Dongxiafeng site

Dongxiafeng site

Dongxiafeng site, located on the platform on both sides of Qinglong River in Dongxiafeng village, nianzhang Town, Xia County, Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province, is a national key cultural relics protection unit. It is a typical site of Dongxiafeng type of Erlitou culture in Xia and Shang Dynasties, with a total area of about 250000 square meters. The discovery of Erlitou city wall shows the special significance of Dongxiafeng site.

The Dongxiafeng site was dated by radiocarbon dating from 1900 BC to 1500 BC. In the 21st century BC, Qi, the son of Xia Yu, built his capital here, which is now Dongxiafeng site. Emperor Qi of the Xia Dynasty led his people to move westward from Yangzhai to Xia (the hometown of the Huaxia people), and established the capital Anyi.

Historical origin

Dongxiafeng site

It is a typical site of Dongxiafeng type of Erlitou culture in Xia and Shang Dynasties, with a total area of about 250000 square meters. There are ash pits, houses, tombs, water wells, grooves, pottery kilns and other relics found in the site.

unearthed relic

The unearthed objects include pottery, bone ware, clam ware, bronze ware, stone tools, divination bone and so on. In addition, the city site of Erligang period was also found. The southern part of the city site is in the shape of a curved ruler, the city wall is well preserved, and there are moats outside the city. The discovery of Erligang city wall and other relics shows the special significance of Dongxiafeng site.

Dongxiafeng site is located on the platform of the North Bank of Qinglong River in Dongxiafeng village, nianzhang Town, Xiaxian County, Shanxi Province. It is a typical site in southern Shanxi during the Xia and Shang Dynasties. Its age is from the 19th century BC to the 16th century BC.

Research value

The total area of Dongxiafeng site is about 250000 square meters, and the remains of Dongxiafeng type and Erligang culture period are the most important. During the Dongxiafeng type period, there are two layers of grooves inside and outside, the plane is in the shape of a circle, and cave houses and storage rooms are found on the wall of the groove.

City sites were found in Erligang period. A group of orderly circular buildings were found in the southwest corner of the city. The relics found include pottery, bone, bronze, stone and so on. The discovery and excavation of Dongxiafeng site is of great significance to the study of the cultural features of southern Shanxi in the Xia Dynasty, and will contribute to the study of the formation and development of ancient Chinese cities and the cultural changes of Xia and Shang Dynasties.

geographical position

The Xia Shang period site is located in Xia County, Shanxi Province, northern China.

Layout structure

Excavation time: in 1974, the relics of Erlitou culture have been discovered. There are three kinds of houses, half cave, cave and ground buildings, with more than 30 houses in total, most of which are cave dwellings. The cave is made of cliff and ditch wall. There are three kinds of living rooms: round, oval and square. All of them are domed roofs, with an area of about 5 square meters. There are niches and fire chambers in them, and some of them have flues leading to the outside.

The door is 0.8m high and 0.5m wide. There are more than 100 ash pits, most of which are bag shaped and round, and some of which are half moon shaped. The plane of the well is rectangular, and the two wide walls have symmetrical footwells. There are three pottery kilns, which are all excavated on the edge of the cliff. They are round in plane. The upper part is the kiln room, and the lower part is the fire chamber. The grate in the middle is about 0.4 meters thick, and there are more than ten grate holes. In addition to the unknown damage caused by mountain torrents in the north, other parts are concave according to the drilling plane. The inner moat is 130 meters from east to west, and the outer moat is 150 meters from east to west.

They are about 3 meters deep, 2-3 meters wide at the bottom and 2.8-6 meters wide at the mouth. In the excavated part, there are more than ten cave dwelling sites on the two walls of the trench. A total of 24 tombs were cleared, including 17 tombs with rectangular earth pits and vertical pits. Except for one which was buried by two persons, the rest were buried by one person. Most of them were buried with 1-3 pieces of pottery, without any trace of burial utensils. Seven of them used abandoned cave dwelling sites as tombs, but none of them had burial utensils. Only one of them buried two statues. Several skeletons were also found in the ash layer and ash pit. There were no burial objects. Some skeletons were incomplete, which reflected the low social status of the dead.

The relics of Erlitou culture include stone, bone, copper, pottery and other production tools, daily utensils, weapons and musical instruments. The excavation of bronze arrowheads, chisels and stone models indicates that the Bronze Age had entered at that time. However, the production tools are mainly stone shovels, sickles, knives and axes, and some bone tools such as shovels, arrowheads and daggers. The unearthed stone chime is one of the earliest stone chimes found so far, but it is only cut and formed without grinding, and still has more primitiveness. Pottery is the most common household utensils, including cooking utensils such as cudgel, tripod and pot, utensils such as Zun, pen, cudgel, Dou and Jue wine utensils. In addition, there are carved bones and divination bones without drilling.

Dongxiafeng site

The Erlitou culture pottery in the west of Henan Province is basically the same as that found in the west of Henan Province, but there are some differences. The egg shaped tripod urn is the most distinctive, with no tripod plate, filter and Gu. The types of Dongxiafeng can be divided into four periods, which roughly correspond to the first to fourth periods of Erlitou culture. Most of the first stage pottery is brown, There are few grey pottery, such as pot shaped tripod, jar, single ear jar, etc.; after the second stage, most of them are pot shaped tripod, jar, big mouth Zun, deep belly jar, etc.; in the third stage, most of them are deep belly pots, with open, double and concave bottoms; in the fourth stage, the deep belly pots declined, with low crotch, and a new type of solid foot pointed thin fetal jar appeared, which is very similar to the Shang culture of Erligang period. The pottery patterns include rope pattern, string pattern and additional pile pattern. The later the age is, the larger the proportion of rope pattern is. There is a close relationship between the pottery of the first to the fourth periods, which is quite clear in the evolution of various shapes.

cultural meaning

The discovery of Dongxiafeng site is of great significance to understand the connotation of Erlitou culture in southern Shanxi and to explore Xia culture. It is helpful to study the formation and development of ancient Chinese cities and the changes of Xia Shang culture.

The Erlitou culture pottery at Dongxiafeng site is basically the same as that found in western Henan, but there are some differences.

The egg shaped tripod urn is the most distinctive, with no tripod plate, filter and Gu. The types of Dongxiafeng can be divided into four periods, which roughly correspond to the first to fourth periods of Erlitou culture. Most of the first stage pottery is brown, There are few grey pottery, such as pot shaped tripod, jar, single ear jar, etc.; after the second stage, most of them are pot shaped tripod, jar, big mouth Zun, deep belly jar, etc.; in the third stage, most of them are deep belly pots, with open, double and concave bottoms; in the fourth stage, the deep belly pots declined, with low crotch, and a new type of solid foot pointed thin fetal jar appeared, which is very similar to the Shang culture of Erligang period. The pottery patterns include rope pattern, string pattern and additional pile pattern. The later the age is, the larger the proportion of rope pattern is.

There is a close relationship between the pottery of the first to the fourth periods, which is quite clear in the evolution of various shapes.

The discovery of Dongxiafeng site, the Silk Road business art, has a positive significance to understand the connotation of Erlitou culture in southern Shanxi and explore Xia culture, which is helpful to study the formation and development of ancient Chinese cities and the changes of Xia and Shang culture.

Address: Dongxiafeng village, nianzhang Town, Xia County, Yuncheng City

Longitude: 111.31115588546

Latitude: 35.254433207495

Chinese PinYin : Dong Xia Feng Yi Zhi