Chuodun Archaeological Site or Chuodun Site is located in Chuodun Village, north of Zhengyi Town in Kunshan City. It was listed as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level by the State Council of China in 2006.
Chuodun Site was found by the Nanjing Museum Archaeologists during an archaeological investigation in the Taihu Lake Area in January 1961. In the center of the Site, there used to a mound -70 meters from north to south, 30 meters from east to west, and approximately 6 meters high. According to the records of Annals of Kunshan County, a royal artist called Huang Fanchuo in the period of the Reign of Emperor Xuanzong in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), who was good at performing warriors in military drama, was buried here and hence the name. Later, the mound was gradually flattened because workers from the local brick factory took soil from the site in the 1980s. A total number of 18 pieces of precious relics including jade Cong (square jade with an inner circle) and stone axes, which are typical of Liangzhu Culture, were unearthed. In 1982, archeologists carried out a rescue excavation to the site. An area of 111 square meters was excavated and a Liangzhu Culture tomb was found, which helped the archaeologists to understand the stratigraphic and cultural features of the site.
From the first to the sixth batch of excavation, a total area of up to 3393 square meters was unearthed. The archaeological findings include 85 tombs, 14 house sites, 80 pits, 11 wells, 1 river course, 64 pieces of rice fields, and 5 ditches, which go from Liangzhu Culture to Majiabang Culture in Neolithic Period. Moreover, more than 800 pieces of pottery wares, stone wares and jades were unearthed.
To add to the list are 86 pits, 39 wells, and more than 500 pieces of pottery wares and stone wares from Eastern Zhou Dynasty to the Maqiao Culture Period, 1 pit and 2 wells from the Han Dynasty, and 10 tombs, 37 pits and 9 wells from Tang and Song Dynasties
Chuodun Site occupies a small area, but contains a rich collection of relics and most of them are well preserved. This Site was listed as a Major Archaeological Discovery in China in 2014 by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. Some papers were published on Issue 1 and Issue 11 of the Culture of Southeastern China magazine in 2000. In 2004, a supplement of the Culture of Southeastern China magazine called Collected Papers on Major Findings of Chuodun Archaeological Site was published.