Houli site

Houli site

Houli site is located on the secondary platform on the East Bank of Zihe River, about 500 meters northwest of houliguanzhuang village, Qiling Town, Linzi District, Zibo City, Shandong Province. It is located in the piedmont alluvial fan and Lubei plain on the north side of Taiyi mountain system. It is about 12 kilometers away from Xindian city of Linzi District in the southwest and 2.5 kilometers away from the ancient city of Qi State in Linzi in the northwest.

Due to the erosion of Zihe River, there are more than 10 meters of cliffs on the West and south sides of Houli site. The site is about 400 meters from east to west and 500 meters from southeast to north, with a total area of about 150000 square meters. The site belongs to the early Neolithic age, about 8200-7800 years ago, and its cultural characteristics are different from that of Beixin culture, so it is named "Houli culture". Houli site is the earliest archaeological culture and human remains of Neolithic Age in Shandong Province.

In 1992, the Houli site was declared as a key cultural relic protection unit of Shandong Province by the people's Government of Shandong Province,

On May 25, 2006, it was announced as the Sixth Batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council.

Historical evolution

In the early 1960s, the Houli site was discovered.

In 1965, teachers and students majoring in Archaeology from the Department of history of Peking University conducted a trial excavation of the Houli site.

In 1987, the Institute of cultural relics and Archaeology of Shandong Province made further exploration and trial excavation of Houli site.

In 1988, Houli team of Jinan Qingdao highway archaeological team excavated Houli site for five and a half months, covering an area of 1608 square meters.

From October 1988 to June 1990, the cultural relic team of Shandong Provincial Department of culture's quqing Gaojian highway project carried out four large-scale excavation of Houli site. A total of 179 sites were explored, covering an area of 6500 square meters.

In the late 1980s, a spring and Autumn Period tomb at Houli site was excavated, in which 10 ancient chariots and 35 sacrificial horses were buried. It is the largest pit for sacrificial chariots and horses found in China at the same time. Among them, Houli spring and Autumn Period sacrificial chariots and horses was rated as one of the top ten archaeological discoveries in China in 1990.

In the mid-1990s, Jiqing expressway was opened to traffic after its completion, just passing through Houli site.

Site features

Houli site is located in the front edge of piedmont alluvial fan in the north of Taiyi mountain system, Southeast of Lubei plain, and Zihe River flows northward through the southwest of the site. Due to the long-term scour of Zihe River, the cliff with a height of more than 10 meters was formed in the West and south of the site. The existing site is 500 meters long from north to South and 400 meters wide from east to west, with a total area of about 150000 square meters. The cultural accumulation sequence of Houli site is 2-5 meters, which is divided into 12 layers from top to bottom. From bottom to top, 12-10 layers are the remains of Houli culture in the early Neolithic age, 9 layers are the remains of Beixin culture in the middle Neolithic age, 8-6 layers are the remains of Zhou Dynasty, and 5-3 layers are the remains of Western Han Dynasty to Ming and Qing Dynasty.

Houli site contains three stages: Neolithic cultural relics, two Zhou (Western Zhou, Eastern Zhou) cultural relics and late cultural relics. It covers nearly 8000 years from the early Neolithic Age to the Qing Dynasty.

Cultural relics

"Post Li Culture" is divided into post Li Culture and post Li culture.

The remains of the first period of post Li culture include house sites, pottery kilns, ash pits, ash ditches and tombs. Most of the house sites are incomplete, and the area is generally large. There are stone supports around the kitchen pit. There are three types of ash pits: round cylinder, round pot bottom and irregular. It is mainly round simple pit. There are two kinds of tombs: the tomb with vertical hole in earth pit and the tomb with vertical hole in earth pit. Some buried pottery supports and clam shells. Only one vertical kiln was found, which is divided into kiln chamber, fire chamber and ash discharge pit. The unearthed relics include pottery and a small amount of stone, bone, horn and mussel. All the pottery are sand mixed pottery, but no argillaceous pottery is found. Some of them are mixed with clam shell and mica. The firing temperature of pottery is low. Pottery color can be divided into red brown pottery, red pottery, gray brown pottery and black pottery, red brown pottery is the most common. The shapes of the utensils are mainly round bottomed utensils, but there are few round footed utensils, and there are no three legged utensils. The main types of utensils are cauldron, bowl, basin, pot, bowl, bowl, supporting foot, etc.

