Shanxi discovers defense system about 4,000 years ago

The Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology recently released its latest archaeological discovery that the outer city gate of the Bicun relics site in Lyuliang city in North China's Shanxi province was a gateway city on the bank of the Yellow River in late Neolithic period.

The some 750,000-square-meter relic site is located in the north of Bicun village in Xinxian county, at the intersection of the Yufen River and the Yellow River, and is around 3,800 to 4,200 years old.

From 2015 to 2018, the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology conducted an overall excavation of the stone building complex at Xiaoyuliang, the core area of the relics site. From 2020 to 2022, the outer city gate was excavated.

Zhang Guanghui, director of the Institute of Chinese Civilization at the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, said that the site is a stone city settlement with inner and outer walls.

The ancestors of Bicun village took advantage of the natural barriers on the south, north and west sides, and built a city wall and city gate in the middle and east to control the passage.

Zhang believes that the outer city gate is well-organized, well-structured, and obviously defensive and is important to understanding the layout of China's prehistoric and pre-Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) city gates.