The Fan Chengdui Site

The Fan Chengdui Site

The Fan Chengdui Site is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Located on the eastern side of Miaoxia Village in Liugongmiao Town, about 24 kilometers southwest of Zhangshu City proper, on the upper reaches of the Cixi Stream. According to the 1870 Qingjiang County Annals from the ninth year of the Tongzhi reign in the Qing Dynasty, it was named after the “former residence of General Fan of Fan City.”

In 1975, after the discovery of the famous Shang Dynasty bronze ding tripod with dragon feet and tiger ears in Hengtang Village, a few kilometers from the site, archaeological personnel from the Zhangshu City Museum expanded their investigation and discovered the Fan Chengdui Site. Later, through three excavations carried out successively by the Zhangshu City Museum, the Jiangxi Provincial Cultural Relics Work Team, and teachers and students from the Archaeology Department of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangdong, a wealth of cultural relics were unearthed. The site dates from the late Neolithic Age through the Shang and Zhou periods. Its cultural characteristics not only belong to the same type as other Neolithic sites within Zhangshu City, but also share similarities with those at Shinianshan in Xinyu, Shendun in Jiujiang, and Yinqiping in Yongfeng. Furthermore, they have many commonalities with Neolithic sites in eastern Hunan such as Daiziping and northern Guangdong such as Shixia. It is evident that this was an ancient tribal group distributed across the middle and lower reaches of the Gan River, connected to regions in eastern Hunan and northern Guangdong. Archaeologists refer to it as the “Fan Chengdui Culture.”

The site rises 1 to 3 meters above the surrounding rice fields, stretching 124 meters from north to south, 101 meters from east to west, with a perimeter of 380 meters and an area of over 12,000 square meters. The cultural deposit is about 2 to 4 meters thick, making it a typical mound-type site.

Through three archaeological excavations, the Fan Chengdui Site has yielded production tools such as stone axes, adzes, spades, knives, arrowheads, net sinkers, pottery spinning whorls, drills, and grinding stones; household items including cups, plates, bowls, basins, beans (dou), jars, pots, and water vats; pottery cooking vessels such as disc-footed ding tripods, jar-shaped ding tripods, cauldron-shaped ding tripods, and kettle-shaped ding tripods; as well as evidence of pottery kilns, pottery paddles, and anvils. Pottery-making methods included hand-building, wheel-throwing, and coil-building. The decorative techniques on the pottery involved incising, stamping, punching, as well as painting, with more than 40 types of patterns such as coarse and fine cord marks, checkered patterns, intermittent cord marks, interlaced cord marks, diamond lozenge motifs, raised ridge patterns, basket weaves, diamond shapes, pit-circle patterns, concave string patterns, net-knot patterns, lozenge patterns, spiral patterns, comb-dotted patterns, and puncture-stitched patterns, as well as stylized cloud-thunder motifs, dot-circle patterns, banana-leaf patterns, rice-character patterns, S-shaped patterns, vortex patterns, and interlaced basket weaves. There were also decorative arts such as painted designs and openwork carving. Architectural remains include houses, ash pits, pottery pits, and tombs.

The social and economic structure of the “Fan Chengdui people” evolved from a matrilineal clan society to a patrilineal one. With the advancement of production tools and the prosperity of agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing, and pig farming, they gradually learned to build wooden and earthen structures and construct houses. The Fan Chengdui Site has revealed numerous postholes and piles of red burned clay mixed with grass, indicating settled life where the economy was primarily agricultural, supplemented by fishing and hunting. At the same time, pottery-making and weaving handicrafts developed, leading to a lifestyle of “men plowing and women weaving.” Historical evidence, especially from the citywide large-scale cultural relics survey in 1982, identified and re-examined over 120 ancient cultural sites. After reassessment, there were 11 confirmed Neolithic sites in the city, seven of which underwent scientific archaeological excavation: the first, second, third, and fourth earthen cities at Yingpanli, Hengshan’ao, Zhujicheng, and Fan Chengdui. Specimens collected from four sites—Yangjiagang, Laohugang, Guanxiashan, and Panziling—belonged to the Neolithic Age. These archaeological materials show that as early as 4,500–5,000 years ago, within the vast lands of Zhangshu along the rolling banks of the Gan River, 11 primitive villages had emerged. Our ancestors—the “Fan Chengdui people”—lived on this expansive land of Zhangshu and, through hard work, created an ancient and splendid culture, laying the foundation for the region’s further economic and cultural development. In 1987, the “Fan Chengdui Site” was designated as a Provincial-Level Cultural Relics Protection Unit by the Jiangxi Provincial People’s Government. In 2006, it was listed as part of the sixth batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units by the State Council.

Location

Miaoxia Village, Liugongmiao Township, Zhangshu City, Jiangxi Province

Further Reading:

· Sixth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units