Henan Province Releases Archaeological Achievements of the Baliqiao Site in Fangcheng County and the Progress of 2024 “Chinese Archaeology” Project

On September 13, the National Cultural Heritage Administration held a conference in Beijing to discuss the progress of the 2024 “Chinese Archaeology” project. The conference highlighted important updates on archaeological findings from several sites, including the Huangchaodun Site in Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province, the Caoyangang Site in Xinghua City, Jiangsu Province and the Baliqiao Site in Fangcheng County, Henan Province.

Overview of the Site

Location of the Site

The Baliqiao Site is situated in Chengzhuang Village, Zheyang Street of Fangcheng County, Henan Province, next to the west bank of the Pan River, which was named after the name of the local place. Located at the northeast corner of the Nanyang Basin, this area serves as a strategic chokepoint for guarding the transportation route between the Central Plain and the Jianghan Plain. Historically, it has been a significant site for north-south cultural exchanges and interactions. Supported by the “Chinese Archaeology” project experts and scholars from the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology and the Nanyang Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage have been conducting systematic excavations at the Baliqiao Site since 2022, which have made remarkable achievements.

Settlement Layout

Layout of the Site

The site has been confirmed by exploration as a large settlement featuring ring trenches. The southern ring trench measures 750 meters in length, while the western ring trench is approximately 1,800 meters long, encompassing an area of about 135 hectares. Additionally, there is a significant area of contemporaneous cultural remains on the east bank of the Pan River. The Baliqiao Site is recognized as the largest settlement center of the Erlitou Culture in southwestern Henan Province, dating from the second to the fourth phases of the Erlitou Culture.

In the site, eleven ditch remains were identified, which were measured as 8-12 meters wide and 2.5-3.7 meters deep, with a blank area of 5-8 meters on both sides. These ditch remains were crisscrossed and well-planned, dividing the southern areas into five relatively complete blocks, presenting a grid-shaped urban layout similar to that of the Erlitou Site.

Area C is a large rammed earth building concentrated distribution area that covers approximately 4.8 hectares. No. 1 rammed earth foundation is situated on a nearly rectangular yellow rammed pedestal, which indicates that a structure of a north-south orientation is composed of a courtyard at the front and surrounded corridors along with a columnar grid-shaped design. The main building spans 12 meters from south to north and 31 meters from east to west, covering an area of 372 square meters. On the south side, there are two doorways, each 1.5 meters wide, paved with gravel. No. 2 foundation is located on the east side of No. 1 foundation, consisting of only the south-west corner, which aligns with the condition of the No. 1 foundation and includes post holes. The two foundations are positioned next to each other, with No. 1 on the west side and No. 2 on the east side. The basic construction procedure involves leveling and compacting the large pit, along with ash pits, kilns, and other remnants formed for pottery production. Next, a layer of pure loess is rammed in, and more refined gray earth is used to pave the rammed earth perimeter. Surrounding the rammed earth foundation ruins are regularly shaped ash pits and a variety of unearthed pottery, which is noted for its exquisite craftsmanship and high quality. Most of the pottery is polished clay with a black skin finish and includes wine vessels, food vessels, storage containers, as well as vermilion-painted stone figures, jade handle-shaped vessels, and turquoise artifacts.  The artifacts could date back to the same period as the rammed earth foundation ruins and were presumably associated with the sacrificial pits of rammed earth constructions.

Area C of the Site

Wall ruins and handicraft remains were found in Area A. The investigated wall ruins were found in a zigzag pattern with a length of 190 meters in the south and 25 meters in the east. Due to the fact that the eastern part of the wall ruins has been damaged by the occupation of the national defense cables and the sand land, only a very small part of the area has been drilled. It was found that the eastern part of the wall extends to the sand land and the occupied area S103, with the total length of the eastern wall reaching approximately at least 150 meters. The main part of the wall was 4.5 to 5 meters wide, and the surviving part was 1.5 meters high, with an obvious rammed layer that was built several times, with both sides sloping. The widest part of the floor can reach 8-10 meters, partly built on the basis of the original ditch-like remains. Two human sacrifices were found at the bottom of the wall, both lying on their backs with straight limbs.

In the center of Area A, there was a significant deposit of gray and black soil, which contained a higher concentration of carbon particles, burnt soil fragments, and pieces of red-burnt soil. Surrounding this deposit, remnants of copper smelting were uncovered, including copper smelting slag and furnace walls. This evidence suggests the likely presence of a bronze ware smelting and casting industry in the area.

Four roads were identified, one of which, L2, was measured to be 320 meters long. Some areas show clear evidence of rutting, leading to a preliminary conclusion that there are seven groups of ruts spaced approximately 85 centimeters apart. This spacing is similar to that found at the Erlitou Site, which ranges from 88 to 92 centimeters. Additionally, the rutting marks are between 4 and 7 centimeters deep.

Roads

Unearthed Relics

Unearthed Pottery from Area H90

The site was abundant in excavated artifacts, including pottery, stoneware, jade ware, divination bones, turquoise ware, and various other relics.

The Baliqiao Site was rich in pottery, including big opening zuns, dings, deep-bellied pots, jues, hes, carved basins, steamer baskets, dous, basins, and lids. All the pottery combinations, characteristics and decorations were similar to those excavated from the Erlitou Site, reflecting the close correlation between the two places.

Unearthed Pottery from Area H57

The unearthed stone artifacts primarily included stone axes and chisels but did not include stone sickles, knives, or other agricultural tools, which confirmed indirectly that the living standard was high in the rammed-earth construction area.

Unearthed Stone Artifacts

It was found that Baliqiao yielded more turquoise objects, most of which were slices, with fewer ornaments and a small amount of waste, which suggested that there might have been artisanal workshops focused on processing turquoise slices at the site.

Unearthed Turquoises

In addition, many relics reflecting the situation of the spiritual life of the Baliqiao Site were excavated at the site, such as jade handle-shaped vessels, stone battle-axes, vermilion-painted stone figures, and carved symbols.

The Value of the Site

The Baliqiao Site covers an area of 135 hectares, whose functional zones are complete, rammed-earth construction area, handicrafts area, walls, roads and other facilities are discovered. Also, jade ware, divination bones, turquoise inlays, copper smelting remains and other high-grade relics are also unearthed, highlighting the Baliqiao Site of higher social productivity and social status, which is considered an important core settlement in the southern Xia Dynasty.

The site was formed in the second phase of the Erlitou Culture, which was the key period when the Xia Culture began to expand outward. The Xia Culture crossed the Fangcheng Pass into the Nanyang Basin, built a large number of the Erlitou Culture settlements. In the meantime, in the vicinity of the Fangcheng Pass, a large center of settlements at the Baliqiao Site was established for the control of the south, to ensure the safety of the royal capital, which has been proven as the key site in the critical period of the Xia Dynasty. It guaranteed the safety of mineral resources such as copper, turquoise and cinnabar from the south into the area of the royal capital, and was an important hub for the transit and control of the resources of the Erlitou royal capital.

The site maintained a high degree of consistency with the Erlitou Site in terms of settlement layout, functional zoning, pottery assemblage and artifact morphology, as well as the spiritual life, profoundly reflecting the high degree of intrinsic correlation that existed between the Baliqiao Site and the Erlitou Site.