Xiaojingshan Site

The Xiaojingshan Site is located about 500 metres south of Jiazhuang Village, Diao Town, Zhangqiu City, covering a total area of approximately 240,000 square metres.

The site was discovered by the Zhangqiu Museum during a cultural relics survey in the spring of 1991. From October to December of the same year, the Jinan Cultural Relics Department carried out emergency excavation on the endangered section of the site. In the autumn of 1993, the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology launched a second excavation to further explore the cultural connotation of the site. The total area excavated in the two campaigns exceeded 600 square metres.

Excavation results show that the cultural deposit originally reached 1.5 to 2 metres in thickness. The cultural composition is relatively unitary, mainly consisting of relics of the Xihe Culture with distinct characteristics of a clan tribe.

A clan cemetery was unearthed at the Xiaojingshan Site. The tombs date back 8,000 to 9,000 years. The cemetery lies 30 metres southeast of the residential area. The graves are densely arranged in an east-west orientation. Each tomb is a rectangular vertical pit extending from north to south. The dominant burial practice was single supine interment with limbs fully stretched. A large number of stone, bone, shell and pottery artefacts were unearthed.

Most pottery consists of sandy reddish-brown and red ware, with a certain proportion of grey and grey-brown pottery. All pieces were handmade and fired at relatively low temperatures.

This site stands as one of the most important early Neolithic sites so far discovered in Shandong Province. It fills the archaeological gap of pre-Beixin cultures in Shandong and carries extremely high research value for understanding the civilisations of the Haidai region and other parts of China from the same period.

On May 25, 2006, the State Council designated the Xiaojingshan Site as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level.