The Daxinzhuang Site

The Daxinzhuang Site

The Daxinzhuang Site is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Period: Shang Dynasty

Located southeast of Daxinzhuang in Wangsheren Town, on the outskirts of Jinan City. The terrain slopes gradually from the southwest to the north, with a natural gully running diagonally from the southeast to the northwest in the middle, commonly known as Xiezigu (Scorpion Gully), which divides the site into two parts. The total area is approximately 300,000 square meters. The cultural layer has been found to be about 2 meters thick, reaching a maximum depth of 4 meters. From the discovery of the site in 1935 to the 1980s, it underwent multiple surveys, explorations, and trial excavations. Twelve house foundations, eight wells, and 42 tombs were discovered. More than 700 artifacts made of pottery, stone, bone, shell, and bronze were unearthed. Pottery items include high-quality pointed-foot li tripods, short-foot li tripods, round-bottomed zun vessels, wide-mouthed zun vessels, and fake-abdomen dou vessels, as well as glazed pottery and incised white pottery. Stone tools include axes, adzes, knives, and sickles; bone tools include arrowheads, hairpins, and knives; there were also oracle bones and shells, though none bore inscriptions. Bronze items were small objects such as arrowheads, needles, and saws. Some tombs included dog sacrifices, a burial custom similar to those found in the Shang Dynasty tombs of Zhengzhou Erligang and Anyang. In 1970, the Jinan Museum collected a batch of bronze artifacts unearthed over the years at the site, including drinking vessels such as gu, weapons such as ge and arrowheads, as well as axes, knives, and chariot fittings. In 1984, another batch of artifacts was collected, including bronze items such as ding cauldrons, gu vessels, jue cups, and ge weapons, and jade items such as axes and tiger-shaped ornaments, all of which were funerary objects. The unearthed and collected artifacts show no difference from typical Shang Dynasty artifacts found in Yinxu, Anyang, and bear some resemblance to those unearthed from the upper layer of Zhengzhou Erligang. This site is the furthest eastern outpost of Shang culture in the Central Plains region discovered to date during the middle Shang period, and is of great significance for the study of Shang culture and the relationship between the Shang and Yi peoples. In May 2013, it was designated and announced by the State Council as part of the seventh batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further Reading:

· First Batch of Shandong Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units