Lotus Hill Site

Lotus Hill Site

The Lotus Hill Site is a protected cultural heritage site of Zhejiang Province.

The Lotus Hill Site is situated on a hill south of Shaojia Natural Village in Huzhen Town, Longyou County, on the southern side of the Qu River, at an elevation of about 49 to 64 meters. It was discovered in April 2011, and from late September, the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Longyou Museum initiated the excavation of the site, which was conducted in eastern and western zones, covering a total area of approximately 900 square meters. Alongside the excavation, further archaeological surveys were carried out over an area of about 50,000 square meters around the Lotus Hill Site.

The deepest part of the site contains seven layers of cultural deposits. Excavations uncovered features such as ash pits and postholes, as well as a rich array of pottery and stone artifacts. Based on the analysis of unearthed relics, the site dates back approximately 9,000 to 8,000 years.

Over 20 restored pottery items were recovered, including wide-mouthed basins, flat-bottomed dishes (with both shallow and deep bodies), round-bottomed dishes, ring-footed dishes, and double-handled jars. The pottery is primarily made of carbon-tempered red-coated clay and fine-sand coarse-clay. Analysis of these restored pottery pieces and a large number of sherds with identifiable vessel forms suggests that the site dates roughly to the late period of the Shangshan Culture, but with a long duration of use. In the later phases of the western zone, numerous elements of the Kuahuqiao Culture appeared, such as cord-marked pottery cauldrons with flared mouths, slightly inward-turned rims, and symmetrically placed tongue-shaped spouts on the outer rim, as well as round-bottomed bowls, adze-shaped stone hammers, and bluish-gray stone adzes—all bearing characteristics of the Kuahuqiao Culture. Among the artifacts from the late Shangshan Culture, there are also distinctive features, such as the diverse styles of handles on wide-mouthed basins, higher cylindrical bodies on flat-bottomed dishes, round-bottomed dishes, and ring-footed dishes with multiple perforations.

The stratified accumulation of remains at the Lotus Hill Site shows discontinuous distribution across sections, a phenomenon already observed at the Shangshan and Xiaohuangshan Sites, but more completely represented at the well-preserved Lotus Hill Site. Particularly in the western zone excavation squares, a “stone pile” deposit was found where pebbles were densely distributed and layered across an area of over a hundred square meters, mixed with a large number of rough stone tools, including stone grinding plates, stone rollers, stone hammers, and perforated tools. These findings hold significant research value for reconstructing the living conditions of primitive human settlements.

The early remains of the Lotus Hill Site are rich in content. Wide-mouthed basins, flat-bottomed dishes, ring-footed dishes, double-handled jars, stone grinding plates, stone rollers, and flaked stone tools exhibit both features of the Shangshan Culture and distinct regional styles. This makes the site the earliest Neolithic settlement discovered to date in western Zhejiang.

Huzhen Town: Located at the eastern gateway of Quzhou City, Huzhen Town in Longyou County covers an area of 104.5 square kilometers and governs 71 administrative villages, 3 residential committees, 1 farm, with a total population of 59,600. It is a bustling commercial hub with a strong market atmosphere. The town is traversed by the electrified double-track of the Zhejiang–Jiangxi Railway and Provincial Highway 46. To the north, it is crossed by the Hangzhou–Jinhua–Quzhou Expressway and the Qu River. The Shilipu Prison Area is also located within the town, giving it a highly strategic geographic position. Situated in the triangular area between Jinhua, Lanxi, and Quzhou, Huzhen is a relatively developed town among Zhejiang’s less-developed regions, serving as a central town of Longyou County and a... [More detailed information about Huzhen Town++]

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Heritage Protection Units