Pingding’ao Site

Pingding’ao Site

The Pingding’ao Site is situated on Pingding’ao Hill to the south of Liuzhuang Natural Village, Jinxing Village, Wenquan Town, Tonggu County. In response to the construction needs of the Chang-Tong (Nanchang–Tonggu) Expressway, provincial cultural heritage departments first carried out on-site investigations and surveys of the site. Approved by the National Cultural Heritage Administration, the Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, together with the Tonggu Memorial Hall of the Autumn Harvest Uprising and the Tonggu County Museum, conducted archaeological excavations at the site. A total of 54 excavation units were laid out, covering an area of nearly 3,000 square meters. The excavation uncovered dozens of various types of remains from four historical periods—the late Neolithic Age, the Shang Dynasty, the Zhou Dynasty, and the Han Dynasty—and unearthed a collection of precious pottery, stone tools, as well as a small number of bronze and jade artifacts. The discovery of pottery workshops, kiln remains, workshops for polished stone tools, and sites dedicated to crafting small bronze items represented the most significant findings of this excavation. This discovery not only pushes back the history of human activity in Tonggu County to 4,500 years ago but also greatly enriches our understanding of the ancient culture in northwestern Jiangxi. It holds significant importance for studying the settlement patterns and handicraft technologies of the pre-Qin period in Jiangxi Province.

The Neolithic remains are mainly distributed on the slopes on the western side of the site. Large ash pits found in contiguous areas yielded a large quantity of stone and pottery artifacts. The stone tools include arrowheads, axes, and adzes, all finely polished, though generally small in size, with numerous finished and semi-finished products piled together. The pottery includes both sandy-tempered ware and black-glazed polished pottery. Sandy-tempered pottery accounts for over 90%, made with fine sand, mostly orange-yellow in color, with a small amount of gray pottery. The main forms of pottery include tripods, dou (food containers), zun (wine vessels), gui (kettles), and spinning whorls. Flat-bottomed basin-shaped tripods and pointed-foot jar-shaped tripods are commonly seen. The feet of the tripods feature rich decorations, often adorned with multiple vertical grooves on the outer sides. The gui are robust with large bag-like feet. The black-glazed polished pottery is primarily represented by perforated dou, with glossy, polished surfaces and irregularly shaped perforations. Various signs indicate that the Neolithic remains at the Pingding’ao Site belong to the Shanbei Culture of the Xiushui River Basin.

The excavation shows that the Pingding’ao Site has been continuously used from the late Neolithic Age through to the Han Dynasty, spanning a period of more than 2,000 years. With such a long duration, a rich variety of remains, and a substantial number of unearthed relics, it stands as an important pre-Qin site in northwestern Jiangxi. The excavation of pottery-making, bronze-casting, and stone-tool production workshops revealed a dense cluster of ancient workshop remains. These suggest the existence of a social organization capable of managing various crafts, highlighting not only the advanced state of handicraft activities at the time but also implying a relatively high level of civilization in the region.

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