Turtle Mountain Ruins

Turtle Mountain Ruins

The Turtle Mountain Ruins are a cultural tourism attraction.

The Turtle Mountain Ruins are located in Nanhé Township within Hanchuan City, where there is a small hill shaped like a turtle. This limestone hill, about 50 meters high, was surrounded by water on three sides in ancient times, making it suitable for human habitation. In the winter of 1972, local residents quarrying stone discovered a two-hole stone shovel, a fossilized elephant tusk belonging to Stegodon orientalis, as well as saber-toothed tiger teeth and a mastodon brow ridge horn fossil. In 1973, the Hubei Provincial Archaeological Team conducted surveys and excavations here, uncovering ancient cultural layers. The first layer is about one meter thick and yielded gray pottery fragments with plain pottery spinning whorls; most of the pottery li tripod fragments featured added coil patterns and cord markings, along with a bronze fish needle and fragments of bronze ware. The second layer, also about one meter thick, produced more red pottery, mostly cord-marked and handmade, as well as over 50 artifacts including stone axes, stone adzes, stone shovels, fired clay, and li tripod leg supports. Based on the characteristics of these artifacts, the first layer dates back to the Western Zhou Dynasty, while the second corresponds to the Neolithic Age. In 1973, the Hanchuan County People’s Government designated Turtle Mountain as a cultural heritage protection site of Hanchuan.