Qiangtouling Silver Smelting Site

Qiangtouling Silver Smelting Site

The Qiangtouling Silver Smelting Site is a cultural heritage site protected at the provincial level in Shanxi Province.

Qiangtouling Silver Smelting Site (Fifth Batch of Provincial-Level Protected Sites)

Era: Ming Dynasty

Location: At the foot of Dongpojian Mountain, east slope of Touling Village, a natural village of Diaquan Village, Liuke Township, Lingqiu County, Datong City

The site is situated in the loess hilly mountainous area in the eastern part of Liuke Township. To the east of the site is Dongpojian Mountain, where waste slag from silver smelting is piled up along the mountain slope. It stretches approximately 500 meters from north to south and about 60 meters from east to west, covering an area of around 30,000 square meters.

The initial smelting period is unclear. According to the inscription on the Yiyong Temple stele in the village, there were mining sites for smelting here as early as the Ming Dynasty. This indicates that this place was engaged in traditional silver smelting no later than the Ming Dynasty. Currently, abandoned slag, stone millstones used for ore crushing, and stone rollers are scattered at the foot of the mountain and inside and outside the village. The slag is packed in cylindrical tubes made of kaolin clay, with diameters of 5.5–6.5 cm and lengths of 0.3–0.4 meters. There are about ten or more stone rollers, placed under the walls of villagers’ homes, with diameters of around 0.5 meters and lengths between 0.5–0.6 meters, made of bluestone. Two stone millstones remain, with diameters of about 1.8 meters each. Smelting process: Ore was mined and crushed to the size of soybeans, then placed into the kaolin-molded cylinders. In the kiln, stone was arranged to form something similar to a firing hole. The cylinders filled with ore were neatly stacked on top of the firing holes, with charcoal burning underneath. The required temperature reached 1500–1600 degrees Celsius. After cooling, the silver settled at the bottom of the cylinders. The lower parts of the cylinders were then broken to retrieve the silver, and the cylinders were discarded. As a result, the site is littered with remnants of these cylinders, with the thickest accumulation reaching about 10 meters.

This silver smelting site covers a wide area, is large in scale, and has a long history of operation, making it of significant reference value for the study of the history of silver smelting.

The site is extensive in area and large in scale, with abundant surface relics including smelting slag, ore waste, stone millstones, stone rollers, and crucibles. Currently, there are very few mining and smelting sites primarily for silver smelting discovered in the province. This site is relatively well-preserved and holds certain representativeness, filling a gap in this field within the province.

In 2016, the Qiangtouling Silver Smelting Site was listed as part of the Fifth Batch of Provincial-Level Cultural Heritage Protected Sites in Shanxi Province.

Source: Shanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of Provincial-Level Cultural Heritage Protected Sites in Shanxi Province