Fu Family Site

Fu Family Site

The Fu Family Site is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Dongying Fu Family Site is located 1.5 kilometers south of Guangrao County, with the Fu Family Village situated in the central part of the site. About 200 meters east of the site lies the Dongxin Highway, while the Weigao Highway runs east-west through the middle of the site. The central part of the site is higher than the surrounding areas, commonly referred to as the "Fu Family Canopy" or "Sky-High Ridge." It is currently the most representative Dawenkou Culture site discovered in northern Shandong.

The site is elliptical in shape, stretching 750 meters from east to west and 500 meters from north to south, covering a total area of 370,000 square meters, with the central area spanning 180,000 square meters. The cultural strata at the site are approximately 1–3 meters thick and rich in content. From 1985 to 1996, the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, in collaboration with the county museum, conducted two rescue excavations at the site, uncovering a total area of 707 square meters. These excavations revealed 508 Dawenkou Culture-period tombs, 214 ash pits, 4 wells, and more than 400 artifacts including stone, bone, horn, pottery, and jade objects.

Four wells from the Dawenkou Culture period were discovered at the site, with clay red pottery pitchers and some stone and bone tools found at the bottoms. Wells were a major invention of the Dawenkou Culture people and a significant symbol of the development of social productivity.

The tombs are densely distributed with complex stratigraphic relationships. All burial pits are rectangular vertical earthen shafts. The burial style is generally supine, single inhumation with straight limbs, while secondary and relocated burials are relatively common. Among them, double-stacked burials are unique among sites of similar cultures. Most tombs lack burial furniture, though a few have coffins or outer coffins. The orientation of skulls is mostly northeast, with a few facing southwest. Most tombs contain no grave goods, and even when present, the quantity is small—usually one or two items, rarely exceeding four, with a maximum of eight. In some cases, only an arrowhead was found. The majority of grave goods are pottery, mainly including round-bellied or folded-bellied jar-shaped tripods, bowl-shaped dou (bean-shaped vessels), jars, bowls, pots, cups, and single-handled jars. The craftsmanship is relatively rough, mostly handmade, but due to high firing temperatures, the texture is very hard. Common artifact combinations include tripod, dou, and jar, or tripod, dou, jar, and cup. These are typically placed on either side of the head or at the feet, with pottery dou often inverted on top of pottery tripods.

Further Reading:

· Sixth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units