On the trail of Majiayao

To their delight, they found an intricate moat system from the settlement, which has three layers parallel with each other. They encircle a nearly square area covering almost 300,000 square meters. All are 8 to 9 meters away from each other, having a width of 9 to 10 meters.

After excavations on the three moats, archaeologists found the inner one has obvious differences from the other two, since it has much richer remaining evidence of habitation, including house foundations, pits and pottery kilns. The number of animal bones unearthed from this moat is also much more than the other two.