Suzhou ancient city ruins

The ancient city site of Mudu in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, also known as the spring and autumn site of Mudu in Suzhou, is located in the dome mountain area of Mudu town and Xukou town in Suzhou city. Large scale archaeological investigation and excavation show that the site of Mudu ancient city is irregular, and the city walls are roughly distributed along the edge of the basin. Among them, the distance between the north and south walls is about 6728 meters. There are moats and other water remains outside the walls. The ancient river road passes through the water gate on the wall and connects the inside and outside of the city. There is a small city in the city. There are 235 mounds in the city, including the large-scale building sites of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Combined with a large number of settlements, tombs, Yanshan jade hoard and other relics of the two Zhou Dynasty distributed around the city site. It can be preliminarily identified that Mudu ancient city is a capital site with large scale and high level in the late spring and Autumn period. In 2010, it was selected as one of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China.

Mudu ancient city site in Suzhou

synonym

Suzhou ancient city site group generally refers to Mudu ancient city site in Suzhou

The ancient city site of Mudu in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, also known as the spring and autumn site of Mudu in Suzhou, is located in the dome mountain area of Mudu town and Xukou town in Suzhou city. Large scale archaeological investigation and excavation show that the site of Mudu ancient city is irregular, and the city walls are roughly distributed along the edge of the basin. Among them, the distance between the north and south walls is about 6728 meters. There are moats and other water remains outside the walls. The ancient river road passes through the water gate on the wall and connects the inside and outside of the city. There is a small city in the city. There are 235 mounds in the city, including the large-scale building sites of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Combined with a large number of settlements, tombs, Yanshan jade hoard and other relics of the two Zhou Dynasty distributed around the city site. It can be preliminarily identified that Mudu ancient city is a capital site with large scale and high level in the late spring and Autumn period. In 2010, it was selected as one of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China.

Brief introduction of the site

The site of Mudu ancient city in Suzhou is located in the Intermountain basin in the southwest of Suzhou City, including Mudu Town, Xukou town and Qionglongshan scenic spot in Wuzhong District of Suzhou city. It is surrounded by a circle of mountains and connected with the outside through four mountain passes. The southwest is connected with Taihu Lake through Xukou. Since the autumn of 2009, large-scale archaeological investigation and excavation have been carried out on the site. So far, the age and scope of the ancient site have been basically determined, some important remains have been found, and the structure of the site has been preliminarily understood.

The city site is irregular in shape, and the city wall is built along the edge of the basin. The north city wall is located in Wufeng village of Mudu Town, with a remnant length of 1150 meters. The cross section of the city wall is trapezoidal, with the upper width of 12.9-15.35 meters, the bottom width of 22.3-22.35 meters, and the existing highest part of 3.2 meters. The outer moat is about 15 meters wide and 1050 meters long. Another remains of the water gate was found. The width of the channel at the notch is about 13 meters.

In 2010, the spring and autumn site of Mudu in Suzhou was selected as one of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China.

City Wall Site

The south city wall is located in Xinfeng village of Xukou town. The wall is generally east-west, with a total length of 560 meters. There is a gap at the west end, from which the wall turns south, forming a layout of "two walls with one river". The southern extension of the city wall is about 360 meters long. The existing surface wall of the city wall is 15-45 meters wide, which is also piled up. The width of the river between the two sections of the city wall is about 12.3-13.9 meters. The northeast section flows from northeast to southwest, and the south section flows from north to south. The sediments in the river channel include pottery, tiles, bronze arrowheads, original porcelain bowls, pottery bowls, wooden components and other relics, which indicates that they were used in the late spring and Autumn period. The total length of the river channel discovered by drilling is about 850 meters.

Silt accumulation was found on the southeast side of the south wall. The north edge of the wall is parallel to the wall, and the south side leads to Taihu Lake. It is preliminarily inferred that the water surface of this area coincides with the city wall, that is, when the city wall was built and used, there were large natural water surfaces on the East and south sides of the city wall, that is, the natural boundary on the southeast side of the city site. The distance between the two walls is about 6728 meters.

There are traces of the East and west city walls, about 6820 meters apart, in the vicinity of Liuzhuang Mudong highway in the East and Yantou village in the west of the basin.

