A team of archaeologists from the Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology have been busy for the past few years working on an assignment worth envying, reports China Daily. Deep in the Chinese central interior, they have been carrying out excavations at a site where the ancient Xianyang capital was once located. Modern Xianyang, just next door, is a densely populated metropolis and home to a major university. But ancient Xianyang was once the capital of China and thus much more prestigious. It was the capital city of the fabled Qin dynasty , which unified the country in 221 BC and subsequently ruled as China’s first imperial dynasty.
The Qin dynasty’s ill-fated 15-year reign ended with the sacking of their capital city, ancient Xianyang in 206 BC. Paradoxically, despite founding an imperial political system that endured for 2,143 years, the Qin dynasty was the shortest of all China’s ruling dynasties. But its outsize influence is undeniable, which is why the archaeologists involved in the ongoing excavations at Xianyang are thrilled to be involved in such an historically enlightening project.
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