Dajing Ancient Copper Mine Site

Dajing Ancient Copper Mine Site

The Dajing Ancient Copper Mine Site is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Dajing Ancient Copper Mine Site is located 1 kilometer north of Dajing Natural Village, Zhongxing Village, Guandi Town, Linxi County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It is a Bronze Age site dating back approximately 2,900 to 2,700 years. The site has a simple cultural profile, belonging to the Upper Xiajiadian Culture, and is the earliest discovered copper mine in China that integrated all processes including mining, smelting, and casting.

The main remains of the site are concentrated on hills and slopes, including mining pits, smelting crucibles, and remnants of workshop structures. There are a total of 47 open-pit mining pits, the longest being 102 meters and the shortest 7–8 meters, with widths ranging from 0.8 to 2.5 meters and depths from 7 to 9 meters. The pits are not interconnected and include both longitudinally dug pits following the slope and horizontally dug ones.

The discovery of the Dajing Ancient Copper Mine Site not only further confirms that as early as two or three thousand years ago, the ancestors of the Chinese nation lived and worked here, creating the splendid bronze culture of the Shang and Zhou dynasties through primitive yet labor-intensive efforts; but it also provides tangible evidence for the study of ancient copper mining, ore selection, smelting, and casting techniques, as well as their developmental levels in northern China. (National Cultural Heritage Administration)

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units