Site of the Sizhou Papermaking Workshop

Site of the Sizhou Papermaking Workshop

The Site of the Sizhou Papermaking Workshop is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Era: Song Dynasty

In September 2008, a joint archaeological team composed of the Hangzhou Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Fuyang City Museum discovered this site during the third national cultural relics census along the realignment project of the Shoujiang to Changkou section of the Fuyang 320 National Highway bypass. The site is approximately 145 meters long from east to west and about 125 meters wide from north to south, covering an area of 16,000 square meters. It includes both working areas and living quarters for workers. The site is relatively shallowly buried and has preserved the entire papermaking process line intact, including drying fields, soaking pits for raw materials, cooking vats for steaming materials, lime slurry pools for pulping, paper-forming workshops, and paper-drying rooms. Supporting structures such as stone-paved roads, drainage ditches, wells, and ash pits were also found. Additionally, an ancient east-west river channel was discovered in the southern part of the site. Experts who examined the exposed relics identified them as dating back to the Song Dynasty, describing the site as the earliest, largest, and most complete in terms of process flow yet discovered in China, featuring advanced papermaking techniques. It provides crucial physical evidence for studying the inheritance of papermaking technology in southern China and even the world during the Song Dynasty, as well as for historical research.

Further Reading:

· Sixth Batch of Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units