Archaeologists have discovered a large group of ancient stone statues at the worship site of Guizai Mountain near Hunan province (China). These statues are far more numerous and much older than the world-famous Qin Terracotta Warriors found in the Nanling Mountains (Dao County of Yongzhou City).
     Tang Zhongyong, director of the Dao County Administrative Office, said that the Guizai Mountain site is a large ancient worship site. There are over 5,000  stone statues at the site, covering an area of 15,000 square metres. They are statues of civil officials, military officers, pregnant women and all kinds of common soldiers and their height varies from 30 to 100 centimetres. Archaeology experts said that there are over 5,000 stone statues on the ground and a large number of stone statues buried about two meters below the ground.
     The Hunan Cultural Relics department also found that the statues are the group of stone portraits with the longest history found in China by far. Some were carved in prehistoric times about 5,000 years ago, and some were carved during the Qin, Han, Wei and Jin dynasties about 2,000 to 5,000 years ago. Based on field investigations, archaeologists deduced that Guizai Mountain was a large natural altar and that prehistoric people decided to place stone statues on it.

Sources: DNA India, ANI (19 August 2010)