Linzi, originally called Yingqiu, was the capital of the ancient Chinese state of Qi during the Zhou Dynasty. The ruins of the city lie in modern-day Linzi District, Shandong, China. The city was one of the largest and richest in China during the Spring and Autumn Period. With occupying Linzi in 221 BC, King Zheng of Qin completed his conquest of the Chinese rival states and declared himself the first emperor of Ancient China shortly afterwards. The ruins of the ancient city were excavated in 1926 by Japanese archaeologists and in 1964 by Chinese archaeologists.
Layout
Linzi covered an area of around with the city built between two parallel rivers that ran north–south, the Zi River to its east and the old course of the Xi River to its west. The city was surrounded by a perimeter wall of rammed earth. The city consisted of an outer city and an inner city. The outer city wall reached a maximum of in base width, averaging between in width. The inner city wall reached a maximum of in base width. The city had a sewer and water supply system. The palace was located in the inner city, located in the southwestern corner of Linzi. A large rammed earth platform was found inside the inner city, commonly referred to as the Duke Huan platform. The remains of the platform measure and are high. "Seven broad avenues, some wide and over long, ran north-south and east-west, roughly forming a grid pattern. Four major avenues met in the northeast section of the city. This area yielded the richest cultural remains from the Western Zhou to the Han." In the Records of the Grand Historian, the population of Linzi in the fourth and third centuries BC was said to be 70,000 households, with at least 210,000 adult males. Scholars today believe this was somewhat exaggerated.
The kings of Qi and the Qi state acted as patrons of the Jixia Academy in Linzi, the earliest and largest center of learning in China. The Academy, possibly named after the city gate nearby, was made up of chosen scholars who received a handsome stipend from the governmentin return for advising the king on government, rites and philosophy. Among the Jixia Academy scholars were Mencius, Xun Zi, and Shen Dao.
Tombs
The ruins of the city are surrounded by over 100 tumuli, some as far as away. Many of the tombs around Linzi have been looted in antiquity. In pits near what is considered the tomb of Duke Jing of Qi, over 600 sacrificed horses have been found arranged in two rows.
An initial test of corpses from Linzi graves' mtdna claimed that their mtdna was found to be more similar to Europeans than modern Chinese. The mtdna was reexamined and the initial test was found to be wrong, with results showing European mtdna sharing no links to the remains found in the graves, and the study says it "highlight that ancient mtDNA data obtained under different sampling schemes and subject to potential contamination can easily create the impression of drastic spatiotemporal changes in the genetic structure of a regional population during the past few thousand years if inappropriate methods of data analysis are employed."
External sources
Allan, Sarah, The Formation of Chinese Civilization: An Archaeological Perspective,
