Sanxing Village Site

Sanxing Village Site

The Sanxing Village Site is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Sanxing Village Site is located in Sanxing Village, Xigang, Jintan City. It was first discovered and identified as an important Neolithic site during the provincial cultural relics survey in 1985. From 1993 to May 1998, the Nanjing Museum, in collaboration with the Jintan Cultural Relics Management Committee, conducted six consecutive years of rescue excavations at the Sanxing Village Site in Jintan, uncovering a total area of 640 square meters. They cleared 1,001 Neolithic tombs, 55 ash pits, 4 house foundations, and unearthed over 4,000 cultural relics of various types. According to carbon-14 dating and archaeological research, the Sanxing Village Site dates back approximately 6,500 to 5,500 years. It holds significant importance for in-depth studies on the cultural types and origins of civilization in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River during the Neolithic period, and has added new data to regional Neolithic studies and physical anthropology research in China.

The current total area of the Sanxing Village Site is 100,000 square meters. It is one of the best-preserved and largest Neolithic cultural sites in southern Jiangsu. The site currently presents as a low, circular mound, standing 0.50 to 1.50 meters above the surrounding ground. Nearby, there are rivers of varying sizes, forming a dense water network with well-developed water transport. The cultural deposit layer is 2.5 to 6 meters thick and can be divided into 5 layers. Layers ② to ④ contain a large number of tombs, which are densely distributed with rich overlapping relationships—an extremely rare phenomenon in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Layer ④ consists of a large-area accumulation of snail shells, covering almost the entire cemetery, with a thickness of 1.2 to 1.5 meters. These snail shells are household waste left behind after consumption at the time. Below Layer ⑤, house foundations and ash pits have been found, but no tombs. These are the remains of the earliest human activities at the site. The house foundations consist of densely distributed circular postholes, with hearths and other features inside, and regular circular ash pits nearby. Based on the dense distribution of postholes, it is inferred that the houses were stilt-style buildings.

The ash pits are mostly distributed near the house foundations. Most are circular with straight walls and flat bottoms, while a few are rectangular or irregular in shape. The fill soil in the pits is loose, containing pottery fragments. After flotation and washing, a significant number of carbonized rice grains were found, preliminarily identified as all being cultivated rice. In terms of grain shape, they are close to modern japonica rice, but slightly narrower and smaller, which is of great significance for studying the origin of artificially cultivated rice and agricultural civilization.

The 1,001 Neolithic tombs from different periods that have been cleared are well-preserved, with complex and diverse overlapping and disrupting relationships, densely distributed and showing certain patterns. The orientation of the tombs is consistent, all facing northeast, with only a very small number of exceptions. Rectangular vertical pit tombs make up a certain proportion, while many others either lack pits or their pit structures cannot be determined. The burial style is predominantly single supine burials with extended limbs, along with other methods such as prone burials, flexed lateral burials, and double burials. The number of burial objects varies by tomb, generally around 5 to 6, with some having more than 10 or even 20 pieces, and some tombs containing no burial goods at all. Burial objects mainly consist of pottery, along with a small number of stone tools, jade artifacts, and bone, horn, tooth, and shell items. Among the burial goods, sand-tempered pottery tripods are mostly placed on top of the head, seemingly following a set custom, while other pottery items and burial goods are mostly placed on the abdomen and pelvis. Jade artifacts are placed near the ears, chest, and wrists, likely related to items worn or used during life. Most of the human bones unearthed from the tombs are well-preserved. According to incomplete statistics, there are over 1,200 individuals, including more than 200 complete skulls. The bone specimens are hard in texture, which is quite rare among contemporaneous sites in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

The unearthed artifacts mainly include pottery, stone tools, jade artifacts, and bone, horn, tooth, and shell items. Among these, the latter are found in relatively large quantities and are exquisitely crafted, with some bone tools finely drilled or polished, exhibiting strong local characteristics. Common bone tools include knives, awls, spoons, rings, hairpins, needles and needle tubes, spoons, carved plate-like tools, and more. Bone knives are made by trimming and processing animal limb bones, with sharp cutting edges and smooth handles that have been drilled for threading. Hairpins come in conical and flat curved shapes, with pin heads divided into hemispherical and wide flat types. The flat curved hairpins feature neatly symmetrical circle patterns on their heads, fully polished, and are unique in China. There are also many carved bone tubes (i.e., sewing kits), made by cutting animal limb bones into hollow cylinders open at both ends. Both inner and outer walls are scraped, sanded, and polished. Some tubes also feature finely engraved geometric patterns on the outer surface, with exquisite designs. More surprisingly, bone needles are found inside the tubes, their size comparable to modern iron needles, hence these bone tubes can be called "bone needle cases." Carved plate-like bone items are even finer works among bone tools and are also unique in China. These items consist of four pieces, stacked in two layers on the left side of the deceased’s chest. Each layer contains two pieces, with each piece intricately carved on both sides. The patterns between the pieces show internal connections and symmetry, indicating that these four pieces were likely part of a set. Based on the patterns, it is inferred that this item may be related to primitive witchcraft, religion, or divination, making it highly valuable for studying the spiritual activities of people at the time. Additionally, there are many deer antler boot-shaped tools, deer antler awls, ivory hairpins, ivory columnar items, and shell bead necklaces. Among them, the ivory hairpins are exquisitely crafted and fully polished, representing the earliest known ivory ornaments in China. Deer antler boot-shaped tools are relatively common in the Majiabang culture of the lower Yangtze River region and are often found in tombs at the Weidun site. A relatively large number of these were unearthed in this excavation, with about a hundred counted, the most seen in any contemporaneous primitive culture. Their use had long been unclear, but the large number unearthed at the Sanxing Village cemetery provides reliable evidence for clarifying their function. These boot-shaped tools are often found in pairs on the soles of the deceased, with hook tips pointing upward. The symmetrical holes on the tools were used for securing with ties, and they were often accompanied by bone shuttles and net sinkers—tools for weaving nets and fishing—leading to the inference that they were auxiliary tools for mending fishing nets.

