Chadian Tou Site

Chadian Tou Site

The Chadian Tou Site is a cultural relics protection unit of Suzhou City.

The Chadian Tou Site is located at the northeastern foot of Gaojing Mountain in Fengqiao Town. It was designated as a cultural relics protection unit of Wu County in 1986. In 1995, due to administrative division adjustments, it became a cultural relics protection unit of Suzhou City. The cultural remains of the site are distributed to the west of Chadian Tou Village and the northeastern side of Gaojing Mountain, covering an area approximately 200 meters long from east to west. Judging from the exposed section of the newly dug river next to Chadian Tou Village, the cultural deposit layer is about 2 meters thick.

The site was discovered in early May 1985 when the Wu County Cultural Relics Management Committee was clearing a damaged tomb nearby. During the investigation, many pottery fragments and a small number of stone tools were collected. The stone tools include roughly chipped but ground-edged stone axes and fully polished stone sickles. The pottery fragments consist of sandy hard pottery, stamped hard pottery, and clay pottery, with various patterns impressed on their surfaces. Identifiable vessel shapes include sunken-bottom jars and flared-footed beans.

Based on the analysis of the texture and decorative patterns of the unearthed artifacts, the site shares the same cultural characteristics as the Maqiao Site in Shanghai, drawing significant attention from archaeologists. It provides new clues for further exploration of the culture from the Neolithic Age to the Shang and Zhou dynasties in the Taihu Lake Basin. Unfortunately, part of the site has been damaged during the construction of the La Ba River project.