Dantu Tuanshan Site

Dantu Tuanshan Site

The Tuanshan Site is located between Zhaojiayao Village and Zhaodian Village in Gaozi Town, Dantu County. It was discovered in 1957 and excavated in 1987. The site is a platform-shaped mound about 7 meters above the ground, covering an area of approximately 3,000 square meters. An area of 380 square meters has been excavated, revealing cultural layers 5–6 meters thick divided into 11 strata, as well as one house foundation and 13 ash pits.

The site dates from the Xia Dynasty to the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period. Artifacts from the Xia Dynasty layer mainly include pottery tripods and Ding vessels, as well as pottery jars, with stone tools as the primary production implements. From the early and middle Shang Dynasty layers, excavated items primarily consist of pottery Ding, tripods, li tripods, jars, urns, goblet-shaped cups, basins, dou stemmed vessels, along with stone knives, adzes, and chisels. Bronze smelting slag and bronze pieces that spilled from casting spouts were also found. In the layers from the late Shang Dynasty to the late Western Zhou Dynasty, artifacts mainly include pottery li, tripod vessels, jars, basins, dou vessels, primitive celadon dou vessels, as well as stone adzes and bronze arrowheads. Artifacts from the early and middle Spring and Autumn Period layers mainly include pottery li, tripods, cauldrons, jars, basins, bowls, dou vessels, and primitive celadon dou and bowl vessels, along with bronze arrowheads and knives.

The Tuanshan Site is a typical example within the Ningzhen region’s Bronze Age cultural sites, notable for its thick deposits and multiple strata. The site yields a relatively rich array of cultural relics and provides a stratigraphically based benchmark for the periodization and cultural sequence of the Bronze Age culture in the Ningzhen region.