[Traveling Along Yangtze River in Hubei] Panlong City Site: A Bright Pearl by Yangtze River

The aerial view of the Panlong City Site [Photo via Panlong City Site Museum]

Panlong City Site is located in Wuhan, on the north bank of the Fu River, and only nine kilometers away from the mainstream of the Yangtze River to the east. It is a city site in the early Shang Dynasty with the clearest layout and richest relics known in the Yangtze River basin. With a history of 3500 years, it is the central city in the southern territory of the Shang Dynasty and the foundation of modern Wuhan.

Since its discovery in the 1950s, the archaeological excavation of the Panlong City Site has continued to this day, making its excavation the most longest-running and systematic one in the Yangtze River basin. It was discovered in 1954 and was rated as one of the 100 archaeological discoveries in the 20th century in China.

The Site is abundant in content including palace ruins, tombs of aristocrats and handicraft workshop ruins. More than 3,000 exquisite cultural artifacts have been excavated, such as a huge yuge (a jade spear made for ceremonial purposes), bronze circle tripods, bronze tomahawks, turquoise inlaid gold pieces, etc., are all of high historical, scientific and artistic significance. These objects have evidenced that both the Yangtze River and the Yellow River belong to the Chinese civilization.

For the first time, the Panlong City Site revealed an urban settlement belonging to the bronze cultural system of the Central Plains along the Yangtze River, reflecting the development of the Chinese civilization characterized by its diversity and integrity. Its discovery and related research are of pioneering significance for understanding many important historical topics such as Xia and Shang Dynasty's foreign strategy and ruling mode, the cultural interaction between the Yellow River basin and the Yangtze River basin, and the circulation of metal and other important resources in the early society.

The nearly 70 years of archaeological work at Panlong City Site has not only greatly improved people's understanding of the bronze culture in the Yangtze River basin, but also become a microcosm of the development of the archaeological discipline in New China.