Wushan Ancient City Ruins

Wushan Ancient City Ruins

The Wushan Ancient City Ruins are a Chongqing Municipal Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Era: Han–Qing

Type: Ancient Ruins

Region: Wushan County, Chongqing

Batch: Second Batch

The Wushan Ancient City Ruins are located in Shenü Neighborhood Committee, Wuxia Town, Wushan County, on the northern bank of the Yangtze River. In 1997, 2000, 2003, and 2006, the site underwent comprehensive excavations by the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chongqing Municipal Institute of Archaeology, and the Wuhan Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. The ruins cover a distribution area of 20,000 square meters, with a total excavation area of 10,015 square meters. The cultural layer at the site ranges from 0.5 to 8.5 meters in depth. Multiple relics were unearthed, including sections of the city wall and brick-chambered and earthen-pit tombs dating back to the Han, Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties. A total of 1,328 artifacts were excavated, along with a large quantity of Eastern Zhou pottery shards, encompassing items made of jade, stone, bone, ivory, pottery, gold, copper, gilded metal, and porcelain. The site is divided into four major areas: the former site of the People’s Hospital, the southern city gate point, the former site of the Chengguan Grain Station, and the Wushan Normal School area. The former site of the People’s Hospital is dominated by the Daxi Culture, where over 1,000 artifacts and fishbone pits were discovered. The Wushan Normal School area revealed a relatively intact section of the Western Han Dynasty city wall of Wushan. A wealth of Han Dynasty artifacts and cultural remains indicates that Wushan was a significant cultural hub in the Three Gorges region, providing important evidence for studying the distribution range of the Daxi Culture and the development of cultures across various periods.