The discovery was announced after days of work at Gongyi City, central China's Henan Province, where 12 ancient kilns have been unearthed.

The Tang trio-color potteries, or "Tang San Cai" in Chinese, was a famous technique for glazing ceramics with three colors -- yellow, green and white or very occasionally blue. It came into being in the Han Dynasty (202 BC - AD 220) and flourished in the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

Among the excavated kilns, which were laid out in an orderly pattern, two date back to the Han Dynasty, six belong to the Tang Dynasty and four can be traced back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279). About 1,500 bags of porcelain fragments and pottery have been found, including over 800 undamaged or reconstructable objects.

The unearthed items and tools needed for porcelain production offer substantial proof of the advanced expertise in the craft of that time, said Xun Xinmin, chief of Henan Archaeology Research Institute. The discovery would help research in topics such as kiln construction, pottery production techniques and the disposition of workshops, he said.

Judging from the relics, archaeologists have confirmed that the trio-color glaze technique reached its apex during the Tang Dynasty.

Archaeologist also found evidence to indicate the Tang San Cai industry declined in the Song Dynasty until the kilns fell into disuse.

(Xinhua News Agency March 4, 2003)