A Road Station in the Upper Capital of the Eastern Xia State

Abstract

This study provides archaeological support for written evidence on Jurchen road stations along highways connecting towns, including those in Primorye. The Eastern Xia state used the advanced Jin system of land and water routes between the southern and northern parts of the country. Capital cities, too, had to be connected by roads. The location of the Southern and Upper capitals of the state, identifi ed with the Chengzihoushancheng and Kaiyuan settlements, respectively, had been known, but until recently it had been impossible to locate the road connecting them. Findings of excavations at the Jurchen settlement of Olenevod, with the identifi cation of topographic features and parallels among North Korean and Chinese sites, suggest that it was a road station on the highway between capital cities. Structural characteristics of administrative and residential buildings are described, and new features in tile and stucco decoration are revealed. For the fi rst time, the spatial structure of a new type of medieval site was reconstructed. The location of the road station on the bank of the Razdolnaya River may be due to the fact that it was built at the transport interchange between riverine and land routes connecting the capital cities of the Eastern Xia state. The characteristic topographic features of the site shed light on the function of small Jurchen settlements located in river valleys. These settlements may provide reference points for reconstructing land routes.