Xih River Site

Xih River Site

The Xih River Site is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Xih River Site is located to the north of Longshan Third Village, Longshan Subdistrict Office, Zhangqiu District. It derives its name from being surrounded on its south, west, and north sides by the Xih River, a tributary of the Juye River. The Xih River Site is a well-preserved, large-scale, and culturally rich typical settlement site among the mid-Neolithic cultural sites in Shandong Province. In 1997, it was rated as one of the top ten archaeological discoveries of the year due to major findings such as the excavation of large-scale house remains. In June 2001, the Xih River Site was included in the fifth batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

The Xih River Site stretches approximately 400 meters from north to south and about 300 meters from east to west, covering an area of around 120,000 square meters. It dates back approximately 8,400 to 7,700 years. Through several excavations, a large number of house foundations, ash pits, and ash ditches from the Xih Culture period have been discovered at the site. A wealth of pottery items such as cauldrons, basins, jars, pots, and bowls were unearthed, many of which are intact, as well as stone tools like axes, adzes, grinding plates, grinding rods, and pedestals, and finely crafted bone and horn artifacts including chisels, awls, arrowheads, fish darts, awls, needles, and hairpins. Among them, an exquisitely simple pottery pig reflects the earliest aesthetic sense and exquisite pottery-making craftsmanship of ancient people. These pottery pieces are not the earliest in the Shandong region, but their discovery provides an important clue for exploring the origins of pottery.

The Xih River Site is a well-preserved, large-scale typical settlement site, evidenced by the discovery of numerous house foundations — around 30 in total. The houses are all semi-subterranean, mostly with rounded-corner square layouts, typically spanning an area of 20–30 square meters, with larger ones reaching over 50 square meters. The houses are arranged in an orderly fashion, with a rational layout and dense distribution. Individual house remains are also remarkably well-preserved, with groups of pottery, stone tools used for production and grain processing, and 2–3 sets of cooking hearths constructed from stone pedestals still found on the living surfaces. Some hearths even had complete cooking vessels placed on them. A wealth of physical evidence proves that the early Neolithic residents represented by the Xih River Site had already established a stable settled life.

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units