Huating Site

Huating Site

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

The Huating Site is located in Huating Village, Malingshan Township, approximately 18 kilometers southeast of Xinyi County. The site sits on Malingshan Mountain at an elevation of 69 meters, covering a total area of about 300,000 square meters. It was discovered in 1952. The Nanjing Museum conducted four excavations in 1952, 1953, 1987, and 1989, with a total excavation area of nearly 3,000 square meters, during which 86 Neolithic tombs were cleared. The stratigraphic deposits at the site are about 0.7 to 1.2 meters thick, with few cultural remains within the strata. The artifacts found are similar to those unearthed from the tombs. The remains are mainly tombs, all featuring rectangular vertical pits. The tombs vary in size and depth, typically measuring 2–3 meters in length, 1–2 meters in width, and around 0.5 meters in depth. Larger tombs can be up to 5 meters long, 3 meters wide, and 1.5 meters deep, with regular pit shapes, hard and smooth walls, and flat bottoms. The burial style is predominantly supine with straight limbs, with a small number of lateral straight-limb burials. The orientation of the tombs is slightly south of east, ranging between 96° and 125°. Each tomb contains varying numbers of grave goods, characterized by the inclusion of pigs, pottery, jade artifacts, and stone tools. Larger tombs also feature human sacrifices and ritual burials. Smaller tombs generally have around a dozen grave goods, while larger ones contain dozens or even hundreds, with a higher proportion of jade items. Among the grave goods, pottery includes ding tripods, back-strap flasks, large perforated bean-shaped vessels, vessel stands, cups, jars, and goblet-shaped cups; stone tools include perforated stone axes, adzes, knives, and arrowheads; jade artifacts include cong cylinders, bi disks, pendants, axes, rings, bead strings, cone-shaped objects, huang ornaments, and adzes. Among the pottery, items such as chiseled-foot ding tripods, bag-footed vessels, large perforated bean-shaped vessels, back-strap flasks, perforated vessel stands, and basket-patterned zun cups are common artifacts of the Dawenkou Culture. However, some pottery also exhibits characteristics of the southern Songze–Liangzhu Culture, such as loop-handled flasks, T-shaped foot ding tripods, circular perforations, and high-stem bean-shaped vessels with triangular curved incised patterns. The shapes and decorations of the jade artifacts all belong to the Liangzhu Culture jade system, made of high-quality jade, finely polished, and intricately carved. The beast-faced patterns on the jade cong cylinders are identical to those found on jade cong from Wujin Sidian and Shanghai Fuquanshan, representing masterpieces of Liangzhu jade carving craftsmanship. The Huating cemetery dates back to the middle and late periods of the Dawenkou Culture (known as the Huating Phase), approximately 5,000 years ago.

The Huating Site is situated in the Huang-Huai region and generally belongs to the Dawenkou Culture system. However, the jade artifacts unearthed share similarities with the Liangzhu Culture of the Taihu Lake area in terms of jade quality, shape, and decoration, marking the first revelation of cultural exchange and influence between these two major regions. The prevalence of human sacrifices and ritual burials in larger tombs holds significant importance for exploring the origins of slavery and Chinese civilization.

Further Reading:

· Fourth Batch of Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Sixth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units