Historical remains of the Northern Song Dynasty have been discovered in Xinzhen Village in Dongying, Shandong Province. The cultural relics unearthed included rare iron coins, the pottery head portraits of minority ethnic people, chinaware, copper coins and parts of ancient architecture.

The historical remains were discovered during the construction of a building in Xinzhen Village. Experts from Dongying Cultural Relics Bureau found that the remains were 8 meters long (north to south) and 10 meters wide (east to west). After 4 days of excavation work, experts estimated that about 3 tons of iron coins would be unearthed. It was common in ancient China to use copper coins, but iron coins were very rare.

An expert from Dongying Cultural Relics Bureau said that more than 3 tons of iron coins attached with the remains of marine organisms had been unearthed about 20 meters away. Previously experts had thought that the iron coins found before had something to do with shipwrecks or docks; however, the newly discovered historical remains had broken the assumption of shipwrecks. The reason for so big a concentration of iron coins here might be found after the whole excavation work.

The pottery head portraits reflected that people of the Northern Song Dynasty had started communication with the ethnic minority groups.
 
(Chinanews.cn July 17, 2006)