Chengziya Site

The Chengziya Site is located within the jurisdiction of Longshan Sub-district, Zhangqiu City. It is a rectangular terrace rising 3 to 5 metres above the surrounding flat land. Local villagers named it Chengziya, meaning "city wall cliff", for its resemblance to ancient city ramparts.

On April 4, 1928, Wu Jinding, a 28-year-old second-year anthropology student at the Research Institute of Chinese Studies, Tsinghua College in Beijing, was on his way to investigate the ancient Pingling city of the Han culture. When passing Chengziya, he chanced upon pottery shards, stone pieces, shells and animal bones. From these artefacts, he preliminarily judged that this place was highly likely to be an ancient cultural site of a certain era. On July 31 of the same year, he returned to Chengziya and unearthed an intact stone axe from a depth of 3.6 metres. Soon afterwards, he visited Longshan twice more and dug up previously unknown jet-black glossy pottery shards deep in the site. Wu Jinding thus recognised the immense historical significance of the cultural layers here.

In November 1930, an archaeological team led by Li Ji, Wu Jinding and other experts from the Institute of History and Philology of the former National Central Academy of Sciences launched the first excavation at Chengziya. A second excavation was carried out in 1931. The cultural deposits proved extremely thick, generally around four metres, and exceeding six metres at the thickest points. Two cultural layers were identified. The upper layer yielded pottery, stone implements, shell artefacts and a small number of bronze knives and other bronze wares. As most pottery here was grey, archaeologists named this phase the Grey Pottery Culture. The lower layer, approximately three metres thick, holds relics of early inhabitants dating back to the late Neolithic Age, also known as the Black Pottery Culture. A great number of exquisitely crafted black pottery vessels were unearthed. The eggshell black pottery, which is "black as lacquer, bright as a mirror, thin as eggshell and resonant as a chime stone", ranks among rare treasures.

This new black pottery culture dates back roughly 4,600 years, entirely different from the painted pottery culture discovered in western China. Since the excavation was conducted near Longshan Town, it was later officially named the Longshan Culture. The Chengziya Site has become a sacred landmark in the history of Chinese archaeology.

The excavation of Chengziya carried profound academic significance. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Western scholars' theory that "Chinese culture originated in the West" prevailed widely, and even many Chinese scholars of the Doubting Antiquity School fully accepted this claim. The excavation of the Chengziya Site and the confirmation of the Longshan Culture thoroughly refuted the Western-origin theory and offered solid evidence for the splendour of China’s 5,000-year civilisation.

The Chengziya Site Museum, the first prehistoric site museum in Shandong Province, covers an area of 20,000 square metres. Boasting a unique design and simple yet elegant shape, it was completed in September 1994. The museum displays precious cultural relics from the Xihe, Beixin, Dawenkou and Longshan cultures, with highlighted fine artefacts from three national key cultural heritage sites: the Xihe Site, the Chengziya Site and the Ancient City of Dongpingling.

The Xihe Site, one kilometre away from the museum, is among the most important Neolithic cultural sites discovered nationwide to date. The Ancient City of Dongpingling served as the administrative seat of Jinan Commandery and the Kingdom of Jinan in the early Han Dynasty, and it was the predecessor of Jinan, the provincial capital of Shandong. The newly excavated Luozhuang Han Mausoleum has caused a nationwide sensation, once again bringing this millennium-old ancient city back to life with primeval glory.

The nearby Longhu Scenic Area, with rippling blue waters and enchanting scenery, is an ideal destination for leisure and sightseeing. A tour of the ancient Longshan city and its natural landscapes will surely refresh your mind and make you reluctant to leave