Wenchenggang Iron Smelting Site

Wenchenggang Iron Smelting Site

The Wenchenggang Iron Smelting Site is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Wenchenggang Iron Smelting Site is located on a hill behind Wenchenggang Village in the southwest of Lushan County, Henan Province. It stretches from Yanjiagang in the east to the south of Herou Village in the west, and extends to Wenchenggang Village in the south. The site is approximately 1,200 meters long from east to west and 400 meters wide from north to south, covering a total area of 480,000 square meters. It consists of three connected slag mounds. The thickest layer of ash at the site reaches over six meters, and the surface is scattered with large amounts of ore powder, bluestone, charcoal, sand, slag, as well as remnants of iron smelting and casting such as broken molds, furnace bottoms, and other artifacts.

In the central and western parts of the site, rows and individual fired furnace bottoms, each about the size of a single room, have been discovered, with layers of red baked earth stacked upon each other. Farmers have continuously uncovered iron smelting relics during farming, and the side of a roadside ditch has revealed the structure of a small blast furnace, half of which is exposed, with a diameter of 2.3 meters. The furnace wall is built with sand-containing refractory bricks. A large number of casting relics such as shovel molds, hoe molds, and plowshare molds have also been found, along with clay molds and iron molds, including a plowshare mold inscribed with the characters “Yang Yi.”

From November 2000 to January 2001, the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, with the assistance of local cultural relics authorities, conducted archaeological excavations here. They unearthed an area of more than 2,000 square meters, discovering one complete Song Dynasty tile kiln, two intact Han Dynasty kilns, five Han Dynasty wells, and one Han Dynasty iron smelting blast furnace. A man-made water channel was also found, measuring 40 meters long, 2 meters wide, and 3 meters deep, along with numerous relics such as iron smelting air pipes, iron forks, and iron plowshares. The entire site shows continuous iron smelting activity for over 200 years, from the mid-Western Han Dynasty to the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, without interruption.

This Han Dynasty iron smelting blast furnace currently holds four national firsts: first, it is the largest, most complete, and most unique oval-shaped blast furnace discovered in China and the world; second, the iron tapping hole and slag tapping hole are separate, greatly improving work efficiency; third, it utilizes a natural river to power the blast into the furnace, saving a significant amount of labor; fourth, it is the first discovery of a filling work platform, which is scientific and rational, and had never been found before.

In June 1963, the Wenchenggang Iron Smelting Site was designated as a Provincial Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit by the People’s Government of Henan Province; in May 2006, the site was announced as part of the sixth batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units by the State Council.

Further Reading:

· First Batch of Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Sixth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units