In June 2024, a construction site in Shaoxing Binhai New Area accidentally unveiled a 2,500-year-old Yue state metropolis. This waterfront settlement sealed by a marsh not only refreshed the academic community's knowledge of Yue's construction techniques, but also linked the development of the prehistoric wooden civilization in the Yangtze River basin.
The construction team initially noticed unusual soil layering - rows of woven reeds interspersed with dark brown silt. Emergency exploration by the Zhejiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology confirmed that this was a waterfront settlement during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (770-221 BCE).
The well-preserved 6th-century BCE wooden pillars unearthed at the site, with standardized mortise and tenon joints visible at their ends, are in the same lineage as the construction techniques of the Tingshan complex, which was discovered in 2020. Archaeologist Xu Tianjin pointed out that this site, together with the core area sites of Tingshan and Nanshantou, constituted the functional area of the capital city of the State of Yue, corroborating the record of "the great city of Shanyin" in the Book of Yuejishu.
Architectural Wisdom Beyond the Era
The core of the site is a cluster of two dry-structure buildings with a total area of 1,300 square meters. The buildings are modular in design, with standardized units of 4×4 meters connected by mortise and tenon joints, and the walls reinforced by wooden boards bound with hemp rope, with fiber residues visible to this day. Research by the team of Chen Zhiyong of Harbin Institute of Technology has shown that this wooden structure system can effectively withstand tidal impacts, and its three-dimensional mechanical properties are even better than those of some Tang dynasty building.
The three-dimensional mechanical properties are even better than those of some Tang Dynasty buildings. It is worth noting that the construction of foundation piles up to 2.3 meters deep into the marsh layer, the bottom of the bamboo gabion grid as a foundation, this "soft foundation treatment" technology than the Song Dynasty, "building method" recorded similar process 1500 years earlier!
"This wasn't haphazard construction," remarks Dr. Zhou Xiaolong, a timber structure specialist. "The mortise-and-tenon joints show precision we typically associate with later dynasties. These builders thought in 3D."
Imagine Daily Life during The Warring States Period
Beyond blueprints, the site serves up a visceral connection to daily life:
- 4.5 tons of marine debris: Clamshell middens and tuna vertebrae hint at seafood-rich diets
- Ritual pig burials: Complete skeletons arranged facing the ancient Cao'e River
- Bronze fishhooks: Still sharp enough to catch dinner
Most intriguing are the 38 later-era features showing how subsequent generations repurposed the site. Six Dynasties-period (3rd-6th c. CE) artisans appear to have recycled ancient timbers—a Bronze Age version of upcycling.
The discovery gains deeper meaning when paired with July's Jizhong site (稽中遗址) findings. While Jizhong's city-center ruins suggest administrative grandeur, wooden metropolis' location—4.47 km beyond ancient walls—paints a grittier picture:
Here, archaeologists envision dockside workshops where salt-cured fish were packed for trade, and shipwrights repaired vessels using the same bamboo lattices found in the walls. The river proximity proved both a blessing and curse; tree-ring data shows repeated flood damage followed by meticulous repairs.
Echoes in Modern Urbanism
As Shaoxing grapples with preserving its past amid breakneck development, the site offers unexpected lessons. The Yue builders' use of flexible hemp ropes—visible in wall boreholes—inspires engineers studying earthquake-resistant designs. Meanwhile, the layered reed mats that preserved the wood are being analyzed for modern flood-mitigation applications.
For travelers, plans are underway to rebury the most fragile structures in protective geotextile, creating China's first "archaeological time capsule" meant for future generations. A virtual reality reconstruction will debut at Zhejiang Provincial Museum this fall, allowing visitors to "walk" through the ancient fishing quarter.
