Overlooking the excavation site of Zhongchuming Site. Photo by Yao Jieyang
Located in Yangdun Village, Leidian Town, Deqing County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, Zhongchuming Site is a large-scale jade workshop site group in the late Liangzhu culture.
The site covers an area of about 75,000 square meters, only 18 kilometers away from Liangzhu site group, adjacent to Tiaoxi and Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and facing Taihu Plain. About this place, it is recorded in Volume 2 of the New Records of Deqing County in the Republic of China: “Ancient jade with miscellaneous horns, rings and cloth pendants were excavated in the middle of the song, the lower song, mulberry breeding, Gao Qiao and the ground …”
Photo by Yao Jieyang at the excavation site of Zhongming Site
It is reported that the archaeological excavation of this site started in 2017. At present, the archaeological excavation of the fourth site is progressing in an orderly manner, and more than ten ancient wooden stakes have been newly discovered recently.
“At present, there are more than a dozen ancient wooden stakes, and we suspect that they may be the wooden stakes used as the bank protection of the earth platform slope in Liangzhu period.” Zhu Yefei, the person in charge of the site of Zhongchuming Site in Zhejiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that because the excavation work has not been completely finished, further dissection and cleaning are still needed.
“After it is completely revealed, we will make further judgment according to the relationship between the wooden stake and the earth platform. After that, we will also sample the wooden stake and determine the specific year and purpose of these wooden stakes according to carbon 14 dating.” Zhu Fei said.
In fact, as early as September 2017, Zhejiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology discovered and confirmed the Zhongchuming site here. Subsequently, the Institute, in conjunction with Deqing Museum, conducted a large-scale systematic investigation, exploration and excavation in the local area, and found and confirmed a number of sites, each of which had jade unearthed.
Photograph by Yao Jieyang, a cultural relic unearthed from Zhongming Site
“In recent years’ archaeological excavations, we have unearthed more than 3,000 pieces of cultural relics from Liangzhu period, among which jade and pottery are the main ones.” Zhu Fei said that the jade articles unearthed in this site are mostly small pieces of jade articles such as jade cones and pipes, which is of great significance for studying the production mode of jade articles and the source, transportation, distribution and consumption of jade materials in Liangzhu culture period.
As a new content of the field archaeology of Liangzhu culture, the site of the middle and early Ming Dynasty is also an important academic growth point of Liangzhu culture. In terms of production scale, this site is the largest jade workshop site group found in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in Liangzhu period. In view of the importance of the site, the excavation and research of the site in the middle and early Ming Dynasty has been included in the “13th Five-Year Plan” major special project of China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage, “Archaeological China: Study on the Regional Civilization Model of the Lower Yangtze River-From Songze to Liangzhu”. (End)