Houli Site

Houli Site

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

The Houli Site is located on the second-level terrace of the eastern bank of the Zi River, about 500 meters northwest of Houliguanzhuang Village in Qiling Town, Linzi District, Zibo City, Shandong Province. It lies approximately 2.5 kilometers northwest of the ancient city of Qi in Linzi and about 12 kilometers southwest of Xindian.

The Houli Culture is also named after the Houli Site in Linzi. The remains of the Houli Culture date back to approximately 8500–7500 years ago and are among the earliest known Neolithic cultural sites in the Shandong region. The Houli Culture was mainly distributed in areas such as Jinan, Zouping, Zhangqiu, Zibo, and Weifang. The inhabitants had already settled into agricultural lifestyles. The types of artifacts were relatively simple, with many round-bottomed vessels. In 1965, the archaeology department of the History Faculty at Peking University discovered the site during a student field survey and conducted small-scale trial excavations. From 1988 to 1990, the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology carried out four large-scale excavations at the site. A total of 179 test pits were opened, uncovering an area of about 6,500 square meters. Excavations revealed that the cultural deposits at the site were as thick as 2 to 5 meters, divided into 12 layers. From bottom to top, the layers are: Layers 12 to 10 belong to the early Neolithic Houli Culture remains; Layer 9 belongs to the middle Neolithic Beixin Culture remains; Layers 8 to 6 are from the Zhou Dynasty; and Layers 5 to 3 are from the Western Han Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Among the Houli Culture remains, there were ash pits, tombs, hearths, house foundations, and pottery kilns. The ash pits were circular, oval, or irregular in shape. The tombs came in two forms: small vertical earthen pits and vertical earthen pits with side chambers. The houses were semi-subterranean, irregularly circular, with rammed earth floors that were solid and hard. The pottery kilns were vertical, consisting of three parts: the kiln chamber, fire pit, and ash discharge pit. Artifacts unearthed included pottery and bone tools. The shapes of the pottery pieces included tripods, bowls, double-handled jars, cauldrons, basins, vessel lids, and pointed-top vessels, among which deep-bellied round-bottomed cauldrons were the most common. The pottery was mostly sandy clay, with red and reddish-brown being the most common colors, along with a small amount of dark brown and yellowish-brown pottery. Decorative patterns included appliqué ridges, fingernail impressions, stamped patterns, and nipple-like designs. Bone, horn, and shell tools were mostly chisels, knives, awls, darts, blades, and sickles. There were also a few stone tools, mainly polished ones, including hammers, axes, shovels, grinding plates, grinding rods, scrapers, and pointed tools.

Numerous Shang and Zhou cultural remains have been found at the Houli Site, showing quite a complex situation. The unearthed items such as li tripods, jars, and gui food vessels had very strong local characteristics, indicating that indigenous cultural elements played a significant role. Additionally, they also bore influences from Shang and Zhou cultures. Historical records indicate that from the late Shang Dynasty to the early Western Zhou Dynasty, this area was home to numerous tribal states. The excavation of the Houli Site is of great importance for studying the inheritance, exchange, and integration of Shang, Zhou, and indigenous cultures in the region.

The development and excavation of the Houli Site provide valuable references for research on Neolithic culture and Shang-Zhou culture in northern Shandong, and are also of great significance for the periodization and study of Qi regional culture.

In 2006, as a prehistoric site from the Neolithic period, the Houli Site was included in the sixth batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units by the State Council.

Further Reading:

· Sixth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units