Taigang Temple Ruins

Taigang Temple Ruins

The Taigang Temple Ruins, located about 1 kilometer southeast of Xishanqiao Town outside Zhonghua Gate in Nanjing, were discovered in 1957. They consist of an oval-shaped earthen mound approximately 8 meters high, covering an area of over 20,000 square meters. In 1960, the Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Team conducted excavations here, uncovering an area of 220 square meters. The cultural layer at the site reaches a thickness of 6.8 meters, with the lower layer belonging to the Neolithic Age. Artifacts unearthed include pottery bowls, tripods, ewers, jars, cups, and other vessels, as well as bone needles, bone awls, clam knives, perforated stone knives, and jade ornaments. These items also show chronological distinctions — the early part of the lower layer belongs to the Beiyinyangying Culture, where an incomplete cooking hearth and remnants of fired earthen living surfaces were found. The later part belongs to the Liangzhu Culture, where five tombs were excavated, featuring both supine straight-limb and lateral flexed-limb burials, with some skulls and limbs separated or only skulls remaining. The middle layer corresponds to the Hushu Culture from the Shang and Zhou periods, yielding artifacts such as pottery li tripods, jars, vessels, bronze arrowheads, bronze knives, bone hairpins, clam knives, perforated stone knives, stone sickles, and oracle shell fragments. The upper layer represents the cultural stratum from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.