The Dingshadi Site

The Dingshadi Site

The Dingshadi Site is located 3 kilometers southwest of Longtan Town in Jurong County and 3.5 kilometers north of the Yangtze River. It belongs to the Baohua Forest Farm in Jurong County, Jiangsu Province. The site is a hillside ridge about 6 meters above the ground, stretching 250 meters from east to west and 200 meters from north to south, covering an area of approximately 50,000 square meters. It was discovered in 1988, with the southern part already damaged. In 1988, the Nanjing Museum conducted excavations, uncovering an area of 182 square meters. In 1989, a comprehensive survey of the site was carried out.

The site has revealed remains of red-burned earthen living surfaces from the Neolithic Age. These surfaces are rectangular, square, circular, oval, and convex in shape, with imprints of plant stems and stalks embedded in the burned earth, indicating the architectural remains of primitive inhabitants. A gray ditch running northeast to southwest was also discovered, with a top width of 19–22 meters, a depth of 3.5–5 meters, and a bottom width of 2.5 meters, likely serving as a protective ditch for the settlement. Artifacts unearthed include stone tools, pottery, and animal bones such as those of pigs, cattle, and sika deer. Stone tools consist of axes, adzes, knives, balls, and four-legged grinding plates. Pottery items include collar-ridged jars, collared vessels, bowls, basins, and pedestals. All pottery was handmade, with loose clay and thick walls, predominantly made of sandy red-brown pottery and clay red pottery, often with red exteriors and black interiors, reflecting primitive firing techniques. Additionally, painted pottery basin fragments were found, featuring white bases adorned with red patterns—mainly composed of cross-shaped double-eye motifs surrounded by curved diamond-grid designs. Some pottery lid knobs and bases also bear incised symbols. The striped jars, collared vessels, and four-legged grinding plates resemble those found in Layer 10 of the Caoshan site and the lowest layer of the Weidun site. The footed grinding plates and painted pottery fragments share stylistic similarities with similar artifacts from the Cishan and Peiligang sites. Therefore, it is one of the earlier Neolithic sites discovered so far near Nanjing.