Luoyang Miaonan Kiln Site

Luoyang Miaonan Kiln Site

The Luoyang Miaonan Kiln Site is a cultural relic protection unit of Henan Province.

The Miaonan Kiln Site is located southeast of Miaonan Village in the old city district of Luoyang, Henan Province, north of the Datang Palace Building Materials Market, about 30 meters east of Dingding Road, and adjacent to the Sui-Tang palace city to the south. The kiln area lies in the transitional zone from the Beimang Mountain to the He-Luo Plain, featuring higher terrain in the north and lower in the south. The location has deep layers of loess, providing ample raw materials for brick and tile production. About two hundred meters east of the kiln area, there is a north-south ditch that may have served as a water source.

The kiln area is pit-style, approximately 57 meters long from east to west and 22 meters wide from north to south. The kiln openings are symmetrically arranged along the central axis from north to south, with both ends being circular and arc-shaped. There are a total of 18 kilns, divided into two rows of nine each — a northern row and a southern row — with the kiln openings facing each other in pairs. Each kiln shares the same structure, with slight variations in size. The operating trench is about 40 meters long and 4 meters wide. There are four exits leading from the pit to the surface — one each to the east, west, south, and north — all designed as slopes. Each kiln has an independent opening, consisting of an operating pit and a kiln chamber. The kiln chamber is made up of the kiln door, firebox, kiln bed, flue, flue chamber, and flue window. The kiln chamber has a horseshoe-shaped floor plan, with limited preservation of the top section. From the remaining parts, the roof appears slightly arched and flat, about 25 centimeters thick, and each kiln chamber has a volume of around 15 cubic meters.

Taking Y18 as an example, it is described as follows: Y18 is located at the western end of the northern row and is relatively well-preserved. The operating pit is situated on the eastern side outside the kiln door, circular in shape, with a diameter of 1.2 meters. The kiln door has a remaining height of 1.1 meters and a width of 0.5 meters. The firebox is located between the kiln bed and the kiln door, shaped like a crescent moon, and is 0.5 meters lower than the kiln bed. The kiln bed is narrower in the front and wider in the back, with rounded edges on both sides — 2.6 meters wide at the front and 3.2 meters wide at the back, and 2.7 meters in length. There are five flue openings on the rear wall of the kiln chamber, with the middle one being the main flue, and two square exhaust openings on either side of the lower part of the main flue. At the back of the rear wall is the main flue chamber, which has a peach-shaped facade and a rectangular chimney opening.

Based on excavation findings, some kiln walls still bear remnants of text, though most inscriptions are faint and require further identification. Among them, the text on Y6 is the name “Han Zhenfeng.” Additionally, crossed diagonal line patterns are carved on the rear wall of the kiln chamber, the meaning of which awaits further study.

The unearthed artifacts mainly include bricks, tiles, tile ends, pottery fragments, and Tang Sancai (tri-colored glazed pottery) fragments from the Tang Dynasty. The bricks come in two types: rectangular and square. The rectangular bricks are either plain or rope-patterned, while the square bricks are typically embossed with lotus patterns. The tiles consist of tubular and flat varieties, both plain. Tile ends are also predominantly lotus-patterned. Only one circular terracotta water pipe was found, located in the flue chamber of Y2. The pottery fragments are broken, making it difficult to identify their shapes. Most of the Tang Sancai pieces are also fragmented, although one relatively intact Sancai dish features a lotus-patterned design.

This kiln site is large in scale, systematically arranged, and well-preserved. It is currently the most intact brick and tile kiln site discovered in China. According to preliminary research, these kilns are closely related to the construction of the Sui-Tang Luoyang City. They help explain the source of building materials for construction projects after the ban on firing bricks and tiles within the Sui-Tang Luoyang City after the 19th year of the Kaiyuan era. Furthermore, the kiln walls also retain information on the origins of the laborers who built them, which holds significant importance for studying the corvée labor system of the Tang Dynasty.

The bricks and tiles unearthed from this site are notably large in size, with tubular tiles reaching over 50 centimeters in length, and square bricks featuring exquisite relief carvings that are uncommon and not used in ordinary civilian architecture. These items fully demonstrate an imperial grandeur and represent the highest level of architectural craftsmanship in China during the Tang Dynasty.

The preservation of this site enriches the cultural significance of the Sui-Tang Luoyang City, adds to the visiting content of Luoyang during the Tang Dynasty, and revives the profound essence of Tang culture.

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of Cultural Relic Protection Units of Henan Province