LAONIUPO site

LAONIUPO site is a national key cultural relic protection unit. It is located in the north and west of Liaoyuan village, Baqiao District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province. It is a Neolithic Shang Dynasty site (about 4000-1100 BC). The Shang Dynasty remains of LAONIUPO site include house site, ash pit, tomb, chariot pit, pottery kiln, etc. It is found that there is a large palace building base with a length of 37.5 meters from east to west and a width of 15 meters from north to south. The remains of bronze smelting and casting were found in the site, including pottery models, grass mixed mud wall skin fragments, etc. The cemetery is located on the south side of the site. In addition to the chariot pit and horse pit, more than 50 tombs are also found. There are side boxes in the outer chambers of medium-sized tombs. This is the earliest case of side boxes found in China. It is of great significance to study the development process of Xia culture, the distribution of Shang culture and the development process of multi-national civilization in Shang Dynasty. LAONIUPO site is an important site in the west of Shang culture, with large area and rich remains. The discovery of large-scale building base, bronze smelting and casting and high-grade tombs shows that it is a central settlement site of Shang Dynasty in Weishui River Basin.

LAONIUPO site

LAONIUPO site, a national key cultural relic protection unit, is located in the north and west of Liaoyuan village, Baqiao District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province. It is a Neolithic to Shang period site (about 4000-1100 BC). The Shang Dynasty remains at LAONIUPO site include house sites, ash pits, tombs and chariot pits, pottery kilns, etc. all kinds of copper, pottery, jade, stone and horn wares were unearthed.

At the site of LAONIUPO, a large palace building with a length of 37.5 meters from east to west and a width of 15 meters from north to South was found. The remains of bronze smelting and casting were found in the site, including pottery models, grass mixed mud wall skin fragments, etc.

The origin of history

LAONIUPO site is located in Liaoyuan administrative village, Hongqing street, Baqiao District, Xi'an city. The terrain is high in the East and low in the West. It is distributed from northwest to Southeast according to the flow direction of Bahe River. The site starts from yuanjiaya village in the west, ends at Shahegou in the East, reaches the second terrace of Bahe River in the south, and reaches the south of Anjiazhuang village in the north, covering an area of about 1 million square meters. It is a large-scale ancient site dominated by the accumulation of Shang culture.

In November 2010, with the approval of the State Administration of cultural relics and the entrustment of Shaanxi Provincial Bureau of cultural relics, Shaanxi Provincial Institute of archaeology organized professionals to excavate the Xia Shang cultural relics found on the section of Xi'an Shangluo Expressway Crossing LAONIUPO site.

archaeological excavation

LAONIUPO site, with an excavation area of about 5800 square meters, has revealed 129 ash pits, 4 pottery kilns, 25 tombs, 8 houses, 5 kitchen pits, 3 pits, 2 ditches, and more than 600 pieces of pottery, stone, jade, bone, mussel, copper and other cultural relics, which have achieved fruitful results.

Most of the ash pits are large and medium-sized, with round, rectangular and irregular shapes. According to the shape, size and the relationship with the adjacent relics, some of these pits are operating rooms of pottery kilns, and some may be abandoned semi cavern houses.

In LAONIUPO site, the relatively regular small ash pits are mostly pits. All the ceramic kilns are vertical cavity type, which are composed of kiln chamber, grate, fire hole, fire chamber and operation pit. Some of the fire holes still contain soil blocks to control the fire. Compared with the horizontal cave kiln of Neolithic age, the vertical cave kiln can maximize the use of firepower, improve the temperature of kiln room and the quality of pottery.

Burial custom

The excavation found 20 tombs of Shang Dynasty, 4 tombs of Xia Dynasty and 1 Tomb of Qing Dynasty, all of which are small tombs. There are only five tombs with burial objects in Shang Dynasty tombs, all of which are made of pottery, and the combination of these tombs can be divided into three parts: the shell, the bean, the pot or the shell, the pot, and some of which have only one shell. There is a waist pit at the bottom of the tomb, in which there are sacrificial dogs. There are two burials lying down and one mass grave. No trace of burial utensils was found in the tombs. Most of the tombs had no burial objects. It is speculated that the owners of these tombs might be low-ranking craftsmen, poor people or slaves. There are 4 tombs in Xia Dynasty, with 8-2 objects. Among them, there are 6 pieces of pottery and 2 pieces of stone tools in M6, and 2 pieces of painted pottery in M24.

