Tianzhuangtuo Warring States Cultural Site in Tianjin

　　   Introduction        Located 20 kilometers north of Lutai Town, the county seat, and 200 meters southwest of Tianzhuangtuo Village, Banqiao Township, this site dates back to the Warring States and Han dynasties. It was discovered in 1953 and is situated at a higher elevation than the surrounding land, currently used as farmland. A trial excavation was conducted in 1979 over an area of 250,000 square meters, revealing a cultural layer about 0.4 meters deep. The surface is scattered with numerous fragments of sandy red pottery, gray pottery, and more. Relatively intact artifacts unearthed include pottery vessels, jars, urns, burial urns, bowls, sling bullets, net sinkers, spinning whorls. There are over six types of pottery jars, along with stone tools such as axes, bronze items, basins, mirrors, swords, clubs, ironware, furnaces, bone artifacts such as bone hairpins, lacquerware, plates, currency such as wuzhu and banliang coins, as well as yan and knife coins. Other finds include red-fired earth accumulations, clams, oysters, scattered shells, deer antlers, dog-head gold tiles, roof tiles, coffin wood, human skeletons, and more.

　　    Artifact decorations include: string patterns, rope patterns, stripe patterns, small grid patterns, blue patterns, and applied ridge patterns. Other fragments include: steamers, cauldrons, and pottery rims with quick stamp marks. The site was once a residential and burial ground during the Warring States and Han dynasties. On September 7, 1956, it was designated as a provincial-level protected site in Hebei Province, elevated to a municipal-level protected site in 1973, and reaffirmed as a protected site at the Tianjin municipal level on July 9, 1982.

　　 Ninghe County, Tianjin