Shibapu North Gudui Site

Shibapu North Gudui Site

The Shibapu North Gudui Site is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Shibapu North Gudui Site is located about 100 meters northwest of Shibapu Village, Fangshan Town, Dingtao County. The He-Shang Highway and the He-Cao Canal diagonally traverse and partially cover the northeast corner of the site. The surrounding terrain is flat, belonging to the Yellow River alluvial plain, and the site is entirely covered by silt layers.

The area has a long history. It is said that Dingtao was once the ancient Taoqiu, the Xia-era Sanzou Kingdom, and the Zhou-era Cao Kingdom. In the early Han Dynasty, the Liang Kingdom was governed from Dingtao, which was later succeeded by the Jiyin Kingdom, Dingtao Kingdom, and Jiyin Commandery, all of which had periods of rise and decline, but their administrative centers were all located in Dingtao. This long history has left behind a wealth of cultural relics. It has now been discovered that, centered around this site, there are six other mound sites—Guangudui, Fashan, Helou, Chengzhuang, Shibapu, and Gaohé—forming a cluster of sites with continuous development from the late Neolithic Age to the Xia, Shang, and Zhou periods.

The site was discovered in the winter of 2013 during the widening project of the He-Cao Canal. Since then, the Dingtao County Party Committee, government, and cultural relics authorities have taken a high sense of historical responsibility to properly protect the site, actively coordinating relevant departments to carry out cultural relics protection work, minimizing further damage to the site. After investigation and drilling, from July to December 2014, the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, the Heze City Historical Culture and Archaeology Research Institute, and the Dingtao County Cultural Relics Bureau jointly conducted excavations, gaining a deeper understanding of the site’s contents and achieving significant findings.

Investigations and excavations have shown that the site consists of a northern mound and a southern and southeastern cemetery, stretching approximately 350 meters from north to south and about 300 meters from east to west, covering a total area of over 90,000 square meters. The mound site contains cultural remains from the Dawenkou, Longshan, Yueshi, Shang, and Zhou periods. It is roughly circular in shape, with a diameter of about 180–190 meters and a total area of about 30,000 square meters, of which approximately 27,000 square meters remain. The site has been flooded multiple times, with the upper part generally covered by silt deposits 0.7–2.1 meters thick. The silt layer gradually thickens from the center toward the edges, reaching up to 3.5–4.5 meters at the periphery. The cultural strata average about 2 meters in thickness, with the thickest parts exceeding 3 meters, particularly rich in remains from the Longshan, Yueshi, and late Shang periods. A ring of rammed earth walls exists around the edge of the mound, with the eastern and southern sections damaged, while the remaining sections are intermittent. A cross-section trench in the northern part revealed that the rammed earth wall can be divided into early and late phases, with the early phase possibly dating to the Yueshi period and the late phase extending to the Eastern Zhou period. Three intermittent segments of rammed earth walls were found on the eastern and southern sides of the southern part of the mound, disrupted by Han Dynasty tombs, likely dating to the Eastern Zhou period, though their nature requires further verification. The cemetery is distributed across three elevated terraces in the southern and southeastern areas, dating to the Han Dynasty, primarily consisting of small rectangular brick-chambered tombs.

The site may represent a small settlement or fortified town from the Yueshi and Eastern Zhou periods. It is an important newly discovered ancient settlement site in southwestern Shandong, holding significant importance. Southwestern Shandong lies at the junction of Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan, and Anhui provinces, right within the cultural interaction zone of Huaxia, Dongyi, and Huaiyi cultures. Many major events from legendary history and the activities of important historical figures are also associated with this region. Heze’s rich mound culture encapsulates crucial historical information from the legendary era. The large-scale excavation of this site holds significant value for studying the cultural exchanges between the Yi and Xia peoples and for exploring the role and status of southwestern Shandong in the process of ancient Chinese civilization. It also has practical significance for enhancing the region’s historical standing, strengthening local cultural soft power, and developing the local cultural industry.

In 2019, the Shibapu North Gudui Site was included in the eighth batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Shibapu Village: Shibapu Village…… More details about Shibapu Village++

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of Shandong Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Eighth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units