Cai Zhuang Earth City Ruins

Cai Zhuang Earth City Ruins

The Cai Zhuang Earth City Ruins are a Beijing municipal-level cultural heritage site.

The Cai Zhuang Earth City Ruins are a municipal-level cultural heritage site. Located in Cai Zhuang Village, Nan Shangle Town, Fangshan District, they were discovered in 1959. The earth city spans an area with its northern boundary about 500 meters from Cai Zhuang, southern boundary around 1,500 meters from Ban Cheng, western boundary approximately 500 meters from Bei Zhuang, and eastern boundary roughly 1,000 meters from Wang Jia Nian (Ban Cheng, Bei Zhuang, and Wang Jia Nian are now part of Laishui County, Hebei Province).

The city is roughly square-shaped, with each side measuring approximately 300 meters in length and width. Only the eastern, western, and southern walls remain, as the northern wall was washed away by a river long ago. The southeastern and southwestern corners are well-preserved, standing about 3.5 meters high. The middle sections of the southern and western walls each have an outward protrusion. The wall was built using the board-pounding technique, and a row of post holes is preserved on the wall, spaced about 1.5 meters apart, with a diameter of around 6 centimeters. Ramming pits and layers are clearly visible. Each rammed layer is 13–15 centimeters thick and contains numerous brown pottery fragments with rope patterns. There are traces of grass matting between the rammed layers. The ramming pits are conical, with a diameter of about 3 centimeters. The surface of the site has yielded a large number of pottery shards, all made of sandy clay, in red and gray colors, predominantly featuring coarse rope patterns. Artifacts collected from the surface include gray pottery li and guan vessels mixed with mica, sandy gray pottery roof tiles, and tubular tiles. Other finds include urn coffin burials and bronze and iron arrowheads.

Further Reading:

· Sixth Batch of Beijing Municipal-Level Cultural Heritage Sites