The Sanyangzhuang Site

The Sanyangzhuang Site

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

The Sanyangzhuang Site is located in Sanyangzhuang Village, Liangzhuang Town, Neihuang County, Anyang City, Henan Province, covering an area of approximately 150,000 square meters. Mostly covered by yellow sand, pottery shards from the Yangshao and Longshan cultures have been discovered.

After nearly two years of archaeological excavation and survey, seven courtyard foundations have been confirmed within the site. Excavations at four of these courtyards have uncovered a large number of important remains, including tiled rooftops, walls, wells, toilets, ponds, farmland, and trees, as well as a collection of artifacts reflecting the production and daily life of the time.

Like the famous "Pompeii," the Sanyangzhuang Site was remarkably well-preserved due to a sudden disaster, effectively "freezing" the living scenes of the time—such as the layout of the courtyards, roads, cultivated fields, and the walls of various structures. Roofs collapsed under floodwaters remain in their original state, with interlocking roof tiles preserved exactly as they fell, while daily items that could not be removed, such as stoneware, pottery, and ironware, were left in place. These provide a rare and abundant physical record for reconstructing the social, family, and production conditions of the era.

The Sanyangzhuang Han Dynasty Settlement Site is the first large-scale rural settlement site of the Han Dynasty ever archaeologically discovered in China, marking a historic find in the study of ancient Han history.

Based on current findings, the courtyards within the site were either uniformly regulated or followed common practices—all face south (approximately 10° west of due south), maintaining a consistent orientation; all have a two-courtyard layout with similar land areas; the distances between them vary from close to far, with the nearest being 25 meters apart and the farthest exceeding 500 meters, all separated by farmland. Each courtyard has a private path (typically about 3 meters wide) leading to the main field road (usually around 5 meters wide, up to about 7 meters in some sections) outside its southern gate; each household’s courtyard is situated within its own farmland.

The Sanyangzhuang Site is a relatively large-scale settlement site from the late Western Han Dynasty, preserving substantial information on the social structure, agricultural production, and societal systems of that period. It represents the most grassroots level of the Han Dynasty’s socio-economic framework, offering invaluable physical evidence for studying the organizational structure, institutional frameworks, economic development, agricultural practices, architectural layouts, and folk customs of the Western Han era.

In May 2006, the Sanyangzhuang Site was designated as part of the sixth group of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units by the State Council.

Sanyangzhuang Village: Sanyangzhuang Village…… More details about Sanyangzhuang Village++

Further Reading:

· Sixth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units