Xiaoke Longshan Culture Site

Xiaoke Longshan Culture Site

The Xiaoke Longshan Culture Site is a cultural heritage protection unit of Hebei Province.

The Xiaoke Site is located 250 meters east of Xiaoke Village, approximately 12 kilometers northwest of Zhengding County, and spans both Xiaoke and Beizaoxian villages. In the autumn of 1981, students from Beizaoxian Middle School often picked up stone axes, stone spades, and other items from a field east of Xiaoke Village. The Zhengding Cultural Relics Protection Office promptly investigated and found several ash pits and patches of red burned earth at the exposed section of the site. They also collected polished black pottery, gray pottery, red pottery, and sand-tempered red pottery fragments, as well as stone tools, bone implements, and shell artifacts.

Analysis of these artifacts revealed objects such as pottery li tripods, large-mouthed zun vessels, large urns, dou stem bowls, jars, stone axes, stone spades, stone adzes, stone pestles, shell saws, and oracle bones. Pottery shard decorations included basketry patterns, cord marks, combing marks, fingernail impressions, checkerboard patterns, and concentric circles. It was identified as a Longshan Culture site.

The Longshan Culture was distributed across the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. Its production tools featured highly developed polished stone implements, including stone sickles and shell sickles. Pottery began to be made using the potter’s wheel, predominantly gray pottery, followed by black pottery, with very little red or white pottery. In addition to flat-bottomed vessels, there were ring-footed and three-legged types. Decorations included cord marks, basketry patterns, checkerboard patterns, and string patterns, along with perforated designs. Oracle bones also appeared during this period. In addition to displaying typical Longshan Culture features, the Xiaoke Site also contains elements of the Shang Dynasty culture.

The site is rectangular in shape, approximately 320 meters long from east to west and 100 meters wide from north to south. On July 23, 1982, it was designated as a Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit of Hebei Province.

Further Reading:

· Second Batch of Hebei Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units