"The site of Dongta Temple is the first complete disclosure of the tower base site in China with the most complex structure, representing the highest level of Jiangnan architectural foundation practice in the Northern Song Dynasty." Recently, Hang Kan, a professor at the School of Archaeology and Museums of Peking University, said at the demonstration meeting of the archaeological achievements of the Dongta Temple site in Jiaxing.
Among the seven towers and eight temples and the eight views of Jiahe, the east tower and the east tower temple occupy an important position. "According to the comprehensive judgment of coins and ceramic pieces unearthed from the rammed earth layer, the construction age of the East Tower Base found this time is the Northern Song Dynasty, which corroborates each other with the 1079 year recorded in the Jiaxing Mansion Chronicle." Shi Xiqi, deputy director of the archaeological department of the Jiaxing Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology, said.
In January 2019, the Jiaxing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics received feedback from the masses that ancient building components were found in the foundations of private houses that were being demolished in the original Dongta Temple area (Dongta Road area). Subsequently, the municipal cultural relics department learned that there may be relatively complete temple tower building relics in the underground area of the original Dongta Temple, and the history is long and large-scale.
In September 2023, the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, together with the Jiaxing Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology and the Jiaxing Museum, began a formal archaeological excavation of the Dongta Temple site.
Archaeological findings show that the east tower base is mainly composed of rammed earth masonry, cylinder foundation, wooden planks and wooden piles. The base wood of the tower is cypress, and the wooden stakes have not rotted for thousands of years. Zhou Kefan, assistant librarian of Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, introduced that the main body of the east tower base is three layers of wooden frames inside and outside, each frame is stacked by four layers of erected wooden boards, the first layer of boxes in the center is tiled on the outside of the "well" shaped plank, 52 large pottery jars are placed on the wooden boards, and the middle of the cylinder base forms a "Ya" shaped space, and the outer side of the cylinder base is the second layer of boxes, and then the outside is the third layer of boxes.
Similar to the practice of placing a large vat in the rammed earth layer at the base of the tower, the ruins of Longping Temple in Qinglong Town, Shanghai also appeared, but only 8 large vats were placed in Longping Temple. Xu Yitao, a professor at Peking University's School of Archaeology and Museums and director of the Department of Cultural Relics and Architecture, said: "The pottery jar forms a cylinder foundation to solve the problem of uneven settlement. ”
The soft soil foundation in the southern region is easy to settle and seepage, and the buildings are easy to collapse. In 1968, the dilapidated East Tower was demolished due to construction and other reasons. Since the completion of the Northern Song Dynasty, the tower body has been rebuilt many times in more than 800 years, and the base of the tower has never changed, which is due to this exquisite structure.
The excavation of the remains of the East Pagoda site and the study of the unearthed cultural relics have provided precious materials for the study of Song Yun culture and Buddhist culture in Jiaxing and even Zhejiang. Jiaxing will continue to excavate the foundation of the tower and the surrounding temple buildings, and carry out research on the construction history and architectural restoration of the East Pagoda Temple.