Excavation Report on the Lijiawan Site in Badong, Hubei

Compiled By
State Council Three Gorges Project Construction Committee Executive Office
State Administration of Cultural Heritage People’s Republic of China

Abstract:
 Lijiawan is mainly a Neolithic site, though it contains cultural remains dating from Neolithic times to modern times. More precisely, Lijiawan site dated back to late Qujialing Culture Period, it was a cemetery at that time.
 From earlier finds, the distribution of the Qujialing Culture in the Three Gorges region limits with the west range of the Xilingxia Gorge, where many Qujialing Culture sites were found, while very few were reported west to the gorge. The Qujialing Culture can be divided into five subculture types, namely the Qingshuitan type in the Three Gorges region, the Sanyuangong type in the northeast of Dongting Lake, the Gaokanlong type in the west of Dongting Lake, the Qujialing type in the east of Hanshui River, and the Qinglongquan type in the northwest of Hubei province. The Lijiawan site belongs to the late Qujialing Culture, typical earthenware were found, such as stemmed dishes with abdomen, thin walled cups with open mouths, high – stemmed cups, eggshell – walled painted cups. In the whole, they are similar to those of the Qingshuitan type.
 The finds in Lijiawan site ad new data to our understanding of the Qujialing Culture in the Three Gorges region. Before 1998, we only found Qujialing Culture sites within the Xilingxia Gorge, such as Zhongbaodao, Yangjiawan, and Qingshuitan in Yichang city, besides, there wer a few Qujialing Culture vessels found during the third excavation at Daxi site in Wushan. In 1998, some Qujialing Culture vessels were found in the upside – down layers at Cangping site in Zhigui county, researchers thought that Cangping site is the most west Qujialing Culture site ever systematical excavated. Only three years later, the discovery at Lijiawan site extended the Qujialing Culture to the west for 60 kilometers, reaching the Wuxia Gorge where no similar cultural remains were found before. Thus, Lijiawan site is the most west Qujialing Culture site ever systematically excavated, providing new materials for the study of Qujialing Culture distribution range and its cultural characteristics.
 The Qujialing Culture sites in the Three Gorges range, such as Zhongbaodao, Qingshuitan and Cangping, were mainly residential sites, cemeteries were rarely found, as the Qujialing Culture cemetery at Yangjiawan site. There were 22 tombs excavated at Lijiawan site, apparently belonging to a family cemetery. These tombs relatively concentrate in two parts, while may be linked to a whole cemetery originally, their orientations range in 300 degrees, inferring that the arrangement of the tombs must obey some rules.
 From Lijiawan site, we know that Qujialing Culture sites are smaller in size in the Three Gorges region, and their cultural strata are commonly badly disturbed by later comers. At Lijiawan site we found cultural relics and cemetery, which are very important for building up the chronology of Qujialing Culture in the Three Gorges region.
 During the Qujialing Culture period, the population scale in the Three Gorges region was rather small, the productivity level was low, production scale and amount were also small, thus the development in the region relatively lagged behind that of other regions. But it doesn’t mean that the production level of manufacturing pottery and stone tools in the region lagged behind other regions. From the tombs we found fast wheel made earthenware, such as red clay painted eggshell walled cups, high stemmed dishes with hole in the stems, fine made high stemmed cups, etc. From strata or tombs we found many kinds of stone tools, stone or jade ornaments manufactured with striking, grinding, carving and drilling techniques.
 Just like other Qujialing Culture sites in the Three Gorges region, pottery and stone tools unearthed from Lijiawan site are similar to those from late Qujialing Culture sites in the Jianghan plain, no early Qujialing Culture remains were found.
 Unlike Guanmiaoshan site or Qujialing site, multiple eyelet patterns on the pottery stems were found at Lijiawan site. Other pottery decorative patterns, such as stamping marks, engraving lines, and pilling strips were very popular.
 No dating methods were applied to Lijiawan site, so its absolute dating was uncertain. Comparing the pottery of phase I and II to those from late phase I and II at Qujialing site, the absolute dating of Lijiawan site might be a little earlier than late phase I and II at Qujialing site. The relative dating approximately equals to middle and late periods of Neolithic times in the Jianghan plain, about 500 BP.
 Bent walled stemmed dishes and jar – shaped stemmed dishes with covers are the particular pottery found at the site. Comparing standardization analysis to the pottery and stone tools from the site indicates that specialization appeared in handicraft industry, there were stone tool workshop and pottery at that time. Lijiawan site belongs to a marginal cultural type of Qujialing Culture, temporarily called Lijiawan type.
 From strata superposition, we haven’t found similar cultural layers overlapped on Daxi Cultural layers as in the Jianghan Plain, inferring that we cannot find the evidence that the Qujialing culture directly evolved from the Daxi Culture. According to formal evolving sequences, Daxi Culture comes down to Early Qujialing Culture in one continuous line, and Early Qujialing Culture to Late Qujialing Culture, and Late Qujialing Culture to Shijiahe Culture. But at present we only find Late Qujialing Culture and Late Daxi Culture remains in the Three Gorges region, indicating that the evolving sequence of Qujialing Culture in the Three Gorges region is incomplete, we cannot find the origin of Qujialing Culture in the Gorges region. As for the Neolithic evolution in the Three Gorges region is from Daxi Culture directly to Qujialing Culture, or these two cultures competed with each other and finally Qujialing Culture predominated on Daxi Culture, is still unknown. From present archaeological materials, cultural communication with other regions started in the early Neolithic Times, gradually expanded eastward during Daxi Culture, and confronted with the fast – expanded Neolithic culture in the Jianghan Plain during Qujialing Culture. By the Qujialing Culture, Qujialing Culture expanded westward and kept with limits of Daxi Culture. The battlefield might reach the Lijiawan site at last, about 100 km apart from the Daxi site, a typical Daxi Culture site.
 At present time there aren’t any late Qujialing Culture sites found west to the Wuxia Gorge, indicating that there existed another native culture that blocked off Qujialing Culture from advancing westward in the same period. Archaeologists unearthed Ba and Shu native cultural remains west to Lijiawan site such as Laoguanmiao in Fengjie county and Shaopengzui in Zhongxian county, dating to the same period as Qujialing Culture. This culture is very different from Daxi and Qujialing found in the Three Gorges region and in the Jianghan Plain. The late Neolithic cultural conflicts and distribution laid a foundation to the cultural confrontation between Ba – Shu region and the Jianghan Plain, for instance the completely different bronze cultures.
 The finds and acknowledgement of Qujialing Culture remains filled up the blanks of the Neolithic culture after Daxi Culture in the Three Gorges region, and provided full and accurate materials for understanding the relationship in late Neolithic times between cultures in the Three Gorges region and in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.