Recently, the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology released archaeological results saying that it found that the outer city gate of the Bicun site in Shanxi has obvious defensive properties, and believes that this large stone city settlement in the Longshan era should be a gateway city on the Yellow River.
The site of Bicun is located in the north of Bicun Village, Xing County, Luliang City, Shanxi Province, at the mouth of the Weifen River into the Yellow River, with an area of 750,000 square meters.
The stone structure remains of the Longshan era at the Bicun site were built around 2200 BC and abandoned around 1800 BC.
The site is a stone city settlement with inner and outer double city walls. With the help of the natural dangers surrounded by rivers and valleys on the south, north and west sides, a city wall and city gates running through the north and south were built in the east and middle of the site respectively to control the access channels and the core buildings. It was built at the Xiaoyuliang site in the inner city.
The Xiaoyuliang stone structure building complex reproduces the settlement structure of the core area of this kind of stone city relatively completely; the east gate site with a regular layout retains the most distinctive and strict structure of the Wengcheng facilities in China's prehistoric period.
The site of Bicun is a key link in the multi-integration pattern of Chinese civilization in the Longshan era, and an important window for revealing the exchanges and mutual learning of early Chinese civilizations and showing the historical development trend centered on the Central Plains.
(Source of the production of Qu Lixia’s video: Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology)
Responsible editor: [Li Ji]