The Lijiayao Site

The Lijiayao Site

The Lijiayao Site is a cultural heritage site protected at the provincial level in Henan Province.

The Lijiayao Site is located two kilometers southeast of the Guo State Tombs in Sanmenxia, Henan, and served as the capital city of the Guo State during the Zhou Dynasty.

The Lijiayao Site includes city walls, moats, a palace city, palaces, as well as workshops for bone processing, pottery making, bronze smelting, and grain storage. Among them, the southern wall has been washed away by the Qinglongjian River. The existing city walls form a rectangular shape, measuring approximately one thousand to one thousand and fifty meters from east to west, and five hundred sixty to six hundred ten meters from north to south, with a total perimeter of about three thousand two hundred meters. Two parallel moats encircle the outer perimeter of the city walls: the inner moat is about thirteen meters wide, while the outer moat ranges from fifteen to twenty-two meters wide and is four point three to six meters deep.

Between the palace city and the outer walls are distributed workshops for bone processing, pottery making, bronze smelting, and grain storage. The bone workshop yielded thousands of finished and semi-finished bone artifacts, along with raw materials and tools such as bronze saws and whetstones. The bronze smelting workshop revealed large amounts of slag and pottery molds. The pottery workshop contained well-preserved kilns, along with valuable artifacts including finished and semi-finished pottery items. In the grain storage area, a group of orderly arranged pits was discovered. These pits had been processed and were likely used as granaries for storing grain.

Experts believe that the discovery of the Shangyang City, the capital of the Guo State, holds great significance for the study and understanding of the development and evolution of ancient capitals. To date, not only has the aristocratic burial area of the Guo State been identified, but the city itself has also been confirmed, with a clear outline of its internal layout. Coupled with the continuous unearthing of a wealth of exquisite artifacts, this provides vital and precious physical evidence for a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of the Guo State, an important regional power during the Western Zhou period. It also establishes a clearly dated chronological marker for archaeological research on the Western Zhou Dynasty.

Further Reading:

· First Batch of Provincial-Level Cultural Heritage Protection Units in Henan Province