ShenNa site

ShenNa site

ShenNa site is located on the West platform of Maosheng temple, Xiaoqiao street, Chengbei District, Xining City, Qinghai Province. It is an ancient Qiang settlement village about 3500 years ago. It is a cultural relic of the transition from the Neolithic Age to the bronze age. It is located on the second terrace at the intersection of Huangshui River and its tributary Beichuan river. It starts from the shady slope in the north, ends at the tomb ditch in the south, faces the luangou in the west, and under the platform in the East is the ningzhang highway, with a total area of 100000 square meters.

The site is mainly inhabited by Qijia culture, with a small number of Majiayao culture, Majiayao type, Banshan type and kayo culture. According to the existing data, ShenNa site is one of the sites with large area, thick cultural layer, rich cultural connotation and good preservation status.

The site of ShenNa was discovered in 1948 by Pei Wenzhong, a famous archaeologist and anthropologist in China, and many fine cultural relics were unearthed.

The excavation and arrangement of the site of ShenNa is in intense progress. On May 25, 2006, as an ancient site from Neolithic to bronze age, ShenNa site was approved by the State Council to be listed in the Sixth Batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

geographical position

ShenNa site is located on the West platform of Maosheng temple, Xiaoqiao street, Chengbei District, Xining City, Qinghai Province. The platform is adjacent to Xiaoqiao street in the East, and a Honggou in the west is separated from the hillside of Daxishan mountain. There is a spring in the Honggou, which flows from north to South (originally flowing into Huangshui, but now stopped). In the north, there is an east-west ditch, commonly known as Wayaogou. The north wall of Xiaoqiao primary school is close to the cliff on the southern edge of the platform.

The total area is about 400 × 250 meters, which is rectangular. The west, North and south sides of the platform are relatively neat, and there is a gap in the middle of the east side (closed small ditch, locally known as xiaowayaogou). In the middle part of the west, because of the collapse of the irrigation field, the terraces were formed about 40 × 40 meters lower than the terrace about 2 meters. There are substations and family homes in the southeast of the platform. There are five dwellings in the north of xiaowayaogou, and the rest are preserved. The whole platform is the remains of ancient culture. The northeast is Majiayao cultural area, with an area of about 50 × 50 meters. There are a small number of kayo cultural relics in the north, and the rest are Qijia cultural relics.

The former terrace was a dry wheat field, but later it was changed to a irrigated field. After many times of leveling, the original covering soil and the upper part of the cultural layer were destroyed, and some of them were exposed, especially in the middle of the terrace. Pottery pieces, miscellaneous bones and sporadic stone tools can be seen everywhere in the whole platform. There are ash layers, ash pits and many remains of houses with white ash surface exposed at the cliffs and xiaowayaogou cliffs in the East. The cultural accumulation is more than 200 cm thick.

History and culture

In 1992 and 1993, Qinghai Provincial Institute of cultural relics and Archaeology and Xining Municipal Institute of cultural relics conducted a trial excavation of the ShenNa site, covering an area of 2000 square meters. The excavation area was mainly at the southwest edge of the platform. Five houses, 10 ash pits and 8 tombs were cleared, and more than 10000 pieces of cultural relics (including pottery pieces) were unearthed. The cultural accumulation layer is generally divided into two layers: the upper layer contains more coarse pottery with sand, and the lower layer contains more muddy red pottery. The pottery is of fine workmanship, high temperature, hard and thin texture, and various shapes, including pots, urns, pots, zuns, cudgels and platters. Unearthed stone tools include stone axe, stone knife, stone chisel, stone wall, stone arrowhead and plate-shaped utensils.

In addition, a small number of bone cones, bone needles, bone arrowheads and a large copper spear were unearthed. There are three houses with white ash floors and walls. They are all square and half cavern type. The door opens to the West. There is a circular stove in the middle of the room, and the four corners of the cavern have radians. The thickness of white ash on the wall is even and fine, and the thickness of white ash on the ground is about 4-5cm, and the surface is smooth and hard. There are two no ash facilities, one is round, the door opens to the south, half cavern type; the other is square, there are irregular column holes around the house and indoor, the indoor ground is dark brown soil bedding, and the stove is dustpan shaped outdoors. The others are more disturbed and the specific structure is unclear. Most of the ash pits are round and flat bottomed, and the pit wall is slightly inward arc, and the mouth is smaller than the bottom.

There are four tombs in the base, which are arranged between the two white houses. They are all rectangular earth pit tombs. They are buried by one person, with few funerary objects. ShenNa site has a large area, thick cultural accumulation and rich connotation. Judging from the trial excavation, most of them are Qijia cultural relics, which is a larger tribal heritage in the period of Qijia culture. The site is well preserved and is a provincial-level cultural relic protection unit.

Address: on the West platform of Maosheng temple, Xiaoqiao street, Chengbei District, Xining City

Longitude: 101.75606

Latitude: 36.655193924109

Ticket information: free.