The Haitai Site

The Haitai Site is located to the north of Qingquan Village, Zhongchuan Tibetan Ethnic Township, Minhe Hui and Tu Autonomous County. Zhongchuan Township lies in the central part of a small basin situated between Sigou Gorge and Jishi Gorge. The basin is well-developed and divided into three stepped terraces, which are relatively broad and flat. The Haitai Site is situated at the southern edge of the third terrace, bordered by Qingquan Gully to the west, Hongya Gully to the east, and a large gentle slope of the terrace to the north, while facing Qingquan Village (commonly known as Qijia) to the south. The site covers an area of approximately 300×120 meters. Its western side is adjacent to Qingquan Gully, the southern edge lies within the campus of Zhongchuan Middle School, and the eastern part hosts a cluster of Han Dynasty tombs. Due to water diversion for irrigation, the site has been eroded and divided into eastern and western sections by water flow, with a large pit formed in the middle due to collapse. The ground is scattered with miscellaneous bones and pottery fragments, especially concentrated within the collapsed pit. Surrounding areas reveal ash layers, ash pits, and white-plastered house remains. In the eastern part, remnants of tombs can also be found. In 1980, the Qinghai Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Team excavated one tomb, two houses, and one ash pit here. The tomb was a rectangular earthen pit oriented from north to south, measuring 240 cm in length and 140 cm in width, containing the remains of two individuals — a male buried in a secondary burial style and a female in a lateral extended position facing the male. Burial objects included one double-handled red clay jar, two long-necked double-handled jars, one wide-mouth coarse pottery jar, one stone bi disk and ornaments, and twenty bone arrowheads. One house measured 410×350 cm, the other 310×300 cm; both were semi-subterranean structures. The floor was coated with a 0.3–0.5 cm thick layer of white plaster, and the walls had slightly arched corners that sloped inward at the top. Each house featured a circular hearth with a diameter of 114 cm in the center, surrounded by a ring of small white river pebbles. The two houses were about 20 meters apart, differing only in the direction of their entrances—one faced south, the other north. The ash pit was circular with a flat bottom. Both the ash pit and the interior of the houses were filled with ash-rich soil, mixed with numerous pottery fragments, miscellaneous bones, and scattered stone tools. The pottery fragments were predominantly made of red clay, followed by gray clay and sand-tempered pottery. Pottery types included plain and basket-patterned double-handled jars, abdominal-handled jars, spouted pottery basins, zun vessels, li tripods, sand-tempered coarse pottery flared-rimless jars, and urns. Stone tools comprised stone knives, stone axes, and disc-shaped implements. This is a fairly typical site of the Qijia Culture.