Chenghu Ancient City Site

Chenghu Ancient City Site

The Chenghu Ancient City Site is a cultural heritage site protected by Shandong Province.

The Chenghu Ancient City Site refers to the vast area north of the new city and within the old city’s protective embankment in Chengwu County. This area is about 2.5 meters lower than the land outside the embankment. Due to the low-lying terrain, it was often waterlogged year-round in the past, with an average depth of about 1 meter and up to over 2 meters in deeper parts. Hence, it came to be known as the City Lake. Within the City Lake, there are two remaining mounds: one is Wen Ting Shan (also known as Yun Ting Shan), and the other is Da Tai (historically called Dong Tai, also known as Shou Feng). In the spring of 1986, during the excavation of a fishpond in the southern section, a large area of ancient cultural remains was exposed, drawing the attention of cultural relics workers. After detailed investigation and archaeological drilling, the scope of the site was largely identified: it stretches from west of the kiln factory in Chengguan Town in the west, to Xiulou Village in the east, south to the inner side of the southern protective embankment, and north to the northern protective embankment. In some areas, such as Zhangwafang, it even crosses the northern protective embankment. It spans 3,525 meters from east to west and 1,800 meters from north to south, covering a total area of over 6.325 million square meters. Within this area, artifacts with largely similar cultural features have been collected from pits, water channels, and ditches. A site of such a large scale is the first of its kind discovered in Heze region.

The relics and artifacts found here are extremely rich. Among the structures, pottery wells are particularly notable—within a fishpond of about 10,000 square meters, there are more than 20 pottery wells. These wells were built by stacking sections of pottery rings, with some well openings lined with blue bricks, and the pottery rings themselves being relatively well-formed. Most of the artifacts at the site are pottery fragments, predominantly made of clay, with sandy clay coming second. Grey pottery, grey-brown pottery, and light grey pottery are the most common, red pottery is rare, and black pottery is occasionally seen. The decorative patterns mainly include coarse cord marks, medium cord marks, and shallow fine cord marks, along with a certain proportion of raised and concave string patterns, tile patterns, and plain surfaces. Nipple nail patterns, diamond grid patterns, and meander patterns are only found on building materials. The most commonly found pottery items include dou (food vessels), yu (shallow basins), round-bottomed jars, pottery pots, basins, washing basins, cauldrons, urns, jue (wine vessels), and li (tripod cooking vessels). Building materials include tubular tiles, flat tiles, tile ends, curved terracotta pipe fittings, Buddha statues made of brick, and hollow bricks, as well as copper coins such as "Ban Liang," "Wu Zhu," "Kai Yuan," "Da Guan," "Xi Ning," and "Chong Ning." In 2000, a batch of bronze ware from the Spring and Autumn Period, including a three-ring bronze pot, and dozens of bone shell coins were also unearthed. Analysis of these artifacts indicates they originate from five periods: the Shang Dynasty, Western Zhou Dynasty, Spring and Autumn Period, Warring States Period, and Han Dynasty.

Investigations and surveys revealed that while Shang Dynasty relics are relatively abundant in some localized areas of the site, the majority of the expansive area has been used continuously from the Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn, and Warring States periods all the way through to the Han Dynasty. Although there are no historical records of an ancient city being built here, and the layout and facilities within the site have not been excavated and thus remain unclear, the sheer size of the area, the numerous relics, the richness of artifacts, and the abundance of building materials are more than sufficient to confirm that this is indeed the site of an ancient city. Therefore, we believe this ancient city was the capital of the Gao State during the Western Zhou Dynasty.

The discovery and confirmation of the Gao State Ancient City in Chengwu County not only add new material to urban archaeology and fill a gap in the history of fortified cities in the Eastern Zhou period in the Heze region, but also provide physical evidence for the study of Gao State history—especially its economic history, which is of great significance. The site was listed as one of the first batch of county-level cultural heritage protection units by the Chengwu County People's Government in 1989, and was designated as a provincial-level cultural heritage protection unit by the Shandong Provincial People's Government in 1992.

Source: Heze Municipal Office of Local Chronicles