Tuanjie Cemetery

Tuanjie Cemetery

Tuanjie Cemetery is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Tuanjie Site is located on a flat area about 150 meters east of Tuanjie Village, Hake Town, Hailar District, Hulunbuir City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It lies approximately 20 kilometers west of Hailar District, 2 kilometers north of the Hailar River, and 3 kilometers south of the Binzhou Railway. The northern, eastern, and western sides of the site are flat and open, now converted into farmland, while the southern side has slightly higher terrain, now used as pasture. Parts of the grassland have been damaged, and years of wind erosion have created sand pits of various sizes.

The site was first discovered during the 1985 cultural relics survey, when stone arrowheads, blades, cores, and a small number of pottery fragments were collected from sand pits exposed on the surface. In August 1999, a farmer from Tuanjie Village voluntarily handed over several jade and stone artifacts unearthed during plowing to the Hulunbuir Ethnic Museum. Based on this lead, the museum conducted three investigations around Tuanjie Village, locating the exact spots where the jade and stone artifacts were found. A collection of stone arrowheads, blades, pottery fragments, and one jade ring was gathered, along with fragments of human bones. Given the significance and uniqueness of these finds, in late October 1999, the Inner Mongolia Team of the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and the Hulunbuir Ethnic Museum jointly conducted a fourth investigation of the Tuanjie Site. Within a 50-square-meter area in the middle of the farmland, over 20 stone artifacts were collected, including arrowheads, blades, and scrapers, along with one small jade adze with cutting edges on both ends. Colored pottery was also identified among the pottery fragments for the first time. Most of these artifacts were found in the plowed soil layer, which is relatively concentrated in distribution and also contained human bone remains, suggesting that the area was originally a cemetery but had been disturbed, with the number of tombs remaining unknown. The plowed soil layer is black and sandy in texture, while the layer beneath it consists of yellowish-gray sandy soil, which is relatively pure. Below is a categorized introduction to the collected artifacts, along with comparisons to relevant archaeological data, illustrating the cultural nature, age, and significance of the Tuanjie Site.

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units