Moubula Site

Moubula Site

The Moubula Site is a cultural tourism attraction.

Moubula Site

Located on the eastern slope of the middle section of Moubula Gully, north of Moubula Village, Dahua Township, Huangyuan County. It is surrounded by mountains to the northeast and Moubula Gully to the southwest. The area is relatively narrow, with yellowish-brown soil mixed with gravel. The site spans a maximum width of 40 meters from east to west and 150 meters from north to south. It was used as a burial ground during the Ming and Qing dynasties. In the early 1980s, the upper part of the site was leveled into terraced fields, and the front edge was an area where farmers extracted soil. Modern graves were densely scattered along the cliff edge, causing considerable damage. In 1987, the Qinghai Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute and the Huangyuan County Museum conducted rescue excavations at the site. Four residential houses and one tomb were discovered in the central-southern part of the site. The houses were roughly square, about 4×4 meters in size, and came in two structural types: one was semi-subterranean, with the interior floor paved with yellowish-brown earth, showing distinct tread layers. Around the perimeter, wooden stakes 10–15 cm in diameter were spaced about 40–50 cm apart and driven diagonally into the ground. The entrance faced south and was slightly inward-slanting, with hearths built from river cobbles beside the doorway and inside the house, alongside broken pottery li tripods and jars. The other type was ground-level, with a compact living surface made of clay mixed with fine sand, slightly sloping from front to back. In the center of the house was a hearth constructed from river cobbles, with fragments of broken pottery jars nearby and the interior filled with ashes of burnt sheep dung. All four houses had been damaged to varying degrees by later-period burials. The excavation of the Moubula Site has provided valuable insights into the living conditions during the Kayue Culture period. Its housing structures closely resemble those of nomadic tents, using rows of wooden stakes inserted into the walls—a method still used today in agro-pastoral transitional areas for building fences, kitchens, and storage rooms. The use of sheep dung as fuel also reflects its role as a primary energy source in pastoral regions. These findings indicate that the inhabitants primarily engaged in animal husbandry. The Moubula Site belongs to the Dahuazhuang type of Kayue Culture.