Neolithic Site in Dongshan Village, Zhangjiagang , Jiangsu

      The site is located at Dongshan village in Nansha Street Office, Jin-gang town, Zhangjiagang City. The Nanjing Museum with other institutes had conducted two archaeological rescue excavations in 2008 (August to November) and 2009 (March to November) respectively. The total excavation area was about 2000 sq. meters and the major findings included a settlement of Songze Culture which consisted of housing sites and burial ground. Moreover, 10 burials from Majabang Culture were yielded.   

Plan of burials in Dongshan Village site

Burial M91

      According to the result of present excavation, findings of the Songze Culture are scattered over different parts of the site. Eastern part is mainly small scale burials, central part is a building area with numerous housing remains and the western part is for large burials. There are 5 housing sites as F1 and F2 are in good condition. F1 is regarded as ground architecture with lots of burnt red clay and collapsed deposits covered the whole area. This feature is in rectangular shape with 14.7m in length (measured from south to north), 5.75m in width (measured form east to west) and the size is about 85 sq. meters. Circular post holes were identified around the housing feature. Artefacts dated Songze Culture including pottery stem cup, pot, cauldron, jade slotted ring and stone axe were yielded within the housing feature.     

Burial M90

   Burial M93

      Burials from the Songze Culture have been separated into eastern and western areas. The eastern is mainly for small scale burials. Until now, 27 burials have been unearthed. The burials are around 2.2m in length and 0.8m in width. The number of artifacts found inside the burials varies and most of the burials are below 10 items. For the western, it is mainly for large scale burials. Five burials, from the Songze Culture for the people in high social status, have been cleared. M90 and M91 are the two most gigantic burials of the Songze Culture in recent excavated. The opening of burial pit M90 is 3.05m long, 1.7-1.8m wide and 0.4m deep and the opening of burial pit M91 is 3.15m long, 1.76m wide and 0.5m deep. More than 50 burial artefacts in M90 including 5 huge stone yues, two huge stone adzes, 19 jade tools and 26 potteries are unearthed. This burial retrieved the most number of artifacts among other Songze Culture burials. M91 unearthed a stone awl (composed of mineral with higher iron), a whetstone and a stack of quartz sand. These artefacts may be the manufacturing tools for jade production and it seems that the owner of this burial had the power of jade production, thus the status and identity of this owner was eminent. This set of jade production tools provides valuable information for studying jade production and the flow of crafts during that particular period. M92 is regarded as the longest burial of Songze Culture with 3.3m long and 1.26m wide. The longest Songze Culture jade huang was yielded with 16.7cm in diameter and the radius is 21.5cm. Five drilled holes were also identified in this artifact.      

Burial M92

Artifacts from burials

          The discovery of high social status burials dated early to middle Songze Culture in Dongshan village site, which is strictly seperated away from the small burials in the area, influences the understanding of Songze Culture especially the social cultural process in early to mid period in academic field. With the discovery of jade tools in various huge burials, the profound cultural and economic position of Dongshan village site located in lower stream of Changjiang River is further fortified especially in the vicinity of the Tai Lake. Besides, valuable archaeological information will be provided when studying the issues of prehistoric cultural exchange along the river including the Tai Lake and Ning-Zhen areas.   (Translated by Li Langlin)