Heritage | Coloane archeological site report to be released soon

With the rainy season around the corner, the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) is carrying out back-filling work onto the archaeological sites recently uncovered in Coloane village. The measure, presented yesterday, intends to prevent possible weather damage, according to IC president Ung Vai Meng. Meng also revealed that the second report into the evacuation project would be complete by June.
The second phase of the archaeological excavation, finished in February, saw roughly 500 articles, artifacts and relics discovered from four different ancient periods, namely the late Neolithic Age, the Bronze Age, the Tang and Song dynasties, as well as the late Qing dynasty. The remains are being stored at a football pitch near the village.
Ung Vai Meng told media on a side visit yesterday that the bureau would devote its utmost efforts to safeguarding the archaeological legacy discovered, also adding that the owner of the two parcels of land currently being excavated was not thinking of recovering the land for property development anytime soon, as reported earlier. “As the first phase of our archaeological project, conducted last year, came to an end, according to its report, we requested of the landowner a little more time for us to continue,” he said, adding that the property owner was willing to allow the project to carry on.
The so-called back-filling work, as Ung said, was one of the protective measures to defend the vulnerable sites, which are at risk of being destroyed by the approaching stormy weather. Apart from that, the official was also confident that the second assessment report will be finished mid-­year, which would reveal a more “appropriate scheme” to better place the relics under the bureau’s protection.
Also present at the site visit, the head of the urban planning department, Lao Iong, noted that that particular region might face urban planning adjustments in the wake of the latest report.
The initial report resulting from the project indicates that the relics found at the parking lot may date back to Chinese Tong dynasty, around 1300 years ago. After the site’s discovery, the authorities expanded the evacuation efforts to the nearby football pitch, where the archaeological work was initiated in November last year. Staff reporter