![The Ancient City Wall of the Chengtoushan Ruin](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/The_Ancient_City_Wall_of_the_Chengtoushan_Ruin.jpg)
Chengtoushan () was a
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
settlement located on the northwestern edge of
Dongting Lake
Dongting Lake () is a large, shallow lake in northeastern Hunan Province, China. It is a flood basin of the Yangtze River, so its volume depends on the season. The provinces of Hubei and Hunan are named after their location relative to the lak ...
in
Li County,
Hunan
Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...
, China.
The site is at the village of Chengtoushan,
Chengtoushan Town, Li County, it is about northwest of the
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...
and north of the
Li River
The Li River or Li Jiang () is the name for the upper reaches of the Gui River in northwestern Guangxi, China. It is part of the Xijiang River system in the Pearl River Basin. The river flows from Xing'an County to Pingle County, where the ka ...
.
![The Front Gate of The Chengtoushan Ruin](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/The_Front_Gate_of_The_Chengtoushan_Ruin.jpg)
The site contains one of the earliest dated
rice
Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima
''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...
paddies in the world (dating from
4500 to
3000 BC). The settlement spanned three separate cultures: the
Daxi culture
The Daxi culture (5000–3300 BC) was a Neolithic culture centered in the Three Gorges region around the middle Yangtze, China. The culture ranged from western Hubei to eastern Sichuan and the Pearl River Delta. The site at Daxi, located in the Qut ...
, the
Qujialing culture
The Qujialing culture (3400–2600 BC) was a Neolithic civilisation centered primarily on the middle Yangtze River region in Hubei and Hunan, China. The culture succeeded the Daxi culture and reached southern Shaanxi, northern Jiangxi and southwes ...
and the
Shijiahe culture
The Shijiahe culture (2500–2000 BC) was a late Neolithic culture centered on the middle Yangtze River region in Shijiahe Town, Tianmen, Hubei Province, China. It succeeded the Qujialing culture in the same region and inherited its unique artefa ...
. The site was abandoned around the middle period of the Shijiahe culture.
Chengtoushan was a round settlement surrounded by a
moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...
and
rammed earth
Rammed earth is a technique for constructing foundations, floors, and walls using compacted natural raw materials such as earth, chalk, lime, or gravel. It is an ancient method that has been revived recently as a sustainable building method.
...
wall
A wall is a structure and a surface that defines an area; carries a load; provides security, shelter, or soundproofing; or, is decorative. There are many kinds of walls, including:
* Walls in buildings that form a fundamental part of the supe ...
, which was first built during the Daxi culture. The remains of human sacrifices were discovered under the foundation of the wall. The remains of a gravel road, a river bridge and a river-control gate were also discovered at Chengtoushan. It is possibly one of the oldest walled sites in China, with the walls and moat built around 4000 BC, where it existed for two millennia.
The earliest known examples of fired
bricks
A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...
were discovered at Chengtoushan, dating to around 4400 BC. These bricks were made of red clay, which was obtained by digging into the
loess
Loess (, ; from german: Löss ) is a clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loess or similar deposits.
Loess is a periglacial or aeolian ...
strata. They were fired on all sides to above 600 °C, and used as flooring for houses. By the Qujialing period (3300 BC), fired bricks were being used to pave roads and as building foundations at Chengtoushan.
Notes
References
* Allan, Sarah (ed.), ''The Formation of Chinese Civilization: An Archaeological Perspective'',
*
Higham, Charles, ''The Bronze Age of Southeast Asia'',
*
Stark, Miriam T.
Miriam T. Stark (born September 14, 1962) is an American archaeologist whose field experience and emphasis of studies have included locations in North America, the Near East and Southeast Asia. She is currently a professor of Southeast Asian Arch ...
(ed.), ''Archaeology of Asia'', 2006,
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chengtoushan
Li County, Hunan
National archaeological parks of China
Former populated places in China
Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Hunan
1979 archaeological discoveries