Technological continuity and innovation of city gates from the Han to Yuan dynasties in the Central Plains and Northeast China

Treating the city gate archaeological sites of the Central Plains and Northeast China as two separate systems, potentially overlooking technological exchanges between two regions, as well as technological inheritance within the same region across different periods influenced by regime changes and population migration. Therefore, this study examines the structural configurations and reveals a lineage of technological inheritance connecting these two regions, as well as the remarkable technical continuity and localized structural innovation of city gate archaeological sites in Northeast China. Analysis of historical documents further supports this conclusion, indicating that the technological continuity and innovation at the city gate site were significantly influenced by the political context, cultural interaction, and population migrations of the time. Finally, this study reveals that the technological development of city gate ruins followed two distinct yet interrelated paths, highlighting the cross-regional dissemination and interaction of architectural technology between the Central Plains, Northeast China, and the Korean Peninsula.