Lu Temple Ruins

Lu Temple Ruins

The Lu Temple Ruins are a protected cultural heritage site of Henan Province.

Lu Temple Ruins

The Lu Temple Ruins are located on a terrace west of Lusi Village in Tianchi Town. They were discovered in June 1958, stretching 150 meters from east to west and 300 meters from north to south. In November 1959, during the construction of a reservoir in Lusi Village, Chen Huanyu, leader of the Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Work Team, led the first excavation here. Three test pits were opened, uncovering 19 storage pits, five tombs, with an excavation area of 360 square meters. The site features ash layers 2–3 meters thick, containing two cultural strata from the Western Zhou and Shang dynasties. The upper layer, with grayish-brown soil, yielded thick-walled coarse rope-patterned basins, urns, short-legged li tripods, pottery dou (bean pots), as well as polished stone knives, axes, and sickles—artifacts from the Western Zhou. The lower layer, with soft, dark gray soil, produced fragments of pottery such as urns, basins, dou, jars, gui (food vessels), lids, ding (tripods), jue (wine cups), and zeng (steamer baskets), along with stone knives, axes, arrowheads, shell knives, spinning whorls, deer antlers, and oracle bones from the Shang Dynasty. The Shang Dynasty layer is thicker and richer in artifacts, predominantly comprising gray sandy pottery and gray clay pottery, with fewer black clay and brown clay pieces. Rope patterns dominate the decorations, with stripes and attached ridge patterns present in very small quantities. Sandy pottery includes ding, deep jars, and small-necked zun (wine vessels); black clay pottery includes flat-bottomed basins and dou; brown clay pottery is represented only by urns. In the winter of 1983 and spring of 1984, the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and the Mianchi County Cultural Center conducted a second excavation here while excavating the spillway for the Lusi Village reservoir. Five test pits and trenches were opened, covering an area of 400 square meters. Discoveries included house foundations, tombs, and pottery kilns, with a rich array of unearthed objects. New finds featured brittle, thick-walled pottery shards with very low firing temperatures, simple shapes, and light red coloration, as well as higher-fired, thin-walled, hard red pottery shards and white-painted pottery. There were also pottery urns and jars adorned with grid and basket patterns. Additionally, copper slag, a small broken copper knife, and stone molds were found. Preliminarily, the site contains cultural remains from the Pre-Yangshao, Yangshao, Longshan, Erlitou, Shang, Western Zhou, and Spring and Autumn–Warring States periods, making it highly significant for the study of China’s Neolithic and Xia–Shang cultures. On June 20, 1963, the Henan Provincial People’s Government designated it as one of the first batch of provincial-level key cultural heritage protection units.

Lusi Village: Lusi Village…… Detailed information about Lusi Village++

Further Reading:

· First Batch of Protected Cultural Heritage Sites of Henan Province