Most of the houses are semi crypt type, some houses still have slope steps to enter the room, some houses have small pits for storing daily necessities, and some houses have treading surfaces on the ground. There is only one house on the ground, and there are only two large stone pillars and a few small holes. It should be a large building. Among the three pits found, one has more divination bones, human head bones and animal bones, and another has a complete skeleton of a middle-aged woman. A bronze arrowhead was found under her pelvis, which may be related to the cause of the woman's death.

From the unearthed cultural relics and more individual skulls, it can be inferred that the pit is a sacrificial pit. The other two pits are larger, with the same shape, size, depth and direction. They are rectangular vertical pits with large mouth and small bottom. One of them has a complete horse skeleton in the middle and several river pebbles in the bottom; the other is full of river pebbles at the bottom and has two large pillar holes. Are these two pits sacrificial pits? Or storage pits? It needs to be further studied and judged in the future. The remnant length of a north-south ditch is more than 70 meters. There are many pottery and fragments equivalent to the late Erlitou culture. There are no artifacts from the Shang Dynasty or later dynasties. The formation of the ditch should not be later than the Xia Dynasty. There are more than 10 pieces of earth and stone in the ditch, which should have special meaning. The nature and use of the ditch are worth thinking deeply.

Site scale

LAONIUPO site is the largest Shang Dynasty site in Shaanxi Province, and also the largest "base" of Shang Dynasty in Western China. Although the past archaeological excavation has made remarkable achievements, this large-scale archaeological excavation has also achieved fruitful results. In addition to a large number of cultural relics with high research value, the discovery of half cave houses in the Shang Dynasty can basically confirm that this is the residential area of civilians, handicraftsmen and lowly people in the late Shang Dynasty at LAONIUPO site, which provides important information for understanding the settlement layout of the Shang Dynasty at LAONIUPO site. In addition, the tombs, ash pits and ditches excavated at LAONIUPO site are the westernmost relics of Xia culture, which indicates that the Xia Dynasty's sphere of influence has reached the central part of Guanzhong, providing valuable material for us to study the distribution of Xia culture and the political territory of Xia Dynasty.

Great significance

The cemetery is located on the south side of the site. In addition to the chariot pit and horse pit, more than 50 tombs are also found. There are side boxes in the outer chambers of medium-sized tombs. This is the earliest case of side boxes found in China. It is of great significance to study the development process of Xia culture, the distribution of Shang culture and the development process of multi-national civilization in Shang Dynasty.

LAONIUPO site is an important site in the west of Shang culture, with large area and rich remains. The discovery of large-scale building base, bronze smelting and casting and high-grade tombs shows that it is a central settlement site of Shang Dynasty in Weishui River Basin.

The remains of LAONIUPO site include houses, ash pits, tombs, chariot pits and pottery kilns of Shang Dynasty. The large-scale Palace site, bronze smelting residue and pottery model found in the site are a large settlement of Shang Dynasty in the Weihe River Basin, which is of great significance for the study of the development and distribution of Xia and Shang culture.

The Shang Dynasty cemetery found in LAONIUPO is the most eye-catching one. There are 45 cemeteries and 21 ash pits, which are built around several large tombs according to the terrain. The burial utensils are made of wood, with only wood ash marks left. The unearthed cultural relics are rich, including bronze, jade, pottery and so on. Among them, bronze ware is the most abundant, with different shapes, such as Ding, Gu, Ge, Yue, ax, chisel, cone, arrowhead, human face, ox head, bird and beast, chariot and horse, etc.

The jade unearthed from the site also has its own characteristics.

The shape of jade is between jade bracelet and jade Cong, which is a kind of intermediate form. Some jades are also painted with the popular phoenix pattern, which is unique in shape. It is an excellent material for studying the Shang culture and the works of art in this historical period.

Many tombs in the site also found horse pits and chariot pits, and some tombs found the phenomenon of human sacrifice. Archaeology found that some people were put into tombs after their heads were cut off, which shows the brutal historical reality at that time.

Related introduction

Tour itinerary and quotation to LAONIUPO site

Admission: 15 yuan

Special food

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Address: Xi'an, Shaanxi Province

Chinese PinYin : Lao Niu Po Yi Zhi