Simaoling Site

Simaoling Site

The Simaoling Site is a cultural relic protection unit of Hunan Province.

The Simaoling Site is located in Youyi Village, Shatou Town, Ziyang District, Yiyang City. The terrain of the site is flat and situated close to the Zi River, making it an ideal place for human habitation. Dozens of ancient cultural sites from the same period or slightly later have been discovered near the site, forming an ancient cultural site settlement cluster. The site is now approximately 1.5 kilometers from the Zi River and about 2 kilometers east-west from Shatou Town. Since its discovery, the site has remained well-preserved. From the 1950s to the 1980s, local villagers dug an east-west canal about 4 meters wide and 2.5 meters deep, as well as another canal about 3 meters wide and 1.5 meters deep, in the central part of the site. Buildings constructed on the site have not damaged the ancient remains. Roads, farmland, and vegetable plots on the site are located 0.8–1.5 meters above the cultural layer, causing no damage to the site.

The site mainly features pottery mixed with sand and carbon, often dark grayish-black in body, with relatively hard texture. The surface is predominantly dark brown, and the thickness of the pottery body varies. There are also fine-sand clay white pottery and earthenware white pottery. The decorative patterns mainly consist of stamping and incised designs, with fine-sand clay white pottery featuring harmonious combinations of intaglio and relief patterns, giving a three-dimensional effect. The vessel types are predominantly ding (tripods), guan (jars), fu (cauldrons), and dou (bean-shaped vessels). Analysis of the main cultural elements of this site reveals certain shared cultural characteristics with the Daxi Culture of the Dongting Lake region and contemporaneous remains in surrounding areas. Many fu and guan found at the site bear similarities to those discovered at the Dingjiagang site, while the three-legged plates resemble those from the first phase of the Guanmiaoshan site in Zhijiang, Hubei. The perforated cup-shaped vessels are similar to pottery cups unearthed from the Huangjiayan site in Wangjiang, Anhui, indicating that while the site was influenced by contemporary cultures in surrounding regions, it was also strongly impacted by external cultures. However, the site is more notably characterized by its own distinctive features. Like the nearby Caijiayuan, Shizuotou, and Mayintang sites along the Zi River, it is defined by basic features such as pottery ding, fu, guan, and dou, forming the core cultural content of the site and reflecting the traits of the Daxi Culture period in the Zi River basin.

Through comparison and analysis with similar cultural remains in surrounding areas, the cultural content of this site differs from its neighbors, representing a localized type of the Daxi Culture period with an independent group of artifacts. In terms of chronology, some pottery exhibits early Daxi Culture traits, suggesting its earliest phase may correspond to the early Daxi Culture, extending into the middle or slightly later periods.

The Simaoling Site is an important cultural remnant from the Daxi Culture period in the southern Dongting Lake region and serves as a typical representative of the Daxi Culture in this area following the Tangjiagang Culture.

After the Pengtoushan Culture (9000 years ago), the Zaoshi Lower Layer Culture (7500 years ago), and the Tangjiagang Culture (6500 years ago) in the Dongting Lake region, the Daxi Culture became the dominant culture along the Dongting Lake and the middle and lower reaches of the Zi River during this period, exerting far-reaching influence and playing a significant role in the development of Neolithic culture throughout the Dongting Lake region. The pottery shards collected from the site exhibit primitive forms with characteristics of early Daxi Culture. Among them, the white pottery is fine-textured, regularly shaped, polished on the surface, and decorated with intricate patterns, representing unprecedented development based on the Tangjiagang Culture. The Simaoling Site shares common features of the Daxi Culture in the Dongting Lake region but also possesses unique traits of the middle and lower Zi River area, presenting a sharp contrast to the Yuan River and Xiang River basins. Local variations exist, and the collected pottery specimens reflect characteristics of the early, middle, and late Daxi Culture periods. The cultural sequence is clear, and the evolutionary process is orderly, providing valuable data for studying the periodization of the Daxi Culture in the Dongting Lake region. The Simaoling Site is covered by 1–2 meters of silt, which has helped preserve it intact—a rarity among contemporaneous cultural remains in the surrounding areas.

Investigations confirm that the Simaoling Site had comprehensive settlement defense facilities, including a moat encircling the site and merging with the ancient Zi River channel, forming a protective barrier. Protecting this site will provide scientific information and data for studying the settlement patterns, social structures, economic conditions, and daily life of the Neolithic Age. Located at the junction of the Dongting Lake Plain and the Zi River alluvial plain, the original topography of the site has been buried under silt, with former hills and terraces transformed into a flat landscape. Research and excavation at the Simaoling Site can yield crucial data for a range of scientific topics, including ecological environment, geomorphological changes, ancient vegetation, ancient climate, and ancient human environments.

Youyi Village: Youyi Village... More details about Youyi Village++

Further Reading:

· Ninth Batch of Cultural Relic Protection Units of Hunan Province