Xiezidi Site

Xiezidi Site

The Xiezidi Site is a cultural tourism attraction.

The first phase of archaeological work at the Xiezidi Site in Luqiao, Daye, has recently been completed. Archaeologists have unearthed hundreds of artifacts from the late Neolithic period, as well as the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties. Particularly precious among them is rice that dates back 4,000 years. The discovery of these artifacts will help fill the gap in the archaeological cultural sequence of southeastern Hubei from the Neolithic period to the Western Zhou Dynasty.

The Xiezidi Site is located on a mountainside near Luqiao. It was excavated once before in 1983, yielding a large number of stone tools and pottery items. Recently, due to highway construction, archaeologists carried out rescue excavations at the site.

Yesterday, Luo Yunbing, an archaeology expert from our province, held up a sieve box containing rice grains as if it were a priceless treasure. The grains inside the box had been carbonized. Experts explained that these grains were scattered sporadically within the soil layer dating back 4,000 years, leading to the speculation that this area was once a settlement for ancient human communities.

Luo Yunbing noted that last summer, archaeologists excavating the Yejiamiao Site in Xiaogan discovered rice that dates back 5,000 years, providing physical evidence of ancient humans in the Yangtze River basin cultivating and consuming rice. The rice discovered this time, south of the Yangtze River, offers solid proof for studying the dietary structure of prehistoric people in southeastern Hubei during the Neolithic period and the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and is also valuable material for researching the ancient grain cultivation process in the Yangtze River basin.