Tang Dynasty offices discovered in Daming Palace excavation

Chinese archaeologists recently found in the ruins of Daming Palace what is believed to be the zhongshu sheng, an office responsible for drafting and issuing imperial edicts during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907).

According to excavation team leader Li Chunlin, of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Archaeology Institute, a 50-square-meter room has been unearthed in the west of the office ruins, and a relatively small room in the north of the office has also been found.

The team began excavating in 2010 a 5,200-sq-m area northwest of Huanyuan Hall and Xuanzheng Hall, the main buildings of the Daming Palace, the Tang Dynasty imperial palace. The area was made the focal point of a projected five-year excavation from 2011 to 2016, approved by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, after many Tang cultural relics were found there.