Pingliangtai city site location map
system archaeological drilling and digital record analysis results show that the plane shape of Pingliangtai city site is square with a symmetrical gate layout. In 2019, a north-south trunk road was found on the central axis of the city, with both ends corresponding to the south and north gates. This central axis trunk road has been used from the beginning of the city to the last stage of the Longshan period. The layout of the city takes the north-south road as the central axis, and the planning is orderly. After extensive exposure, multiple rows of east-west layout of high-desktop row houses were confirmed. The original houses were planned and constructed in a unified manner on the raw soil, and the row houses were separated by about 15 meters. Later row houses gradually expanded to the north and south. The houses are built on the ground with adobe as raw materials, with the doors facing south, and the layout is uniform.
Excavation in 2019
city site layout map
There are vertical and horizontal drainage ditches on the high terraced houses and the outer edges of roads in the city. In 2019, a group of pottery drainage pipes preserved in the original site were discovered in the west of the long row house. They were buried outdoors in the east-west direction and connected to the north-south drains deliberately dug at the edge of the residential area. The same pottery drainage pipes were found in three places near the Nancheng Gate. These pottery drainage pipes are buckled in sections and are ingeniously conceived. They are either distributed parallel to the outer edge of the row houses or longitudinally through the foundation of the city wall. The pottery drainage pipes and the vertical and horizontal connected ditches together constitute the earliest and most complete urban drainage system of currently known in China.
Central axis, row houses, and urban drainage layout
Longshan period row houses F33 (top to the south)
urban drainage system
drainage facilities near the south gate
Traces of early roads within the south gate of 0.1 to 0.15 were found on the road. Meters, 0.12 meters deep, the most obvious one is 3.3 meters long. One set of basically parallel ruts is 0.8 meters apart, which may be traces of "two-wheelers". Carbon 14 dating data shows that the absolute age of these ruts is no later than 4200 years ago. They are the earliest "two-wheeled vehicle" ruts in my country in the era. Z21z has advanced the origin of vehicles in my country by 500 years. A number of important relics with diverse cultural backgrounds were also unearthed at Pingliangtai City Site. The shape and processing characteristics of the discovered jade crown fragments are similar to similar artifacts of Hubei Houshijiahe Culture and Haidailongshan Culture. The symmetrical and complex animal-face patterns depicted on the surface of the pottery bowl are quite similar in structure and expression to the jade patterns in the Yangtze River Basin. In addition, the use of scalpel bones for divination, sacrifice and bone making is very common. Cattle is a new breed of livestock that entered the Central Plains during the Longshan Period. The large number of discoveries at the Longshan City Site of Pingliangtai is of great significance to the study of how cattle originating from the wheat culture tradition in West Asia can be integrated into the traditional millet agricultural economic system of the Central Plains.
Fragments of jade crown ornaments during the Longshan period
animal face patterns on the surface of the pottery bowl
The square and axisymmetric features of the Pingliangtai city site for sacrificial oxen during the Longshan period
are undoubtedly the source of ancient Chinese urban planning ideas and a landmark in the history of urban development Outstanding value. The earliest and most complete pottery pipe drainage system also provides excellent materials for studying the water management of early cities. The various remains unearthed at the Pingliangtai city site show the inclusive characteristics of the Longshan culture in the Central Plains, and are a concentrated manifestation of the convergence and integration of various regional civilizations at the end of the Neolithic Age.
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Originally posted on the website of Henan Archaeological Institute
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