Xinglonggou Site

Xinglonggou Site

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

Era: Neolithic

The Xinglonggou Site is located in the eastern part of Aohan Banner, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, on the left bank of the upper reaches of a tributary of the Daling River. The site is divided into three locations, belonging to settlements of the Xinglongwa Culture, Hongshan Culture, and Lower Xiajiadian Culture, respectively. From 2001 to 2003, the First Inner Mongolia Work Team of the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, conducted three excavations at the Xinglonggou Site, achieving significant results in aspects such as house structures, settlement layouts, in-house burial customs, economic patterns, primitive religious beliefs, and environmental archaeology. These findings have contributed to the research on the origins of civilization and the early stages of social development in the West Liaohe River Basin, as well as prehistoric cultural exchanges in Northeast Asia. The middle-period settlement of the Xinglongwa Culture covers a total area of approximately 50,000 square meters, making it the largest known site of its kind, dating back about 8,000–7,500 years. The surface features over 150 house foundation circles, distributed from east to west in three zones. Over the three years, 37 houses, 26 in-house burials, and more than 50 ash pits were excavated, yielding artifacts including pottery, stone tools, jade artifacts, bone tools, shell tools, animal bones, and natural stones. In May 2013, it was designated and announced by the State Council as part of the seventh batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units