Tongling mining and metallurgy site

Tongling mining and metallurgy site

Tongling mining and metallurgy site is located in Tongling village, Xiafan Town, Ruichang City, Jiangxi Province. Its geographical coordinates are 39 ° 45 ′ N and 115 ° 35 ′ e, 7 km from the Yangtze River and 40 km from the yetonglushan copper mine site in North Lake. Tongling site is another important discovery after Tonglushan mining and metallurgy site in Beiye, Hubei Province, which was rated as one of the top ten archaeological discoveries in China in 1991. With abundant scientific data, it proves that the history of copper mining in China is more than 3000 years ago. It is the earliest, well preserved and rich in connotation among the mining and metallurgical sites discovered so far in China. It not only solves the problem of the source of the highly developed bronze casting raw materials in China, but also has important significance for the study of the history of Chinese metallurgy and civilization Righteousness.

The site was discovered in the spring of 1998. It is divided into two parts: mining area and smelting area. The mining area is about 1 square kilometer and the smelting area is about 2 square kilometers. Since 1998, Jiangxi Provincial Institute of cultural relics and archaeology, Ruichang Museum and other units have jointly excavated the site for five consecutive years. The mining area is 1800 square meters, and the smelting area is 1200 square meters. The archaeological data show that there are abundant relics in the site.

In the mining area, 107 shafts, 20 roadways, 7 open pits, 5 sheds and 1 concentrator are exposed. More than 300 production tools and utensils of stone, wood, bamboo, copper, pottery and porcelain were unearthed. The main products are stone axe, wooden shovel, wooden shovel, wooden ladle, wooden mallet, wooden pulley, wooden bucket, wooden pole, wooden hoe, wooden axe, bamboo basket, bamboo plate, bamboo basket, bamboo stick, copper axe, copper chisel, pottery tripod, pottery bean, pottery pot, pottery spinning wheel, primitive celadon cup, celadon bowl, etc.

Two smelting furnaces and 18 water storage wells are exposed in the smelting area. A large number of copper smelting slag and pottery and silk utensils were unearthed, mainly including tripod, pot, cup and so on. According to the analysis of the unearthed pottery, the age is the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.

Tongling site is one of the earliest copper mining and smelting sites in China and even in the world. According to the data of C 14 dating, the earliest mining date of the site is the middle Shang Dynasty, about 3300 years ago, which has gone through the Western Zhou Dynasty, spring and Autumn period and even the early Warring States period. The pottery and pots unearthed in the ruins are similar to those of the Shang Dynasty unearthed from the upper part of Erligang in Zhengzhou and the early residence of Taixi site in Haocheng. The mining area of the site has both pit mining area and open mining area, especially the exposure of open mining area remains is rare in the same kind of remains in China. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the large ore dressing chute was washed by running water in sections. The wooden windlass of Shang Dynasty unearthed from the site is the earliest existing belt type mechanical object in China and even in the world. The wooden hoes and axes unearthed from the Western Zhou Dynasty are also the earliest and most complete objects found in China.

In May 2000, our city invited national and provincial experts to conduct a comprehensive investigation on the ancient mining and metallurgy sites in Tongling, and put forward a specific plan for rational development and utilization. In line with the principle of "effective protection and reasonable utilization", Tongling mining and metallurgy site will be built into a large exhibition park integrating archaeology, scientific research and tourism. The whole exhibition park is divided into site protection area, publicity and exhibition area, ecological resources area and commercial catering area, striving to be initially completed in three years. In order to develop the Tongling mining and metallurgy site as soon as possible, the State Administration of cultural relics plans to list the site as one of the national key archaeological construction projects

Address: Tongling village, Xiafan Town, Ruichang City, Jiujiang City

Longitude: 115.54612731934

Latitude: 29.746896743774

Tel: 0792-8225571