Pottery is the most frequently unearthed item, characterized by strong local features. The pottery is fired at high temperatures, resulting in hard textures, small and delicate shapes, regular forms, and a distinctive funerary style. The pottery mainly consists of clay red and gray pottery, along with sand-tempered red and gray pottery, as well as clay red-coated painted pottery. Common shapes include cauldrons, tripods, bean pots, jars, basins, cups, plates, cups, zun vessels, spinning whorls, pellets, and pottery pigs. Among them, tripods are unearthed in large numbers and can be divided into cauldron-shaped, jar-shaped, and basin-shaped tripods. One particular tripod with human-foot design and jar shape is especially unique. The 〓-type vessels are rare but refined, with surfaces often polished. The 〓-type bean pot is the first of its kind found in China. A group of handled vessels has a notable characteristic: they are all reverse-handed. Ring-footed pottery often features regular perforations on the foot, usually arranged in three or four equally spaced groups. One pottery bean pot, composed of a bowl and base joined by a cylindrical tenon, is the first of its kind found in China. The painted pottery bean pot with cloud-thunder patterns is the finest of the fine, representing the earliest known evidence of cloud-thunder patterns in China. The patterns are divided into four equally spaced groups on the outer wall of the bowl, with one corresponding group scraped to create a symmetrical layout, identical to the cloud-thunder patterns commonly seen on Shang and Zhou dynasty bronze ware. This is of great value for studying the origins of Chinese cultural civilization and how primitive civilization evolved into the Bronze Age. Other rare pottery items include ring-footed perforated zun vessels, bird-shaped pots, and polished colorful zun vessels, reflecting the highly developed pottery-making skills of the Sanxing Village primitive culture. Among the numerous pottery items, two were found with molded emblem patterns on the bottom, providing material for the study of the origins of writing.

Jade artifacts are relatively few. Most are ornaments, with common shapes including jade bi disks, jade huangs, jade boats, and jade bead necklaces. Many show clear signs of slicing during processing, which is valuable for further research into ancient jade craftsmanship. One jade bi disk is particularly large, with a diameter of 9 centimeters, the largest of its kind found in China to date.

Stone tools are small, regularly shaped, and smoothly polished. Common types include adzes, perforated axes, seven-hole knives, three-hole knives, hoes, chisels, grinding stones, and stone yue axes. Two seven-hole stone knives were found, one of which was damaged and later re-polished. These seven-hole stone knives are identical to those found at the Beiyinyangying site in Nanjing and represent the easternmost distribution of seven-hole stone knives found to date. Two stone yue axes were also unearthed, with identical structures. Each yue axe consists of four parts: a bone decoration, a handle end decoration, a wooden handle, and a ring blade. There are no signs of use, and the entire piece is polished and exquisitely crafted, indicating it was not a simple tool but rather a ritual object. The bone decorations and handle attachments are carved with intricate patterns, further highlighting their ceremonial nature. The two stone yue axes show no signs of use, are elaborately decorated, and are purely ritual objects, pushing back the known age of yue axes by over a thousand years. This is of great value for a comprehensive understanding of the origin and development of yue axes.

Through the archaeological excavation of the Sanxing Village Site and preliminary research, it can be summarized that the area had a large population at the time, with developed primitive agriculture, and animal husbandry and fishing-hunting economies playing a significant role. The Sanxing Village Site covers an area of over 100,000 square meters, with a cemetery of 20,000 square meters. Within the 640 square meters excavated from the 20,000-square-meter cemetery, over 1,000 tombs were discovered. The rich cultural content is unprecedented in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River to date and may be one of the major archaeological discoveries in Jiangsu and the lower Yangtze region in recent years.

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Sixth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units