Heritage among the ruins and standing structures

Golden sunshine and even more golden flowers spread over more than a mile. It is in this sea of suffocating fragrance that Yan Yumin bends down suddenly and is lost. Standing a few meters away from him, you think what he is up to. The archaeologist emerges from below a bed of flowers a couple of minutes later with a grin that would put a Cheshire cat to shame, prompting you to think he could scream "eureka" any moment. Instead, he opens his palm and speaks with the authority of an expert, which he is: "See, this is part of a tile from the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220). Such tiles are all over this place."

The place Yan and four other archaeologists have spent digging the past three days is on the plains of southern Shaanxi province. They are trying to determine the expanse over which such tiles are scattered. Their initial findings suggest some Han Dynasty troops were stationed on the site because local farmers have found dozens of copper swords in the fields.

Farmers have been digging the Chihe River banks for the golden colored sand for centuries. During one such digging in 1983, they found a 4-cm-long gold-plated copper "silkworm" that dates back to the Han Dynasty. Later finds include a gold "phoenix" and a gold coin with a two-fish pattern on one side. Both date back to the Han Dynasty.