giving himself the title of “first emperor” and building himself one of the biggest pyramid tombs ever     8    (see) on earth.

Why did China’s first emperor order 8000 life-size clay soldiers for his tomb? And     9    did his artists make those 8000 statues, each nearly 2 meters tall and weighing up to 300kilograms? Archaeology is still uncovering     10    (them) secrets.

2 . Japanese archaeologists (考古学家) have uncovered al 7.5-foot-long irons sword and a bronze mirror from an ancient tomb near the city of Nara. Researchers found both artifacts while unearthing a l,600-year-old site called Tomio Maruyama.

The weapon, known as a dako sword, is so large that it was likely never used for self-defense, serving instead as a means of protection against evil after death. Like other dako swords unearthed in the country, this one looks like a snake. Due to the artifact’s size, the researchers initially thought they had found multiple swords lined up next to each other.

Experts said the mirror, which is shaped like a shield (盾), was also likely used to shun evil spirits. It measures 25 inches by 12 inches and weighs more than 12 pounds, making it the largest of its kind discovered in Japan, too.

The finds offer new insights into the Kofun period, which lasted from around the year 250 AD to 538 AD and is named for the distinctive tomb mounds, constructed to bury members of the ruling class. Kosaku Okabayashi, the deputy director for Nara prefecture’s Archaeological Institute of Kashihara, said, “These discoveries indicate that the technology of the Kofun period is beyond what had been imagined, and they are masterpieces in metalwork from that period.”

Japan is home to an estimated 160,000 burial mounds from the Kofun period, though the Tomio Maruyama kofun is particularly large. Measuring 350 feet in diameter and up to 32 feet tall, it dates back to the late fourth century.

Archaeologists think it has some connection to an influential person who supported the rulers of the day, the imperial Yamato family. Based on the presence of the two artifacts, the dead person may have been involved in military and ritualistic matters. So far, the researchers have discovered a coffin but no human remains in the burial chamber.

5 . Considered one of the greatest archaeological finds of mankind in the 20th century, the Sanxingdui Ruins site in Sichuan province has continued to amaze the world. Since May, more than 500 cultural relics have been found at the site. 

Some of the bronze artifacts  (工艺品) discovered during the current excavation have never been seen before, according to experts. They were beyond “our previous understanding of bronze wares and posed great challenges to our research”, said Xu Feihong, a lecturer at Shanghai University.

A unique bronze artifact from the No 3 pit features a man carrying a bronze vessel known as a zun that has a round rim (边沿) and a square body, said Ran Honglin, a researcher with Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute.

Three bronze figures, with their palms pressed together and their heads twisted to the right, have been excavated from the No 4 pit.

These three bronze figures are a unique find among Sanxingdui items in terms of their shape and decorative pattern, and they provide further material for studying the bronze casting technology of the Shu people as well as their art, religious beliefs, social system and cultural exchanges with surrounding areas, Ran said. Shu was an ancient state in what is now Sichuan. 

Again, a gold mask is catching the world’s attention. 

It is the biggest of its kind unearthed at the site so far. It is 37.2 centimeters wide, 16.5 cm high and weighs about 100 grams. Another thing that makes it stand out is that it is complete. 

It was discovered in June at the No 3 pit. Earlier this year, a similar, but less complete gold mask was found at the No 5 pit.

Gold items were found at the Sanxingdui Ruins site as early as 1986, including gold foil (金箔) pieces that show how the precious metal was used by the ancient Shu people. The finding further illustrates the custom of the ancient Shu people to use gold items, experts said.

Radiocarbon dating (放射性碳年代测定) has shown that the No 3 and No 4 pits, at 3,000 to 3,200 years old, go back to the late Shang Dynasty (16th century-11th century BC), Xu said.

Excavation of the No 4 pit was completed on Aug 19, and digging at the No 3 pit will be completed in the next two months. What other treasures will the pit bring us? Only time will tell!

Archaeologists have uncovered a collection of 3,000-year-old handicrafts at Sanxingdui, Sichuan province. The researchers found more than 500 objects at the site in 2019, most of    1    were carved out of gold, bronze, jade and ivory.

