Xihe Site

The Xihe Site is one of the typical sites of the Houli Culture, the earliest known Neolithic culture in Shandong Province.

It is located approximately 500 metres north of the Third Longshan Village, Longshan Sub-district, Zhangqiu City, and about 1,600 metres west of the Chengziya Site. The major cultural remains belong to the Houli Culture period. There are also a small number of relics and artefacts from the Dawenkou Culture, Longshan Culture, as well as the Han and Tang dynasties.

The site stretches roughly 400 metres from north to south and 300 metres from east to west, covering an area of around 120,000 square metres. Dating back 8,400 to 7,700 years, it represents the earliest archaeological cultural remains discovered so far in Shandong, filling the gap in research on the transition from the Paleolithic Age to the Neolithic Age in this region.

Three rounds of surveys and excavations were carried out in 1991, 1993 and 1997. A large number of house foundations, ash pits and ash trenches of the Houli Culture were uncovered, together with quantities of intact pottery wares.

As a well-preserved and large-scale typical settlement site of the early Neolithic culture in Shandong, the Xihe Site provides crucial scientific data for academic studies on the cultural features, chronology and phases, economic life, social structure and settlement patterns of early Neolithic civilisations in the lower reaches of the Yellow River.

It was listed among China’s Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries of 1997. On June 25, 2001, the State Council designated it as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level.