Discoveries at Liulihe site illuminate ancient Zhou society

Located in Fangshan district, Beijing, Liulihe is the largest known Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century-771 BC) ruins site south of the Yanshan Mountains. Since 2019, archaeologists have unearthed over 930 relics, including city walls, rammed-earth structures, oracle bones and more than 50 tombs.

Major discoveries include a massive outer city wall and moat, large-scale rammed-earth building foundations and wells, and tombs associated with the ruling family or aristocracy of the Yan state. Remarkably, DNA analysis from a nearby cemetery for working people has revealed a four-generation family tree, offering rare insights into early Zhou society, social structure and kinship systems.