Qingdun site

Qingdun site

Qingdun site is located in Qingdun village, Nanmo Town, Hai'an City, Nantong City, Jiangsu Province,

Cultural accumulation belongs to Liangzhu culture. The archaeological discovery of the site traces the history of the Jianghuai plain back to 6000 years ago.

There is a dynamic process of cultural collision of different genealogies in ancient Qingdun culture. Qingdun culture is radiated by Liangzhu Culture and develops, forming its own cultural characteristics.

Qingdun site, with an area of about 70000 square meters, is the largest Neolithic site in the eastern part of the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers, with the thickest cultural layer and the best preserved. Surrounded by water, the site is one of the most important Neolithic sites in the eastern part of the Yangtze and Huaihe River.

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

Historical evolution

In August 1973, Qingdun brigade of Shagang commune, Hai'an County, Nantong City, Jiangsu Province excavated a 236 meter long Qingdun new river which runs through the whole village to build a residential area. During the excavation of the river, a large number of pottery, stone tools, bone artifacts, elk bone horns, animal bones and other ancient relics were found.

In the spring of 1976, Nantong Museum sent people to Qingdun to investigate, collect and collect some unearthed relics, including many jade objects belonging to Liangzhu culture, such as jade Bi, jade Cong, jade pendant and jade ring.

In November 1977, Nantong Museum organized relevant personnel to open two exploration squares along the Qingdun New River, and found pots, pots, cauldrons, pots, tripods, beans and other pottery and a large number of animal bone fossils.

In the spring of 1978, the State Administration of cultural relics and the Cultural Relics Publishing House held an academic seminar on the Neolithic culture of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in Nanjing. Representatives of Nantong Museum presented their findings in Qingdun, which attracted great attention of the participants.

From April to may in 1978 and April to may in 1979, Nanjing Museum, Nanjing University, together with the archaeologists from Nantong, Wuxi and Lianyungang, carried out a large-scale excavation of the Qingdun site with an area of 490 square meters for two consecutive years, and unearthed more than 1000 Neolithic relics.

Site features

There are three cultural layers in Qingdun site. The middle and lower layers are about 5000-5500 B.C. (3000-3500 B.C.) and 5500-6000 B.C. (3500-4000 B.C.), respectively. The upper layer belongs to Liangzhu culture period and should be between 4500-5000 B.C. (2500-3000 B.C.).

There are a lot of well preserved wooden structures and column cave relics in the lower layer of Qingdun site. Among them, the building wood components include piles, logs and small boards. In No. 15, 32 wooden piles and logs were found. The lower part of the stake is mostly cut into a net cone from four sides, and a few are cut into a steep slope from one side. These piles are generally vertically captured into the lowest layer of green sandy raw soil. Logs and planks are also processed building components, and there are mortise and tenon at the ends of some logs. The piles may be the lower part of the wooden frame structure of the "dry railing" house at that time; the logs and boards may be the remnants of the roof, walls and floors.

The tombs of Qingdun site are very concentrated. The 98 Neolithic tombs excavated are all located in 10 exploration areas of T5, t7-t15, which should be public cemeteries. Tombs are generally buried in shallow pits, which are rectangular vertical pit tombs. Generally, tombs can only hold corpses and burial objects. Most of the tombs in Qingdun site are single burial, most of them are upright burial. There is a strong convergence in the head direction of tombs, most of which are eastward. The consistency of the head direction reflects a common belief, and the head direction eastward seems to be related to sun worship.

Cultural relics

Qingdun site excavated mainly stone, jade, bone, pottery and a large number of animal and plant fossils. Stone tools include perforated stone axes, stone axes, stone chisels, etc.

There are four types of pottery: Brown pottery with sand and muddy grey pottery, black pottery and red pottery; bone horn ware includes bone chain, bone dart, bone chisel, bone ridge, bone finger and angle cone, angle Lei, angle spinning wheel, and carved antlers; jade ware includes stone axe, stone chisel, stone shovel, stone hoe and spinning wheel, decorative jade ware, and there are pottery axes with handle made of imitation stone axe; in addition, there are dry column architecture and partial stem type Carbonized rice remains.

Research value

Chinese archaeologists have been puzzled about "when did the civilization history of the area north of the Yangtze River and east of the canal start?" and the discovery of Qingdun site answers this question. The Qingdun site is a Neolithic site. After carbon 14 determination of the wooden piles unearthed from the lower cultural layer, the site is 5035 ± 85 years ago (tree ring correction value 5645 ± 110 years). Before that, the historical origin of this area, the relevant records generally from the Western Zhou Dynasty, more than 2000 years ago. The discovery of Qingdun site has pushed the civilization history of Hai'an and its adjacent areas forward for more than 3000 years, and provided strong evidence to confirm the existence of independent primitive culture in the east of Jianghuai river.

The earliest "Ganlan" architectural remains in China were found in Hemudu site in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province. A large number of wooden components and column cave relics found in Qingdun, Hai'an, show that the ancient people in Qingdun, on the North Bank of the Yangtze River, had mastered the "dry fence" construction technology just like the ancient people in Hemudu, Zhejiang five or six thousand years ago.

protective measures

In August 1983, Qingdun site was declared as a municipal cultural relic protection unit by Nantong Municipal People's government.

In October 2002, Qingdun site was declared as a provincial cultural relic protection unit by Jiangsu Provincial People's government.

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

Tourism information

Qingdun site is located in Qingdun village, Nanmo Town, Hai'an County, Nantong City, Jiangsu Province.

Address: Hai'an County, Nantong City, Jiangsu Province

Longitude: 120.46800231934

Latitude: 32.547698974609

Chinese PinYin : Qing Dun Yi Zhi