Urban layout

Hefeng Village town

A small city site was found in Hefeng village, which is a rectangle with rounded corners. It is 460 meters long from east to west, 430 meters wide from north to south, and covers an area of 190000 square meters. A number of mounds are located in the north and east of the city site, distributed in a line, forming the wall of the small city, about 600 meters long. There are moats around the outside of the city wall. There are a large area of stone workshop sites in the area of maxiang, where pottery pieces, a large number of stone products, semi-finished products and finished products can be seen. Sites of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty are distributed in the areas of liaoli, hengjinglang and shangyantou village. The excavation of liaoli site has found the remains of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and Maqiao period.

Earthen mound site

There are 235 earthen mound sites in the city, which are densely distributed in Wufeng, Xinfeng, liaoli and Hefeng villages. The mounds are of different shapes and heights. In the accumulation of many mounds, we have collected the relics of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, such as the geometric impression pottery pieces and the original porcelain pieces. Among them, the excavation of d157 found the clues of the building base site of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Combined with the remains of tiles and wooden components unearthed in the river course of the south water gate, we can identify the original large-scale building base site in the city.

historical background

According to historical records and other documents, the capital of the state of Wu was built in Suzhou during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The discovery of Mudu ancient city has solved the mystery of where the core sites of large-scale and high-level settlement groups in Suzhou area during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty are, and provided crucial archaeological evidence for the exploration of the capital of Wu state in the late spring and Autumn period. According to the characteristics of the unearthed pottery, the relationship between the strata and the structure of the city wall, it can be concluded that Mudu ancient city was built in the late spring and Autumn period. There are a large number of relics of the two Zhou dynasties around the city site, including small cities and settlements with different scales and levels, such as Yucheng, Yuecheng and zhangmucun sites, a large number of Mound Tombs and stone Mound Tombs with different levels, such as Zhenshan, Shushan, yangbaoshan and Jilongshan tombs, as well as Yanshan jade hoard and many batches of scattered bronzes, etc.

Based on the archaeological investigation and excavation of the city walls, gates, moats, building sites, handicraft workshop sites, general residential sites, tombs, hoards and other types of remains of the age, grade and nature of the study, as well as a comprehensive analysis of the settlement groups composed of all kinds of remains, it can be preliminarily confirmed that Mudu ancient city is a large-scale city site with the nature of a capital in the late spring and Autumn period.

academic research

As an important local culture in the two Zhou Dynasty, Wu culture occupies an important position in the development history of Southeast China, and has made an important contribution to the formation and development of the cultural history of China's ancient pluralistic nation-state. But so far, the study of Wu culture is still very weak, and many basic studies need to be strengthened, such as the establishment of the archaeological cultural sequence of the two Zhou period in the southeast region, the comprehensive grasp of the archaeological cultural features of Wu, Yue, Yan, Han and other political bodies, the clarification of the relationship between the political bodies, and so on. Among them, the central settlement is the key to understand the society and culture at that time and explore the above problems. The confirmation of Mudu ancient city proves the existence of large city sites in Wuyue culture area. The large-scale and rich remains of the city provide a key point for the study of archaeological culture in the two Zhou period in Southeast China, and provide important archaeological data for the in-depth study of many historical problems in Wuyue region.

This project is the first time to systematically and comprehensively investigate, excavate and study the sites of Wuyue cultural area with the idea of regional investigation and settlement archaeology, which promotes the transformation and deepening of the academic thinking of Wuyue cultural archaeology from focusing on tomb excavation and research to regional Archaeology in the perspective of settlement.

Expert comments

An important clue to the capital of Wu state

For many years, scholars and the public have focused on the center of Wu Yue historical stage. Although there are some records about it in ancient books and documents, it is not detailed in many languages, and some of them are just romance. The confirmation of the site of Mudu, which was built in the late spring and Autumn period, has found a home for a series of discoveries in Zhenshan and other places around Suzhou, such as large tombs, jade ritual hoard in Yanshan, and bronzes of Wu state in Heshan. By means of drilling and excavation, archaeologists found the city walls, moats, stone roads and waterways of Mudu, and a large city site has been exposed. A large number of settlements of different sizes and tombs of different levels are distributed in a larger area outside the city site, forming a settlement group with the capital as the center.

The discovery of Mudu ancient city in spring and autumn is a great breakthrough in the study of Wu culture, which provides new materials for the in-depth study of Wu culture and has extremely important academic significance. Through the field work of archaeologists, the public will explore more vivid Wu Yue history from archaeological remains.

Address: some areas of Mudu town and Xukou Town, Suzhou City

Longitude: 120.509706

Latitude: 31.255294

Chinese PinYin : Su Zhou Gu Cheng Yi Zhi Qun