The Shai Zi Ling Luo Site

Shai Zi Ling Luo Site

The Shai Zi Ling Luo Site is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Era: Neolithic Age

The Shai Zi Ling Luo Site is located 200 meters east of Shai Zi Ling Luo Village, Xiagongcun Township, Yu County, Hebei Province. It is a Neolithic site covering an area of 100,000 square meters. Archaeological discoveries in 1979 included stone tools, pottery kilns, and sandy gray pottery, making it one of the important sites for studying the Longshan Culture. In May 2013, it was announced by the State Council as part of the seventh batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

In the early 1980s, the Zhangjiakou Archaeological Team, jointly formed by the Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics, the Department of Archaeology at Jilin University, and the Zhangjiakou Museum, continued their excavations in Yu County after the 1979 excavation of the Sanguan Site. They successively unearthed several Neolithic-period sites including Shai Zi Ling Luo, Sishili Po, and Zhuangke. These sites not only featured cultural remains from the Yangshao Period but also showed overlapping influences from various cultures such as the Hongshan and Longshan Cultures. At the Shai Zi Ling Luo Site, the team also discovered seven house foundations and multiple ash pits. These seven house foundations were all rectangular or square in shape, with no fixed pattern in size or door orientation, and their living surfaces had all been fire-hardened. Additionally, a number of ash pits were found. A large quantity of stone tools were unearthed from these houses and pits, including large stone grinding rods, stone axes, stone spears, stone cores, and cutting tools. Notably, more than 50 arrowheads were found in just Pit H13 alone, and a total of 809 microlithic tools were excavated from the Shai Zi Ling Luo Site alone. This indicates that the people of this settlement primarily led a hunting-based lifestyle, or possibly for warfare purposes. The significant discoveries and in-depth studies of the Shai Zi Ling Luo Site and other sites along the Sanggan River Basin have provided some clues for exploring the legendary Yan and Huang Emperors.

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units