"The archaeological circle has reached a consensus that Taosi is the capital of the period of Yao," said Wang Wei, head of the institute of archaeology under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Yao was one of the sage emperors living in the middle reaches of the Yellow River in Chinese mythology. Excavation of the Taosi site in Linfen City, Shanxi Province, began in l978.
Latest excavations showed the ancient city of Taosi covered an area of 2.8 million square meters with various functional divisions, He Nu, a researcher with the institute at a seminar on Yao culture said.
Pingyang is the ancient name of Linfen City, where the temple and mausoleum of Yao are located.
Yao originally lived in Tang County, Hebei Province which neighbors Shanxi. Later he migrated southward and finally chose Pingyang as his capital, according to Chinese historians.
Many Confucian histories praised rulers Yao and Shun as models of morality and benevolence, but skeptics of the early 20th century challenged their existence.