STYLISH PAST: The baluster-style architecture found in the Stone-to-Bronze-Age site in Yunnan Province (WANG CHANGSHAN)

China's top 10 archaeological discoveries in 2008 were released by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) on March 31. The 10 winners, which were chosen from 25 nominees, include a Bronze-Age graveyard in northwest China's Gansu Province and an ancient city of the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

It was the 19th year that the SACH organized renowned Chinese archaeologists to choose the most significant archaeological discoveries of the year. According to SACH's official website, the aim of the annual selection is to open out the direction of the archaeological study of China and meet the increasing demand of the public for the cultural relics and archaeological information.

Tong Mingkang, Vice Director of SACH, said in an article on the SACH website that during the 19 years' selection of the top 10 archaeological discoveries of the year, China's archaeology had made itself more open to the public and more and more ordinary people could now appreciate the value of archaeology.

LIVING PROOF: An aerial photo of the ruins of an ancient city of Western Zhou Dynasty and Warring States Period in Henan Province

"How to coordinate the relations between archaeology and the public and how to make more and more people participate in the conservation of cultural heritage have long been one of the targets of archaeologists in China," Tong said.

The 20-member jury of this year's selection includes veteran and young archaeologists. They agree that 2008 was a big year for archaeology in China, in which many important discoveries were made.

ANCIENT MESSAGES: Left: the relics of inscribed animal bones found at the site of Zhougong Temple in Shaanxi Province Right: The excavation site of these relics (FENG GUO)

The round-shaped emperor's grave of the Spring and Autumn Period in Anhui Province (CFP)

Xu Pingfang, one of the leading archaeologists in China who works at the Institute of Archaeology under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), told Xinhua News Agency how important the discoveries were.