The Zanmiao Site

The Zanmiao Site

The Zanmiao Site, located in Zanmiao Village, Taowu Township, Jiangning County, approximately 50 kilometers from Zhonghua Gate in Nanjing, is an elevated, platform-like site covering an area of about 10,000 square meters. It is divided into one large and one small earthen mound, forming an irregular east-west elongated shape. In 1975 and 1979, the Nanjing Cultural Relics Management Committee and the Nanjing Museum conducted two trial excavations, uncovering an area of 135 square meters. The cultural layer deposits are about 3.5 meters thick and contain remains from the Neolithic Age and the Hushu Culture.

The Neolithic Age relics are thinly deposited and include sandy red pottery, black-glazed pottery, and other types, but no stoneware was found. Artifacts such as pottery tripods have been discovered. A large number of stone tools were also found, though they were not finely polished. Additionally, four tombs were identified, oriented north-south, without coffins, and containing 1 to 6 burial items such as stone adzes, pottery tripods, and jade huang pendants. The characteristics of these artifacts reflect features of the late Songze Culture and early Liangzhu Culture.

The Hushu Culture relics are more thickly deposited and can be divided into early and late periods. The early period includes semi-bag-shaped conical-foot li tripods, wide-flat-footed ding tripods, and other vessels, predominantly plain-surfaced with fewer stoneware items. The late period pottery consists of three main types: sandy clay, fine clay, and stoneware. Sandy clay pottery is mainly red, while fine clay pottery is mostly gray-black. Common vessel forms include ding tripods, jars, basins, bowls, and dou stem cups. Decorative patterns feature cord marks, ladder patterns, grid patterns, meander patterns, and thunder patterns, with stoneware displaying deeply impressed designs. A significant number of stone tools were also found, including stone adzes, crescent-shaped double-hole stone knives, willow-leaf-shaped or wide-flat triangular stone arrowheads. Bone arrowheads and double-winged bronze arrowheads were also discovered.