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[[underline]] Chapter IV. [[/underline]] 71. could have been, it was difficult to see. Beneath this "burnt layer", the earth as far down as the digging of the grave had exposed it was composed wholly of undisturbed alluvium, remarkably homogeneous in character. It contained no potsherds or artifacts of any kind; and in it the layers of sand and gravel visible above the "burnt layer" were entirely lacking---this last fact apparently indicating that when it was laid down, the hills to the west had not yet been denuded of their natural vegetal cover. [[underline]] Identification of the Site. [[/underline]] The ceramic, stratigraphical, and other indications all combined to show that about the close of the Chou period there had stood in the forks of the I Shui an important city, built chiefly of wood (instead of the brick and rammed earth which have formed the main building material in northern China during later times); and that after a relatively brief existence [[superscript footnote]] (47) it had been destroyed by fire, apparently after the --------------- (47) The "Lower Capital" of Yen seems first to have come into prominence about the middle of the fourth century, before our Era, and was destroyed by Ch'in in 226 B.C. --------------- slaughter of its inhabitants. We of course found no direct proof that the site which we had examined was that of the ancient capital of Yen; but our study disclosed much in favor of such an identification, and nothing at all to contradict it. Moreover a member of the local gentry, thoroughly familiar with the historical records, assured me that they contained no mention of either the existence or the destruction of any other city of importance in this area. there seemed therefore no good reason to doubt the local tradition to the effect that the site was actually that of the ill-fated "Lower Capital" of the state of Yen.