Xiwusi Site

　　  Located southeast of Xiwusi Village, Xiaomeng Town, Yanzhou District, Jining City, Shandong Province, it is said to be about 500 meters north of the ancient course of the Zhaohe River, standing 1.5 to 2 meters above the ground. The site covers an area of 60,000 square meters. After its discovery in 1957, the Shandong Team of the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, along with cultural heritage authorities at the provincial, municipal, and county levels, conducted multiple surveys. In the spring of 1982, the Shandong Provincial Institute of Archaeology carried out a small-scale trial excavation. From the spring of 1984 to the end of 1985, the National Cultural Heritage Administration held three sessions of the “National Field Archaeology Leaders Training Class” at this site, opening a total of 138 excavation units and uncovering an area of 3,250 square meters, yielding over 1,400 cultural relics. The Xiwusi Site mainly features remains from the Longshan Culture and the Zhou Dynasty. Among the Longshan Culture relics are: ash pits, house foundations, wells, and tombs. Artifacts mainly include pottery, along with a small number of stone, bone, horn, tooth, and shell tools. The Zhou Dynasty cultural remains mainly consist of ash pits, as well as animal sacrifice pits, ash ditches, house foundations, hearths, pottery kilns, wells, and tunnels. The majority are pottery items, along with bronze, stone, bone, and horn artifacts. In 1977, the Xiwusi Site was designated as a Shandong Provincial Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit. By the end of 1986, land north of the ancient road ditch at the site was opened for use by the village’s brick kiln. In May 2013, it was announced by the State Council as part of the seventh batch of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level.