Chinese researchers     1     (announce) the discovery of over 500 cultural relics on Saturday, during     2     ongoing excavation (挖掘) at the Sanxingdui Ruins site in Guanghan, Sichuan province.

The relics were uncovered in six pits (坑),     3     date back over 3,200 years.

“Thanks to the new     4     (discover), we’ve     5     (basic) figured out the layout of the zone of the Sanxingdui site.” said Lei Yu, a researcher at the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute who heads the ongoing excavation.

    6     (explain) why the new round of excavations has come after several     7     (decade), Lei said the previous excavations of Pit 1 and 2     8     (make) to rescue artifacts after the accidental discovery.

“Once the two pits had been cleaned, the urgency for further excavation did not exist,” he said. “Archaeology cannot be rushed. We have to wait     9     the need for academic purpose to carry out more excavations.”

Following an academic project aimed at more deeply understanding the ancient civilization in Sichuan province known as Shu, whose     10     (history) records are lacking, investigations in the area around the No. 1 and No. 2 pits were restarted in October 2019.

Digging up the past

Pottery (陶器) is an ancient art. It     1     (use) for thousands of years all over the world. Old pottery is usually found in pieces     2     (call) “potsherds (陶瓷碎片)”. Sometimes potsherds found in the same place can be put back together to recreate the     3     (origin) pot. Even in pieces, old pottery can teach us about the past. Archaeologists (考古学家)     4     (examine) pottery consider not only its appearance but what it was made of and how it was made. With this knowledge, they can gain     5     (benefit )information about people's lives in times past.

Pottery is made by first adding water to a kind of soil called clay. When     6     (get) wet, clay can be made into shapes. It is then heated. This hardens the clay and enables it     7     (keep) its shape. To make clay easier to shape and heat, potters use something called “temper”.

A pot's shape and     8     (decorate) can provide clues about the past. Painted pictures might show events from daily life or from myths and legends. Archaeologists know certain shapes and styles     9     were common in different times and places.

Archaeologists are absorbed     10     studying the differences in types of pottery closely. Because of their work, these ordinary objects can reveal some of the mysteries of the past.