Longshan Culture Exhibition Hall, Zhangqiu

Longshan Town in Zhangqiu District, about 30 kilometres east of Jinan city center, is the type site for the Longshan Culture — the Neolithic and early Bronze Age civilization whose distinctive black pottery gave an entire archaeological culture its name. The exhibition hall at the original excavation site displays pottery, stone tools, and reconstructed village layouts from the site, which was first excavated in 1928.

The site is less visited than it deserves, particularly given the importance of the Longshan Culture to understanding early Chinese civilization. The black eggshell pottery on display here — including some of the original pieces that astonished excavators when they were first uncovered — is extraordinary. Combined with the provincial museum's Longshan collection in Jinan, a visit gives a thorough picture of this remarkable culture.

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A story
The Longshan Culture — named for Longshan (Dragon Mountain) in Zhangqiu — was a Bronze Age people who produced the most technically refined pottery in the ancient world. Their black eggshell ware, fired in oxygen-reducing kilns at high temperatures, reached wall thicknesses of under 0.5 millimetres — a feat that has never been replicated without modern technology. The culture flourished from about 3000 to 1900 BCE and provides the archaeological foundation for much of what became the Chinese civilizational tradition.

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