Zhaobaogou Site

Zhaobaogou Site

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

The Zhaobaogou cultural site is located in Aohan Banner, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Well-preserved sites of the Zhaobaogou cultural type include: the Xiaoshan Site, 25 kilometers northeast of Xinhuizhen Town in Aohan Banner, 500 meters southwest of the Xinglongwa cultural site, in Zhao Baogou Village, Gaojiawopu Township; as well as Shaoguo Di and Nantaidi in Aohan Banner. The Zhaobaogou culture and the Xinglongwa culture were successive, with the prototype of the former forming in the middle to late periods of the latter.

The Zhaobaogou Site covers an area of approximately 90,000 square meters. The house foundations are square or rectangular in plan, with some being trapezoidal, all semi-subterranean structures arranged in rows. Compared to the Xinglongwa culture, the settlement scale of the Zhaobaogou culture was significantly larger, but the two share strong similarities in community layout, such as the row arrangement of houses and variations in size. These commonalities are related to factors like the same region, similar technological levels, and direct cultural inheritance, but are more fundamentally attributed to similar economic models.

The main characteristic of stone tools in the Zhaobaogou culture is the coexistence of polished tools and a rich variety of microliths. Stone production tools mainly include pointed arc-blade stone spades, flat stone axes, arc-blade stone knives, grinding plates, and grinding rods. It can be seen that the Zhaobaogou culture made certain advancements over the Xinglongwa culture in terms of production tools.

The pottery unearthed from the Zhaobaogou culture is mostly sandy clay, with colors ranging from yellowish-brown to reddish-brown. The pottery was all handmade, with relatively simple shapes but more variety than those of the Xinglongwa culture. The zun-shaped vessel is one of the typical pottery forms of the Zhaobaogou culture. It features a narrowed or straight mouth, a long thick neck, a flat round belly, and a slightly concave base. After polishing the surface, geometric patterns were often incised or pressed onto the belly. Some zun-shaped vessels even have intricately stamped animal designs on their bellies. The treatment of animal heads combines realistic and exaggerated artistic techniques to highlight the most distinctive features of the animals. Particularly noteworthy are the pig-dragon, flying deer, and divine bird unearthed from the Xiaoshan Site, which demonstrate ingenious artistic conception. The pig-headed, snake-bodied zun-shaped vessel is one of the earliest pieces of evidence of dragon worship in China, indicating that the Inner Mongolia region is also an important birthplace for exploring the origins of the Chinese dragon. The pig-dragon, phoenix-bodied, and flying deer zun-shaped vessels suggest that social stratification was already pronounced at the time. These earliest "artistic ritual objects" predate the dragon and tiger clay reliefs at the Xishuipo site in Puyang, Henan (dating back 6,000 years) by over a thousand years.

In the Zhaobaogou culture, no dedicated ritual sites have been discovered, so it is likely that ritual activities were conducted indoors at the time. The zun-shaped vessels engraved with spirit animal patterns served as ritual tools for praying for successful hunting. This indicates that hunting played an important role in the economic life of the Zhaobaogou ancestors, and religious ceremonies were also largely related to it. The Xinglongwa people directly used animal skulls for rituals, while the Zhaobaogou people depicted the animals they commonly hunted on pottery for ritual purposes.

The Zhaobaogou culture emerged slightly later than the Xinglongwa culture but earlier than the Hongshan culture. As part of early Neolithic culture, the three share clear inheritances and developments in religious traditions. The Zhaobaogou culture shares many similarities with the Hongshan culture, and in some aspects (such as the inevitable close connection between the Zhaobaogou pig-dragon and the Hongshan pig-headed, snake-bodied jade dragon, as well as the zizig patterns stamped on the bellies of pottery from both cultures), it even surpasses the Hongshan culture. Therefore, the Zhaobaogou culture had a significant influence on the development of the Hongshan culture.

In May 2006, the Zhaobaogou Site was designated as part of the sixth batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units by the State Council.

Further Reading:

· Sixth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units