The Caoxieshan Site

The Caoxieshan Site

The Caoxieshan Site is a cultural heritage site protected at the provincial level in Jiangsu Province.

The Caoxieshan Site is located 15 kilometers east of Suzhou city, 2 kilometers northeast of Lingnan Village in Weiting Town, Wu County, and 650 meters south of Yangcheng Lake. On the ground, there are two adjacent earthen mounds: one is called Caoxieshan, standing 10.5 meters tall, and the other is Yiling Mountain, which is 15.23 meters high. Preliminary explorations in 1973 revealed that the central area of the site is 260 meters long from east to west, 170 meters wide from north to south, covering an area of 44,000 square meters—about three times the combined size of the two mounds.

The site was discovered in 1956 during a cultural relics survey by the Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Management Committee. In 1972 and 1973, the Nanjing Museum conducted two excavations, uncovering a total area of 1,050 square meters. They cleared Neolithic residential remains, 11 ash pits (storage cellars), and 206 tombs, unearthing over 1,100 artifacts including production tools, household items, and ornaments made of pottery, stone, bone, and jade.

The cultural deposit at the site reaches a maximum thickness of 11 meters and can be divided into 10 cultural layers. Based on the stratigraphic sequence, the layers are, in chronological order: Majiabang Culture, Songze Culture, Liangzhu Culture, and finally the Wu-Yue Culture of the Spring and Autumn Period. This stratification provides a benchmark for determining the developmental sequence of prehistoric cultures in the Taihu Lake region and offers typical significance for studying the ancient cultures of the lower Yangtze River and Taihu Lake basin.

The carbon-14 dating of the Majiabang Culture layer, after calibration, dates back to approximately 4300–4000 BCE. Over 100 tombs were discovered, primarily single burials in a prone position, along with some same-sex joint burials. Most heads faced north, and some skulls were covered with or placed inside pottery vessels. Few burial objects were found, usually consisting of a single food vessel or one cooking vessel paired with one food vessel—the former often being a bean-shaped or bowl-shaped vessel, and the latter a cauldron or tripod. Carbonized japonica and indica rice grains were also found. Three pieces of carbonized textile were unearthed, identified as a plain-woven fabric woven from wild kudzu fibers with weft-patterned designs. These are currently the earliest known physical examples of textiles in China.

Within the Songze Culture layer, 89 tombs were found, with single supine burials being the norm, as well as two joint burials of adult men and women. Most heads faced south. Many of the tombs contained varying quantities of burial objects, with some having as many as 25, while others only had symbolic pottery shards. Burial items mainly consisted of pottery, typically including cooking, dining, and storage vessels—common examples being tripods, beans, pots, jars, and cups—as well as production tools and jade or stone ornaments. A few tombs included pig jawbones as grave goods.

In the Liangzhu Culture layer, a large tomb was discovered, though the human bones had decayed. It appeared to be male and included two secondary burials of females. Outside the tomb, a dog was buried as a sacrifice, and numerous exquisitely crafted artifacts were interred—including over 60 items such as jade cong, jade bi, jade bracelets, jade bead necklaces, stone tools, and carved pottery—demonstrating the advancement of material culture at the time and signs of the disintegration of the primitive society.

Further Reading:

· Fourth Batch of Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units