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Burning Down the House - Part II

© Jennifer Overhulse-King

The Three Gorges Dam tragedy is one of the things in this world that should be keeping you awake at night. It's got everything you need for drama and suspense : ecological disaster, family homes and cities being destroyed, corruption, and sources say we may be in store for a global climate change over this one.

The 1300 archaeological sites that have been identified within the projected flood area are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what will be lost.

Continuing our examination of archaeological sites and finds that will be lost, we turn now to Baiheliang, or "White Crane Ridge." White Crane Ridge is important for many archaeological reasons.

"White Crane Ridge is an underground island," Dr. Elizabeth Childs-Johnson wrote to me via e-mail last year. "It is described as a ridge, in the middle of the Yangtze just north of Chongqing. The site is highly valued and now ranks as a 'National Treasure' since it is a landmass -- an island-shaped ridge that is inscribed with over 300 inscriptions dating from the Tang through Qing periods (ca. 618-1911 CE). The inscriptions document the hydraulic history of the Yangtze in Chinese history. The inscriptions appear like cartouches of one foot wide and one foot high. This is the largest example of this rare form of art in China. It has been washed by the Yangtze's turbulent waters since the site was first inscribed and therefore much of the calligraphy has vanished and continues to vanish. Archaeologists and museum specialists are ambivalent about whether to take these stones out of their context and put them into a museum or to build an underwater museum to house them. There is definitely little money for the latter although this is the direction that specialists are now taking. It is no longer possible to see these stone fish inscriptions since they only appear above water level at one time a year, when the water is lowest, in January or February. Water levels will rise permanently by 2003."

Now, ancient Chinese flood records may not be your thing, but in 1200 years when somebody digs up your diary, you can bet it will still qualify as history. Isn't preserving history worth a little bit of concern?

The PBS web site for "Great Wall Across the Yangtze" talks of relics being uncovered that begin to tell the tale of the Ba civilization. The Ba were apparently great artists and metal workers. The first relics linked to the Ba seem to have been uncovered in the 1970s. Most Ba relics are weapons (axes, daggers, etc.) or carved figurines. They are all elaborately decorated or carved and many of the Ba artifacts are bronze.