Experts are unsure who made the handicrafts, but they guess that the creators belonged to the Shu state, a    2    (high) skilled civilization conquered by the neighboring state of Qin in 316 B.C. Because the people of Shu left behind few    3    (write) records, historians’ knowledge of their culture is limited.

A major highlight of the find is a 0.6-pound fragment (碎片) of a gold mask that may have been used    4    (wear) during religious ceremonies. About 84 percent pure gold, the piece likely weighed close to one pound in total,     5    (make) it one of the heaviest gold masks from that time period discovered in China to date.

Other    6    (discovery) made at the site included two kinds of silk. Silk has played    7    important role in China’s long history. As the statement points out, the silk was thought to serve    8    a carrier by the ancient inhabitants of Sanxingdui for communication between heaven, earth, man and god. The presence of silk at Sanxingdui     9    (indicate) that the ancient Shu Kingdom is one of the important origins of silk in ancient China. All these findings enrich and     10    (deep) our understanding of the Sanxingdui culture.

7 . Born into poverty on 21 May 1799, Mary Anning had to work hard from a young age. Her parents had 10 children, of whom only two survived childhood --- Mary and her elder brother Joseph. Mary’s own survival was said by her parents to be a wonder. At the age of 15 months, a sudden rainstorm hit the shelter, where Mary, her babysitter, and two children stayed. A lightning strike killed them all except Mary.

She didn’t have formal education and was only taught to read at a Sunday school. Raised in the seaside holiday village of Lyme Regis in Dorset, Mary and Joseph made a living by selling fossils to holidaymakers at their father’s waterfront booth.

Her life changed in 1811 when Joseph noticed bones mixed together with rock. Unknown to them, this was the first ever discovery of an ichthyosaurus ( 鱼 龙 ), a marine lizard from the Triassic period. Anning noted down every find she made, and after failing to find any new fossils for over a year, in 1821 she made her next discovery, digging up three more ichthyosaur skeletons. This was followed two years later by an even more impressive find --- a complete plesiosaur(蛇颈龙). This was so extraordinary that many leading scientists declared it a counterfeit, unwilling to believe that an uneducated 24-year-old could find such remarkable remains. Additionally, society at the time was highly religious and many rejected these discoveries as they conflicted with the teachings of the Bible.

Despite the setback, Anning continued to make more shocking revelations. Anning also dug up fossilized shit, which made experts know the diets of prehistoric creatures. But her biggest find of all was the first complete skeleton of a pterosaur in 1828.

All of Mary Anning’s discoveries helped influence the study of paleontology(古生物学) as scientists began to take an increased interest in fossilized animals and plants. Her work also encouraged people to question the history of the Earth in more detail and encouraged girls and those from poor backgrounds by proving that they could succeed in scientific study, a profession mainly controlled by wealthy upper-class men.

Since Chinese archaeologists(考古学家)     1    (make) public some of the newly unearthed artifacts from the Sanxingdui Ruins site on Saturday, a gold mask has caught most of the attention from experts and     2     public alike.

Recognized as one of the most important ancient     3    (remain) found in the 20^th century, the 3000-year-old Sanxingdui in southwest China’s Sichuan province is a treasure house     4    (bury) with a collection of pottery, jade, bronze and gold wares.     5     astonished the archaeologists most about this gold mask is its large size. 23 centimeters wide and 28 centimeters high. Although only about half of the gold mask was unearthed, it’s so far the     6    (large) of its kind found in the primary stage of the Chinese civilization, weighing 280 grams.

It     7    (estimate) that the whole mask could weigh more than 500 grams. This lightweight mask is made of gold foil(箔), featuring a raised nose with a sharp edge at the tip. It’s     8    (basic) the same size as the head sculptures from the same pit. Thus, archaeologists believe it was originally attached     9     the face of a head sculpture.

The masks’ eyes and eyebrows are delicately hollowed out,     10    (create) a sense of seriousness and dignity. They most likely represent authorities or top-level figures at that period, according to archaeologists.