The Stone Chamber Tomb Cluster of Southern Zhejiang

The Stone Chamber Tomb Cluster of Southern Zhejiang

The Stone Chamber Tomb Cluster of Southern Zhejiang is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Stone Chamber Tomb Cluster of Southern Zhejiang is distributed across Qipan Mountain in Huangshe Town, Rui'an City, Longtou Mountain in Qiancang, Pingyang County, and Tongqiao in Qianku Town, Cangnan County, Zhejiang Province. These tombs date back to the Shang and Zhou dynasties (1700–256 BCE).

A total of 13 such tomb sites have been identified. There are mainly two types of tombs: one features supporting stones standing at the four corners or sides, each about one meter high, with massive intact stone slabs several meters long and about 0.5 meters wide covering them, leaving a relatively large open space above ground; the other type has several smaller stones placed inversely beneath a large capstone, resulting in a very low structure with almost no open space above ground. Burial objects include stamped hard pottery jars, dou (food vessels), ding (tripod cauldrons), spinning whorls, as well as primitive black-glazed zun (wine vessels), dou, primitive celadon dishes, bowls, dou, ding, chisels, short swords, small bianzhong (chime bells), and more. Various ritual vessels have been found in these tombs.

The Stone Chamber Tomb Cluster of Southern Zhejiang is currently the only known distribution area of stone chambers in southern China and an important part of the global megalithic culture. It provides valuable physical evidence for studying the social structure, economic conditions, external exchanges, and cultural characteristics of China’s coastal regions during the Shang and Zhou periods, and holds significant historical, scientific, and artistic value. (National Cultural Heritage Administration)

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units