Priceless plates

Nearly 300 porcelain works, excavated from the Maojiawan site in the heart of Beijing, are being exhibited at the Beijing Art Museum.

Four years ago, about one million shards, some of which may be up to 800 years old, were unearthed from an enormous pit in the capital's Xicheng district. Most pieces in the pit were made during the early and middle period of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and some go back as far as the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). The discovery of the pit provided important information on the history of Beijing.

The vessels represented by these shards come primarily from the kilns of such porcelain producing towns as Jingdezhen, Cizhou, Longquan and Juntai.