The Mopandun Site

The Mopandun Site

The Mopandun Site

This site is situated on a yellow-earth mound within the harbor area to the east of Dagang Town, Dantu County, 550 meters north of the Yangtze River. Mopandun is a circular earthen mound standing 6 meters high and covering an area of 240 square meters. Discovered in 1980 and excavated in 1982 by the Nanjing Museum, the excavation covered 88 square meters. The cultural layers reach a thickness of 3 meters, divided into upper and lower strata, including remains from the Neolithic Age and the Western Zhou Dynasty.

Artifacts unearthed from the Neolithic Age layer are relatively abundant. Just the microliths alone number over 5,400 pieces, including stone flakes, stone cores, and stone drills. Among them, there are more than 400 stone drills of various forms. The stone tools were made by percussion, with materials mostly being black flint, along with a small amount of agate. Processing was mainly done by hammering, supplemented by battering, and the craftsmanship is exquisite, making them the most representative artifacts. Ground stone tools include axes, adzes, sickles, and whetstones. The pottery is mostly fragmented, with vessel shapes such as tripods, cauldrons, jars, beans (dou), pots, and spinning whorls. There are also jade ornaments such as huangs, bi, rings, and jade discs. Their shapes and features closely resemble those of early Liangzhu culture relics from the Taihu Lake region, dating back approximately 5,000 years.

In the Western Zhou cultural layer, pottery is predominantly made of clay, with sandy clay pottery coming next, along with a small number of geometric-patterned soft pottery and hard pottery. Vessel types include li tripods, dou, and beans (dou), belonging to the relics of the Hushu Culture. A vertical pit tomb was also cleared, with burial objects including a bronze zun (wine vessel), ge (dagger-axe), horse and chariot fittings, as well as a number of geometric-patterned hard pottery items and primitive porcelain. The period dates to the early Spring and Autumn period.