Kayue Culture Site

Kayue Culture Site

The Kayue Culture Site is a cultural tourism attraction.

Kayue Village Site

Located within and to the north of Kayue Village in Lijiashan Township, Huangzhong County. Lijiashan Township governs the entire Yungu Chuan area. The Yungu Chuan River originates from Jinei Mountain. In its upper reaches, it splits into an eastern and a western branch. Between these two branches lies a large, gently sloping river valley that runs from south to north and is high in the south and low in the north, locally referred to as Biēdiē Gōu (Turtle Fall Gully). The eastern and western rivers flow from north to south and converge to the south of Kayue Village, where the village is situated at the confluence of the two rivers. The Kayue Village site was discovered in 1924 by the Swedish archaeologist Johan Gunnar Andersson and is the type site for the Kayue Culture. The site covers a relatively large area, encompassing not only the entire village but also extending into the cultivated fields to the north of the village. The site can be divided into three sections: southern, northern, and western. The southern section is mostly buried under the village, with most of it consisting of farmers’ homes, and only a small number of tombs located at the southern edge. The northern section is a purely residential site, while the western section is a burial ground. In the southern section, beneath the foundations of farmhouses, there are thick layers of ash and burnt soil, and many farmhouse walls contain mixed bones and broken pottery shards. The northern section is about 40 meters from the village, on slightly higher ground, and remained well-preserved before the 1970s. It was designated as a provincial-level cultural heritage protection unit in 1958. In the autumn of 1981, in order to expand farmland, a bulldozer was used to level the site and fill in a small gully to the north. By the time of a follow-up survey in 1982, the land had not yet been cultivated, and the surface was scattered with rubble, bones, and pottery fragments, with the cultural layer exposed. Ash pits, house flooring made of red clay mixed with fine sand, and remnants of hearths were visible, and in some areas, the natural soil layer was exposed. By 1983, the land had been planted with wheat, and the site disappeared as a result. The western section is a burial ground where Andersson excavated several tombs. Due to years of soil extraction, the western part has been completely destroyed, while the eastern part is buried under the village. In 1983, the Qinghai Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Team cleared one damaged tomb within a farmhouse in the eastern part. It was a rectangular vertical pit with a side chamber, containing a single secondary disturbed burial, along with three pottery vessels and some ornaments. The Kayue Village site is not only the type site for the Kayue Culture, but also, judging by the distribution of Kayue Culture remains, the Yungu Chuan area contains a very dense concentration of Kayue Culture relics, making it one of the gathering areas of the Kayue people.