The Shang dynasty remains at the Guoyuanzui site in Lutai Mountain, Huangpi District, Wuhan

Abstract

Abstract The Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology et al. excavated at the Guoyuanzui site in Lutai Mountain, Huangpi District, Wuhan, Hubei from 2019 to 2020, and discovered a series of Shang dynasty remains, including residential and bronze casting areas. Features related to bronze casting include architectural structures, ash ditches, ash pits, red burnt soil pits, furnaces, round-shaped burnt ground surfaces, clay mold pits, and backfill pits. Unearthed artifacts range from bronzes, casting-related artifacts, pottery artifacts, and stone objects. Most of the Shang dynasty casting remains found at Guoyuanzui are of the same period as those of the Huayuanzhuang phase in Huanbei Shang City through Yinxu Phase I. The Guoyuanzui site is another Shang dynasty core settlement in the middle of the Yangtze River after Panlongcheng. The excavation at Guoyuanzui is significant for the discussion of the Shang dynasty’s strategic management of South China, and thus is of immense value in revealing the civilizational developmental trajectory in the middle reach of the Yangtze River.