Erlang Site

Erlang Site

The Erlang Site is a cultural heritage conservation unit of Jiangsu Province.

The Erlang Site is located at the southern foot of Jinping Mountain in Lianyungang City, within Gangzui Village, Jinping Town, Haizhou District, Lianyungang City, covering an area of approximately 2,400 square meters. It was discovered in 1958, and two excavations were carried out by the Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Work Team in 1959 and 1960, with a total excavation area of 336 square meters. The cultural deposits at the site include remains from the Neolithic Qingliangang Culture, Longshan Culture, Yueshi Culture, as well as the Western Han Dynasty.

Seven graves from the Qingliangang Culture were found. All are single inhumations in a supine extended position, with heads often covered by red pottery bowls, facing east or southeast. Few burial objects were included. Pottery is mainly red earthenware, with vessel types such as flat-bottomed bowls, tripod or cone-footed ding (tripod cauldrons), three-legged fu (cauldrons), as well as jars, pots, basins, plates, and bowls. Other artifacts include pottery spinning whorls, pellets, stone axes, stone adzes, stone knives, grinding stones, bone needles, and bone ornaments.

Remains of the Longshan Culture include red-fired clay surface residential structures and ash pits. Artifacts mainly consist of stone adzes, stone axes, stone arrowheads, bone arrowheads, as well as white pottery you (a type of ancient vessel), sandy gray pottery ding, “ghost-face” style leg ding, black pottery basins, ring-footed bowls, and jars. Fragments of eggshell-thin black pottery cups and pierced dou (tripod food vessels) were also unearthed. The site also yielded light gray pottery zun-shaped vessels and crescent-shaped bifacial stone knives belonging to the Yueshi Culture, indicating that after the Longshan Culture, this site also hosted the Yueshi Culture, which corresponds in time to the Xia Culture of the Central Plains.

Remains from the Western Han Dynasty include red-fired clay surface residential structures. Unearthed items include building materials such as water pipes, tubular tiles, tile ends, and bricks, as well as pottery dou, bronze arrowheads, and iron axes.

The Erlang Site provides important physical material for exploring the origins of Chinese civilization and the changes in the coastline of Lianyungang City. It was designated as part of the first batch of cultural heritage conservation units of Lianyungang City in 1982, and as part of the seventh batch of Jiangsu Provincial cultural heritage conservation units in 2011.

Protected Area:

East to Gangzui Village Road, west to the current dam of the Erlang Reservoir, south to the centerline of the reservoir dam, north to the base of the current steep cliff of the quarry.

Construction Control Zone:

East to Gangzui Village Road and the west wall of the cement products factory, west to the current dam of the Erlang Reservoir, south to the slope base of the reservoir dam, north to the base of the current steep cliff of the quarry.

Gangzui Village: Located 2 kilometers east of Jinping Town. …… Detailed information about Gangzui Village++

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Heritage Conservation Units