Chengtoushan: The Oldest Known Walled Settlement in China

Chengtoushan is a Neolithic settlement in Li County, northern Hunan, in the middle Yangtze River valley of China. Its first earthen wall and moat were built around 4500–4000 BC by people of the Daxi culture, and it is generally regarded as the oldest known walled settlement in China. Beneath and around it lie some of the earliest known rice paddy fields, making the site central to the story of rice farming and early towns in East Asia.

Setting and discovery

The site lies on the Liyang plain, a flat, fertile area west of Dongting Lake, one of China’s largest freshwater lakes. Rivers flowing toward the Yangtze cross the plain, which is warm, wet and prone to floods, an environment well suited to rice.

Chengtoushan, whose name means roughly “city-head hill”, after the low ridge formed by its ancient walls, was identified as an ancient site in 1979. Systematic excavations began in 1991 under the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, led by archaeologist He Jiejun, and continued through the 1990s and 2000s. Japanese researchers joined some later seasons to study the environment and rice cultivation.

The walls and moat

The settlement is almost circular, about 310–325 metres across, and the area enclosed by its walls is roughly 8 hectares. The walls were built of rammed and piled earth, and a moat surrounded them. Gates in the wall gave access to the interior.

Excavation showed that the defences were built and rebuilt in several phases. The first wall dates to the Daxi culture, generally placed around 4500–4000 BC. It was later raised and enlarged, with major rebuildings during the Daxi and the following Qujialing culture, until about 2800 BC. Each phase added height and width, and the moat was recut.

The purpose of the walls is debated. They may have provided defence, but on this low, flood-prone plain they would also have protected houses from rising water. Either way, building them required organised labour by a sizable community.

Rice fields beneath the town

Below the earliest wall, excavators found traces of rice paddies, small irrigated fields with low earth banks, water channels and pits. These belong to a period before the wall, associated with the Tangjiagang culture, and are dated to roughly 4500 BC or earlier, making them among the oldest known paddy fields in the world.

The paddies show that rice cultivation in the middle Yangtze had developed well beyond the gathering of wild rice. Earlier stages of that process are documented at sites such as Shangshan in the lower Yangtze and at Hemudu, where waterlogged remains preserved large quantities of rice.

Life inside the walls

Inside the walls, archaeologists uncovered the foundations of houses, roads, pottery kilns, workshops and a cemetery. A raised earthen platform has been interpreted as an altar or ceremonial area. Some burials contained more grave goods than others, which suggests differences in status.

Waterlogged layers in the moat preserved organic materials, including wooden tools, seeds and plant remains, giving insight into diet and crafts. Besides rice, people ate fish, wild plants and the meat of domestic pigs and wild animals.

Place in the Yangtze Neolithic

Chengtoushan belongs to a long sequence of Neolithic cultures in the middle Yangtze: Pengtoushan, Tangjiagang, Daxi, Qujialing and Shijiahe. During the Qujialing and Shijiahe periods, from about 3500 to 2000 BC, walled settlements became much more common in the region, and some, like Shijiahe in Hubei, grew far larger than Chengtoushan.

Together with the walled water city of Liangzhu in the lower Yangtze, these sites show that the Yangtze basin was a major centre of early complex society, alongside the Yellow River valley in the north.

Town or village?

Chengtoushan is often called China’s oldest city, but archaeologists use that word with care. At about 8 hectares, the walled area was small compared with later urban centres, and there is no evidence of writing, palaces or a ruling dynasty.

What makes the site important is its organisation: a planned enclosure, public works on a large scale, specialised craft areas and signs of social differences in burials. Many scholars therefore prefer terms such as “walled settlement” or “proto-town”. The site is protected today as a nationally important heritage site in China.

Timeline

• c. 4500 BC or earlier: Rice paddies are cultivated at the site.
• c. 4500–4000 BC: The first earthen wall and moat are built in the Daxi period.
• c. 4000–2800 BC: The walls are raised and rebuilt in several phases.
• c. 2800 BC: Last major phase of the walls during the Qujialing culture.
• 1979: The site is identified by archaeologists.
• 1991: Systematic excavations begin.

Why it matters

Chengtoushan is the earliest known example in China of a community enclosing itself with walls and a moat. Its combination of early rice fields and an organised settlement shows how rice farming in the Yangtze valley supported increasingly complex societies, one of the routes that led toward the first cities and states of China.