Yangtze River stones may be remnants of 1000-year-old cliff inscription
By ANITuesday, July 6, 2010
BEIJING - Four giant stones recently recovered from the bottom of the Yangtze River near Jiaoshan Mountain in Zhenjiang City, China, could be the remnants of a more than 1000 year old cliff inscription.
Three of the stones, weighing 60 tonnes, 10 tonnes and 450 tonnes respectively, were pulled out from the deep waters of the river, while another stone - which broke during its salvage - was successfully recovered later, Wang Youjun, an engineer in the salvage program, told Xinhua.
Wang said the broken stones have been pulled up to the riverbank, but archaeologists have yet to check them for ancient carvings of Chinese characters, reports People’s Daily Online.
The Yiheming Inscription, dating back to 514 AD, was a dedication by an ancient Chinese calligrapher to a dead crane he raised. The Inscription was carved into a cliff overlooking the Yangtze River in Zhenjiang.
According to the online encyclopedia of China’s biggest search engine Baidu, masters left their calligraphy on the Inscription but due to lightning strikes and landslides, the epitaphs have fallen into the river,
Salvage work for the Inscription begun as early as the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). More than 10 stone remnants were discovered during the Southern Song Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and over 200 Chinese characters were recognized. (ANI)
