Shenna Site

Shenna Site

The Shenna Site is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Shenna Site is located on the western platform of Maosheng Temple on Xiaqiao Street in Chengbei District, Xining City, Qinghai Province. The platform is bordered by Xiaqiao Street to the east, and a gully separates it from the slopes of Daxishan Mountain to the west. The gully contains a spring, and spring water flows from north to south (originally flowing into the Huangshui River, but now dried up). To the north, there is an east-west gully commonly known as Wayaogou.

The site covers a total area of about 100,000 square meters, shaped like a rectangle. The western, northern, and southern sides of the platform are relatively neat, while there is a gap in the middle of the eastern side (a closed small gully, locally called Xiaoyaogou). In the central-western section, due to land subsidence from diverting water for irrigation, it was later leveled into a terraced field about 40×40 meters in size and about 2 meters lower than the platform. A substation and residential area have been built in the southeast of the platform, and there are five residential houses in the northern part of Xiaoyaogou, with the rest retaining their original appearance. The entire platform is covered with ancient cultural remains, with no blank areas. The northeastern part is the Majiayao Culture area, covering about 50×50 meters. The northern end has a small number of Kayue Culture relics, while the rest are Qijia Culture remains. Originally dry farmland for wheat, the platform was later converted to irrigated land and leveled multiple times, which damaged the original overlying soil and upper cultural layers, with parts exposed—especially in the central part of the platform.

Pottery shards, animal bones, and scattered stone tools can be found throughout the platform. The cliff edges and the exposed sections of Xiaoyaogou in the east reveal ash layers, ash pits, and multiple white lime-plastered house foundations, with cultural deposits exceeding 2 meters in thickness.

In 1992 and 1993, the Qinghai Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Xining Municipal Cultural Relics Management Office conducted trial excavations at the site, uncovering an area of 2,000 square meters. The excavation area was mainly on the southwestern edge of the platform. Five houses, ten ash pits, eight tombs, and approximately ten thousand artifacts (including pottery shards) were unearthed. The cultural deposit layers are roughly divided into upper and lower strata, with more sandy coarse pottery shards in the upper layer and more clay red pottery shards in the lower layer. The pottery is exquisitely made, fired at high temperatures, with hard and thin walls. The vessel shapes are diverse, including jars, urns, basins, zun vases, li tripods, and serving platters (made by cutting a large flat-bottomed jar into four sections before firing). Stone tools unearthed include stone axes, stone knives, stone chisels, stone adzes, stone arrowheads, and discoid tools, with the latter being the most numerous. A small number of bone awls, bone needles, bone arrowheads, and one large bronze spearhead were also found.

Three of the houses had white lime floors and plastered walls, all roughly square, semi-subterranean structures with doors opening to the west. Each had a circular hearth in the center, and the corners of the pits had slight curves. The wall plaster was uniformly thin and smooth, and the floor plaster was about 4–5 cm thick, hard and smooth. One house lacked lime features—it was round, with a door facing south, and semi-subterranean. Another was square, with irregularly arranged postholes around the house and inside, the interior floor was paved with dark brown soil, and the hearth was located outside in a winnowing-basket shape. The rest were too disturbed to determine their exact structures. Most ash pits were round with flat bottoms, slightly inward-curving walls, and smaller openings than bases. Four tombs were arranged between two of the lime-plastered houses, all rectangular earthen pit graves for single burials, with minimal grave goods.

The Shenna Site is large in area, with thick cultural deposits and extremely rich content. Based on trial excavations, Qijia Culture remains and artifacts are the most abundant, making it a significant tribal settlement from the Qijia Culture period. The site is generally well-preserved.

In May 2006, the Shenna Site was approved by the State Council to be included in the sixth batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further Reading:

· Sixth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units