Protected Sites:Site of the Yaozhou Kiln in Huangpu Town

The Site of the Yaozhou Kiln is located in Huangpu Town of Tongchuan City, Shaanxi Province.

The Yaozhou Kiln was one of the Six Famous Kilns in ancient China and also the main celadon-producing area in the north. It was reputed as the Ten-li Kiln (1 li=1/2 km.) for its grand scale.

Between 1984 and 1986, 14 pottery workshops from the Tang (618-907), Five Dynasties (907-960), Song (960-1279), Jin (1115-1234) and Yuan (1271-1368) periods were unearthed at the site, including 18 stoves, thousands of intact pottery wares and over 30,000 shards. All pottery wares and shards have a solid base of a high pottery content. The wares were adorned with hundreds of patterns, such as landscapes, human figures and flowers. The Yaozhou Kiln wares were painted with a greenish-black glaze to appear bright and smooth, like jade.

Also unearthed at the site are workshops that produced Tang San Cai (tri-colored glazed pottery of the Tang Dynasty) and over 1,000 other wares. Such a large scale indicated that the Yaozhou Kiln was a main base for making Tang San Cai. The long-lost Tang San Cai tiles and dragon decorations were also first unearthed at the site.

The discovery of the Yaozhou Kiln Site provides plenty of materials for the study of the Chinese history of ancient pottery, as well as the political, economical and cultural development of that period. The kiln site is reputed as a natural museum of ancient pottery due to its high academic value.