Camel Ridge

Camel Ridge

Camel Ridge is an ancient cultural site located within Xinqiao Town, Xiangcheng City. It lies to the north of Zhudazhuang Village in Xinqiao Town, bordered on the east by the old course of the Lao Ni River, where the river flows from north to south along the eastern side of the site before continuing eastward. The ridge is a hilly highland, higher in the north and lower in the south. Its northern end and central part rise prominently like burial mounds, standing opposite each other in a north-south orientation, resembling camel humps—hence the common name “Camel Ridge.” The site is 113 meters long from north to south, 110 meters wide from east to west, with a cultural layer about 2 meters thick, covering an area of 12,000 square meters. It belongs to both the Longshan Culture and the Shang-Zhou Culture periods.

In 1978, it was designated as a county-level cultural heritage protection unit by the People’s Government of Xiangcheng City. The cultural relics management authorities of Xiangcheng City have conducted multiple investigations and excavations here. Unearthed artifacts include stone shovels, stone knives, arrowheads, and more. Several human skulls were discovered at a depth of 1 meter on the eastern side of the southern end of the site, suspected to be from a sacrificial pit for slaves. Based on stratigraphic analysis along the riverbank, the first layer is a fill soil layer, 28 centimeters thick, containing coarse rope-patterned pottery shards and round tile fragments—artifacts from the Zhou Dynasty. The second layer, 20 centimeters thick, yielded pottery fragments with coarse rope patterns, as well as artifacts such as li tripods, ding cauldrons, and jue cups with handles—relics from the Shang Dynasty. The third layer included gray pottery shards and polished black pottery, with artifacts such as high-necked jars, ding tripods, flat-bottomed bowls, and basins. The entire site is predominantly of the Longshan Culture, and the discovered sacrificial pit for slaves is extremely rare among Shang Dynasty sites in eastern Henan. It provides valuable evidence for studying the nature of slave society during the Shang Dynasty and adds new historical material to the field.