Phase II Excavation at Haining Xiaodouli Site

     Xiaodouli site is located at Section 7 of Huoju village, Haichang District in Haining City. The main part of the site is 150m from east to west and 50m from north to south. The mound that is 1.5m higher than the surrounding paddy fields. The four corners of the mound are mostly intact. In order to facilitate the installment of infrastructure, the Zhejiang Province Cultural Relics and Archeology Research Institute, and the Haining municipal Museum have jointly conducted a rescue excavation between April and July 2009, The excavated area is around 940 square meters , with 19 burials dated to Late Songze – Liangzhu Culture. 273 pieces (groups) of artefacts, including pottery, stone tools, jade, teeth and lacquerware were unearthed. M6,M2 and M5 at the centre of the excavated area were orderly placed from west to east. Copious amount of unearthed artefacts and complex stratigraphic stratum have provided new information for the study of elite burials and burial typology of the Liangzhu Culture in Jiaxing.

      In October 2009, the same parties have jointly organized Phase II excavation of the site. Grids were laid on 900 square meters over the surveyed 1200 square meters of the site.

      From the exposed area, the site can be roughly divided into Southern and Northern parts. M20 and M21 have intruded the yellow stained earthen platform to the east of the red burnt soil. Judging from the refill of M20 that contained lots of red burnt soil, the burial date of M20 is possibly later than the red burnt soil. M20 has a depth of 60cm, but M21 is only 20cm deep. From the unearthed potteries, M20 contains coarse clay Ding pots with chisel legs and cover, while M21 contained a coarse clay Ding cover, with sand-gritted ding body with fin-shaped legs. They can be dated to the Late Songze – Early Liangzhu Culture. Two other burials contain jade spinning wheels, jade bracelets and jade plate pendants.
     The field excavation is still in progress.   (Translated by Li Langlin)