In the second period of the Houli site culture, the unearthed relics are mainly pottery, and the pottery series are mainly red brown pottery with sand and clay red pottery. Three legged pottery and round bottomed pottery are popular, while flat bottomed pottery and ring footed pottery are rare. It is shaped like a tripod, a bowl, a small jar with two ears and so on. In addition, there are a few stones, bones, horns and mussels.

History and culture

Post Li Culture

"Post Li Culture" is divided into post Li Culture and post Li culture. The pottery of the first period of post Li culture is all sand mixed pottery. The deep belly open bottom pot is the most representative of the pottery, accounting for about 80% of all the pottery. It is unique, which is different from other archaeological cultures excavated in Shandong and its surrounding areas. It is a new culture. According to its unique cultural features, academic circles call it "Houli culture" to distinguish it from other archaeological cultures. The second period of post Li culture is the development and continuation of the first period of post Li culture. It has some similarities with the northern Xin culture. For example, tripod ware and round bottom ware are popular in Du, and the utensils are all based on tripod and small mouth double ear jar. At the same time, it is obviously different from the northern Xin culture, which is considered as a local type of northern Xin culture. Within two years after Houli site was excavated and confirmed. Archeologists have found more than ten similar sites in northern and Northwestern Shandong, and the data obtained from several of them further confirm the achievements of the Houli site.

Research value

As one of the known Neolithic cultural sites in Shandong, Houli culture plays an indispensable role in the prehistoric cultural history of Haidai area. The discovery of Houli site not only lies in the degree of civilization represented by its cultural relics, but also in the fact that it advanced the cultural history of the whole Shandong area a step, and finally formed a whole system. Due to the limitation of materials, objects and other conditions, archaeologists have always regarded Beixin Dawenkou Culture as the earliest culture in Shandong. However, the excavation of Houli site has pushed forward the origin of Shandong culture for more than 1000 years. At the same time, the pedigree of prehistoric culture in Haidai area has been clearly revealed, that is, Houli culture Beixin culture Dawenkou Culture Longshan culture Yueshi culture.

The cultural connotation of Houli remains is rich, including the factors of Shang culture and Zhou culture, and the aboriginal culture is the main, showing a strong local characteristics. From the end of Shang Dynasty to the early Western Zhou Dynasty, there were many countries in Zouping, Linzi and Changle, and then Linzi, as the political, economic and cultural center of Qi in the two Zhou dynasties, lasted for 800 years. The excavation of Houli site is of great significance to the study of the inheritance, exchange and integration process of various cultures in the area, and to the study of the chronology of Qi culture,

It also provides a reference for the study of Neolithic culture and Shang and Zhou cultures in northern Shandong, and is of great significance for the chronological division and study of Qi culture.

protective measures

In 1992, Houli site was announced as a key cultural relic protection unit of Shandong Province by the people's Government of Shandong Province.

In 1993, the people's Government of Linzi District, in accordance with the instructions of the State Administration of cultural relics for on-the-spot protection, invested 8 million yuan to build the Chinese ancient car museum on the original site of chemacheng, a tomb of the spring and Autumn period found at the Houli site in the late 1980s.

On September 9, 1994, it was completed and opened. China ancient Car Museum covers an area of 2000 square meters, with a construction area of 3600 square meters, including two parts: the ancient car exhibition hall and the underground exhibition hall.

On May 25, 2006, Houli site was announced as the Sixth Batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council.

Tourism information

geographical position

Houli site is located on the secondary platform on the East Bank of Zihe River, about 500 meters northwest of houliguanzhuang village, Qiling Town, Linzi District, Zibo City, Shandong Province. It is located in the piedmont alluvial fan and Lubei plain on the north side of Taiyi mountain system. It is about 12 kilometers away from Xindian city of Linzi District in the southwest and 2.5 kilometers away from the ancient city of Qi State in Linzi in the northwest.

 

Traffic information

From Zibo to Houli site via s233.

Address: about 500 meters northwest of houliguan village, Qiling street, Linzi District, Zibo City, Shandong Province

Longitude: 118.3871224841

Latitude: 36.835126580964

Chinese PinYin : Hou Li Yi Zhi