Binzhou Dinggong Site

Binzhou Dinggong Site

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

The Dinggong Site is located in Dinggong Village, Yuancheng Township, Zouping County, covering an area of about 300 meters in length from east to west and 200 meters from north to south. A wealth of artifacts from the Longshan Culture and Yueshi Culture have been unearthed here. Among the collected relics—excluding shell tools—are primarily stone tools such as stone shovels and polished stone axes, as well as bone arrowheads, bone needles, and eggshell pottery fragments characteristic of the Longshan Culture. Among the pottery items is a small clay jar made of gray earthenware, with a bulging belly, a string pattern on the neck, a mouth diameter of 5.2 cm, and a belly diameter of 8 cm. There are also fragments of a clay urn made of gray earthenware, featuring fine cord patterns along with added appliqué designs. Particularly precious are the black pottery tripod legs shaped like ghost faces and pig snouts. Research confirms these are typical remains of the Longshan and Yueshi Cultures. These types of pottery were found for the first time in the Binzhou region and are of significant importance to the study of ancient cultural development.

The site was designated as a Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit by the Zouping County People's Government in 1984. In 1985, with approval from the Shandong Provincial Cultural Relics Administration, it was established as the Zouping Workstation of the Archaeology Department of Shandong University’s History Faculty. In 1988, Shandong University invested in the construction of a three-story archaeological building spanning 1,850 square meters, which houses over 1,000 cultural relics. The Dinggong Site is an important prehistoric site and was ranked first among the Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries in China in 1991. In recent years, visitors from all walks of life across the province and beyond have come to see the site continuously, and universities such as Peking University and Shandong University have used it as a field site for professional teaching and research internships. The Dinggong Site was listed as the second batch of Key Cultural Relics Protection Units in Zouping County in 1984 (Document No. 10 [1984] of the Zouping Government); in 1992, it was included in the second batch of Key Cultural Relics Protection Units in Shandong Province (Document No. 77 [1992] of the Shandong Government); and in 2001, it was designated as part of the fifth batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units (Document No. 25 [2011] of the State Council).

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units