The Tenghualuo Site

The Tenghualuo Site

The Tenghualuo Site is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Tenghualuo Site is located in the southern part of Xizhucun Neighborhood Committee, Zhongyun Office, Lianyun District, Lianyungang City, on an alluvial plain between Nanyuntai Mountain and Zhongyuntai Mountain.

The ancient Tenghualuo city was composed of two sets of walls — an inner and an outer one. The outer city had a roughly rectangular layout with rounded corners, consisting of city walls, moats, gates, and more, covering an area of about 140,000 square meters. It was 435 meters long from north to south, 325 meters wide from east to west, with a perimeter of 1,520 meters. The walls were 21–25 meters wide and 1.2 meters high at their highest remaining points, built using a combination of piling and rammed earth techniques. The inner city included walls, roads, gates, and guard posts. The inner city had a roughly square layout with rounded corners, covering an area of about 40,000 square meters. It measured 207–209 meters from north to south and 190–200 meters from east to west, with a perimeter of 806 meters. The walls were 14 meters wide and 1.2 meters high at their highest remaining parts, primarily constructed through rammed earth methods. Dense and sturdy wooden stakes were found throughout the rammed earth of the inner city walls. The outer city served as a production area, and its walls had clear flood prevention functions. The inner city was a residential living area. Over 30 house foundations were discovered within the inner city, including rectangular single-room houses, double-room houses, row houses, square (回字) shaped houses, and circular houses of various types. Most entrances faced southwest, consistent with the orientation of modern homes. The houses were divided by class. The largest house had a square layout with a 回 (return) shape, featuring an outer room of 100 square meters and an inner room of 31 square meters, likely serving as a structure related to religious, sacrificial, or other large-scale activities. In addition, sites associated with rice farming were found, such as ditches, water inlets, pits, and paddy fields. Several hundred carbonized rice grains were also discovered, very similar to modern cultivated rice.

At the Tenghualuo Longshan Culture Site, stone tools, pottery, jade artifacts, and various animal remains were unearthed. Production tools included axes, adzes, knives, arrowheads, chisels, and other types of stone tools, most of which were finely polished. Jade artifacts were limited to small items such as adze blades, pendants, conical ornaments, and hexagonal crystal columns. Pottery included tripods, jars, basins, plates, beans (vessels), cups, and lids. Animal remains comprised pigs, cattle, sika deer, and others, but no marine life such as shellfish or fish bones were found. The pottery consisted of both sandy clay pottery and fine clay pottery, with colors including black, red, brown, gray, white, and yellow. In terms of decoration, plain surfaces dominated, along with patterns such as string patterns, appliqué, rope patterns, grid patterns, basket weave patterns, incised lines, bamboo joint motifs, blind nostrils, and perforations. Among them, rope patterns, basket weave patterns, and grid patterns were relatively common.

The Tenghualuo Site dates back over 4,000 years and mainly consists of relics from the Longshan Culture period, with some Yueshi Culture layers cutting through or lying above the Longshan strata. The Tenghualuo Site is the southernmost known city site from the Longshan Culture period, the first prehistoric city site discovered in Jiangsu Province to date, and one of the most important and typical Longshan Culture city sites found in China. It is also the first prehistoric city site in China known to have a double-walled structure. It provides highly typical physical evidence for the study of Longshan Culture cities, as well as major academic topics such as the origins of civilization, urbanization, and the formation of states. The site is of great significance for researching the layout of prehistoric cities in China, and holds considerable value for the study of ancient cultures in the Haidai region and the origins of Chinese civilization.

In 2006, the Tenghualuo Site was listed in the sixth group of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units by the State Council as a Neolithic-period ancient site.

Further Reading:

· Fifth Group of Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Sixth Group of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units