Qingchi Site

Qingchi Site

The Qingchi Site is a protected cultural heritage site of Tianjin Municipality.

The Qingchi Site is located on Matou Mountain in Qingchiyi Village, Wu Baihu Town, Jixian County, Tianjin. It dates back to the Neolithic Age, Shang Dynasty, and Western Zhou Dynasty.

The Qingchi Site is situated on the southern slope of Yuqiao Reservoir, with some cultural layers submerged. The exact area is unknown, but the cultural layer is 1 to 2.4 meters thick. The unearthed artifacts are mainly from the Neolithic Age, including stone tools such as grinding plates, grinding rods, axes, adzes, chopping tools, and a small number of microliths. Pottery items include sand-tempered reddish-brown pottery with "Zhiwen" patterns, such as cylindrical jars, basins, dou (food vessels), ring-footed bowls, brown pottery horse-head-shaped supports, and clam-shell inlaid plain red pottery basins. Artifacts from the Shang Dynasty include sand-tempered brown pottery cord-marked li (tripod cauldrons) and bowls. From the Western Zhou period, there are sand-tempered gray pottery cord-marked stacked-lip flat-bottomed li and jars. The Qingchi Site is the earliest known site of human activity discovered in Tianjin to date, dating back approximately 8,000 years. It pushes the history of human activity in Tianjin back by 3,000 years and serves as crucial material for studying ancient cultural remains in the Yan region from the Neolithic Age through the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. With a cultural layer about 1–2.4 meters thick, the excavation of the Qingchi Site fills a gap in our understanding of human cultural activity during the Neolithic period in Tianjin. The large number of stone tools, bone tools, pottery, and horn implements unearthed at the site provide strong evidence for studying the production and living habits of ancient humans. This indicates that during the Neolithic period, the Jixian area had relatively dense population, concentrated settlements, and a fairly prosperous economy. It was also a key transportation route between the Central Plains and northern regions. The area’s cultural development integrated the strengths of both northern and southern cultural zones, embodying the essence of Yan Mountain culture, making Jixian a thriving hub of human civilization at the time.

On January 5, 2013, the Tianjin Municipal People's Government designated it as part of the fourth batch of Tianjin Municipal Cultural Heritage Protection Units.

Further Reading:

· Fourth Batch of Tianjin Municipal Cultural Heritage Protection Units