Some Opinions Concerning the Liangzhu Site

Yan Wenming  

The last decade witnesses one striking discovery after another at the Liangzhu site, which was excavated for the first time sixty years ago. Now, we are at a point to say something about the site from a perspective of settlement archaeology.The graveyards and altars at two localities, ie. Fanshan and Yaoshan, of the Liangzhu site suggest that their occupants were wealthy with military and divine power, probably forming a ruling group alienated from the populace. Another locality at Guoyuan, Guanshan, some three hundred thousand square meters, includes a rectangular earthen platform measuring 670 m long, 450m wide and 5-8 m high, on which were found large amounts of red burned earth. A total of thirty thousand sq m of rammed earth, 50cm at the thickest point, with rows of holes left by pillars, have been found at other parts of the site, say, Damojiaoshan and Xiaomojiaoshan. Bring together all these informations and it is obvious that the a building compound must once stand on the rectangular earthen platform mentioned above. It could be a city, a ruling center of the Liangzhu culture.However, it was not the sole but one of centers of that culture—others are the Fuquanshan site, Zhanglingshan site, Sidun site and so on. But it turns out to be the largest. Can it still be regarded as the center of the whole Liangzhu culture? Was the city at Mojiaoshan a kind of capital? Was the graveyard at Fanshan a royal cemetery? All these questions remain unanswered.

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【CateGory Index】： K875

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