Ruins of the Nanhuangzhuang Tomb Cluster

Ruins of the Nanhuangzhuang Tomb Cluster

The Nanhuangzhuang Tomb Cluster ruins are a protected cultural heritage site of Shandong Province.

The Nanhuangzhuang Tomb Cluster (also known as the Nanxieshan Tomb Cluster) ruins are located between Nanhuangzhuang Village and Nanxieshan Village in Nanhuang Town, Rushan City, with the two villages being 500 meters apart. The tombs are relatively concentrated on the slopes to the east, west, and north of Nanhuangzhuang Village.

In the spring of 1977, villagers from Nanxieshan Village unearthed a batch of "gray jar burials" while digging an overflow channel for a water storage pond. In June of that year, staff from the Rushan County Library first discovered the tomb site northeast of Nanxieshan Village, which was thus referred to as the Nanxieshan Tomb Site. Due to the unique structure of the tombs and the artifacts unearthed, they drew the attention of archaeologists. According to surveys, the tombs were mostly found on the eastern and northeastern sides of Nanxieshan Village, near the eastern side of a reservoir, where two partially surviving tombs were also discovered at the northeastern corner of the reservoir. One tomb survived only about 40 centimeters in height and contained no artifacts; the other retained most of its structure, with two pottery jars placed inside the burial chamber—one of which was restored, while the other, due to poor firing quality, was severely broken and could not be restored. During a subsequent survey, villagers from Nanxieshan Village reported that they had found many small square pits built with stones during road construction, containing "gray jar burials." Guided by them, one exposed small pit by the roadside was promptly excavated. The pit had larger stones lining the bottom, stone walls on all four sides, and was covered with a large stone slab. The pit was approximately 45 centimeters wide and 35 centimeters high, roughly square in shape. Inside were one pottery jar and four pottery tripods, all made of coarse red-brown sandy pottery.

Between 1979 and 1981, the Yantai Regional Cultural Relics Management Committee, the Archaeology Department of Peking University’s History Faculty, the Shandong Team of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Shandong Provincial Museum, and other institutions conducted multiple surveys of the tomb site. During the 1982 National Cultural Relics Census, the Rushan County Cultural Relics Survey Team carried out a detailed investigation of the tomb site, largely clarifying the distribution range of the Nanxieshan Tomb Site: extending about 2 kilometers from Xieshan Village in the west to Nanhuang United Middle School in the east, and about 0.5 kilometers from the Rushan-Wendeng Highway in the south to the foot of Fushan Mountain in the north.

In the autumn of 1983, the Archaeology Department of Peking University’s History Faculty, together with the Yantai Municipal Cultural Relics Management Committee and cultural relics workers from Rushan County, conducted an excavation at the Nanhuangzhuang Tomb Site within the Nanxieshan Tomb Cluster. The main excavation area was in the northeastern part of Nanhuangzhuang Village and lasted 31 days. A total of 22 tombs were discovered and cleared, yielding over 80 artifacts, most of which were pottery items such as tripods, jars, ding vessels, and gui vessels. The craftsmanship was rough, with low firing temperatures, and there were occasional bronze and stone artifacts—the bronze items were all arrowheads, and the stone items were ornaments. During the tomb clearance, a contemporaneous settlement site was found southwest of the tomb area and east of Nanhuangzhuang Village. This settlement site had a cultural deposit layer about 0.15–0.2 meters thick and featured remains such as tombs, ash pits, gullies, and postholes, containing sandy and mica-included red-brown pottery shards contemporary with the tombs, including fragments of ding vessels, tripods, jars, gui vessels, and handles. The excavation results indicated that the cultural remains represented by the Nanhuangzhuang Tomb Site belong to the Jiaodong Yi people’s culture of the Western Zhou period. The excavation of the Nanhuangzhuang Tomb Cluster ruins was the first to clarify the cultural features of the Yi people from the Western Zhou period in the Jiaodong Peninsula, leading to the naming of the "Nanhuangzhuang Culture" and providing valuable material for the study of Dongyi culture.

In April 1981, the People's Government of Rushan County designated it as a county-level cultural relics protection unit; in September 1988, it was elevated to a prefecture-level city cultural relics protection site; in June 1992, it was announced as a provincial-level cultural relics protection unit under the name "Nanhuangzhuang Tomb Cluster." Currently, the Nanhuangzhuang Tomb Cluster ruins are well-preserved as a whole.

Further Reading:

· Second Batch of Shandong Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units