Quwo Fangcheng Site

Quwo Fangcheng Site

The Quwo Fangcheng Site is a cultural heritage site protected at the provincial level in Shanxi Province.

Fangcheng Site

Fangcheng Site (Second Batch of Provincial-Level Protected Sites)

Era: Neolithic Age

Location: Approximately 17 kilometers southwest of Quwo County, in Qucun Town

It lies to the north of Mount Ta’er and south of the Fu River, just separated by a mountain from the Taosi Site in Xiangfen. The terrain is higher in the north and lower in the south. Due to long-term erosion by mountain torrents, the ground features numerous gullies of varying sizes that are generally perpendicular to Mount Ta’er, running in a north-south direction—typical of the Loess Plateau landscape. The site was discovered in the late 1950s. In 1984, an excavation was carried out here, covering a total area of about 3 million square meters. Discoveries at the site include house foundations, pottery kilns, ash pits, and tombs. The house foundations consist of ground-level buildings, semi-subterranean structures, and cave-like dwellings. The pottery kilns are composed of two parts: kiln chambers arranged in a plane and fire pits. The kiln chambers are circular and bag-shaped, with three main flues and three branch flues each, while the fire pits are roughly square. Ash pits are commonly round or irregular in shape. Artifacts mainly include pottery, stone tools, and bone implements. The majority of pottery items are made of gray clay pottery and sand-tempered gray pottery; decorative patterns primarily feature cord marks and basket weave patterns; manufacturing techniques include wheel-throwing, mold-making, and hand-building. Common vessel types include li tripods, ding tripods, jars, small vessels, basins, bowls, plates, cups, lids, stands, and lids with handles. Stone tools are mainly axes, chisels, adzes, knives, scrapers, and arrowheads. Bone tools are relatively numerous as well, including needles, awls, and other implements.

· Second Batch of Shanxi Provincial Cultural Heritage Protection Units