In 2019, China's Neolithic archaeology excavation and research have achieved many important gains, both in and outside the Great Wall. Cultural relics and archaeologists have taken root in the fields and are not afraid of hard work. They have ensured the smooth progress of archaeological excavations and made great contributions to the reconstruction of ancient Chinese history. Many important progress has been made in the transition from the Paleolithic tools, the origin of agriculture, the origin of Chinese civilization, the formation of early countries, and cultural exchanges between China and the West.
Old-Neolithic Transition, the origin of agriculture and its process have made significant progress
Old-Neolithic transition, the origin of agriculture and are important research topics in Neolithic archaeology.
Xiaonanshan site in Raohe County, Heilongjiang is a site in the early Neolithic era that was trial excavated in the early years and rediscovered in recent years. Archaeological excavations show that the Xiaonanshan culture represented by the Xiaonanshan site fills the archaeological cultural sequence of Ussuri River and the lower reaches of Heilongjiang, changing the weak links in early Neolithic cultural research in the region, and adding physical data to the research on settlement patterns and business forms of the Paleolithic culture to the Neolithic culture overstage. The jade artifacts in the early tombs of Xiaonanshan may be one of the earliest jade artifacts discovered in my country, adding a new fulcrum to the origin and dissemination of East Asian jade culture, as well as research on human aesthetic concepts and decorations.
On the Bashang Grassland north of the Great Wall, the National Museum and the Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics formed a joint archaeological team to conduct a systematic investigation in the area. Surprisingly, although the area was occupied by nomadic peoples during the historical period, this was a typical "densely populated area" in the Neolithic era. The Xinglong site in Kangbao County, which was systematically excavated, has experienced a transition process from the late Paleolithic Age to the early and mid-Neolithic Age in this area. Its first phase of the Neolithic Age represents one of the earliest settlements in the north. The remains of different periods of the site are different, and the animals and plants were found very rich, providing important information for studying the transition of the Old-Neolithic Age, the origin of agriculture and its background in northern China. The stone core was unearthed from Xinglong site
Almost at the same time, the Qiaotou site in Yiwu, Zhejiang, which has been excavated for many years, has achieved very important gains. The distinctive moats - the terrace settlements, the rich "utensils" buried, the earliest human bones in Zhejiang, and the well-preserved tombs show us the "Zhejiang picture" more than 9,000 years ago. It is worth noting that the pottery containers unearthed from the Qiaotou site are not only exquisitely made and brightly decorated with pottery clothes, but also a certain number of painted pottery appeared, and even complex patterns such as sun patterns and short-line combination patterns appeared, which has the basic factors of the painted pottery of Kuanhuqiao culture. The excavation of Qiaotou site has enriched the connotation of Shangshan culture and has also raised the understanding of the cultural outlook in the entire southeastern China to a new level.
Lace pottery patterns unearthed from Qiaotou site
Pottery unearthed from Qiaotou site
Qiaotou site M44
Qiaotou site "utensil pit" H150
0 later, located in the Inner Mongolia Plateau Huade County Simagou site is an important site of Yumin culture. The 19 neatly arranged houses excavated, as well as more than 20 stone-stacked stoves and earth-pit stoves outside the houses, indicate that they are about 8400-7200 years ago, and this is the summer camp-style settlement ruins of the ancestors of the grassland. The animal and plant archaeological research carried out has made us understand that the site was ecology at that time was good, and wild animals such as pheasants, birds, wolves, red deer, sika deer, roe deer, hares, wild horses, wild donkeys, bison, holy buffalo, wild boars, etc. often appear nearby; people domesticate faithful dogs, although hunting and gathering are the main means of making a living, they are not sticking to it, and the proportion of primitive planting is also increasing, indicating that this area is also a more important area of the origin of agriculture.
The Peiligang site in the Central Plains region is a key site to explore the process of Neolithic agriculturalization. In recent years, excavations have discovered remains of burnt soil in wood bone mud walls, human and animal sculptures, suspected water cellars or wells, and confirmed that there were late Paleolithic traditions such as fine stone flake crafts in the Peiligang period, providing new clues for studying important topics such as the transition of the Old-Neolithic Age and the emergence of early agriculture in the Central Plains.
Research on the early civilization process gradually deepened
The beginning of Chinese prehistoric archaeology and modern field archaeology is inseparable from the discovery of Yangshao culture . From the discovery of Mianchi, Henan in 1921, Swedish, , Antesheng, , Henan, , , , till today, the wheel of history has been rotating for nearly a hundred years. In 2019, Yangshao culture has achieved many achievements.
The Chengyan site in Lingbao, Henan was discovered in the 1950s. In 2019, archaeologists conducted rescue excavations on the Chengyan site and discovered important facilities such as early Yangshao culture, such as house sites, earth pit tombs, urn coffin burials, ash pits, , pottery kilns and trenches. The rich relics and unearthed relics, advanced pottery kilns, typical ground buildings, and rich tomb remains provide key information and materials for the study of the early settlement characteristics of the Yangshao culture in the Central Plains region. The Shicun site in Xia County, Shanxi Province was the early Yangshao settlement that was currently large-scale excavation, which is closest to the Yanchi Lake, and provides important information for studying the archaeological cultural landscape, human lifestyle, and its relationship with important natural resources in the Yuncheng area during this period.
html More than 0 years ago, the discovery of the "big house" of Miaodigou culture in the Xipo site of Lingbao attracted great attention from the academic community. This year, a similar shape was discovered at the Degang site in Luliang, Shanxi, and a relatively complete group of Yangshao mid-term housing sites were revealed. The houses of this batch are all pentagonal semi-crypted houses distributed in rows. Among them, the largest house site F1 has an area of 137 square meters, facing north and south. The entrance to the house has a large fire pit with a diameter of 1.4-1.7 meters, and there are stone-paved doorways. This is the largest prehistoric house discovered in Shanxi, and it is also the earliest method of large-scale stone paving when building a building site. At the same time, the ruins of Shaanxi Gaoling Yangguanzhai, Weinan Beiliu and other sites also achieved new gains.The jade making craftsmanship of Yangshao culture has always been a topic that the academic community is struggling to explore. The Huangshan site in the Nanyang Basin has made a breakthrough in this regard. A large number of jade products, stone tools, stone flakes, jade flakes, and semi-finished products discovered in the Central Plains area have filled the gaps lacking in prehistoric jade workshops. The large number of large tombs buried with pig mandibles, jade axes, and well-preserved human bones provide important materials for understanding the social structure and kinship of prehistoric ancestors. The exquisitely produced house buildings and intact indoor functional facilities provided excellent conditions for us to gain a glimpse of the life and construction technology of the household at that time.
In ancient legend, Huangdi 's wife, Lazu, invented "raising silkworms to get silk", but there has been controversy in history when silk was invented. At the end of 2019, Zhengzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology released the news about "Silk Discovery in the Yangshao Era". Archaeologists found silk fabric residues in the skull attachments and soil samples in the urn coffin unearthed at the Wanggou site in Xingyang. They were similar to the fabric unearthed from the urn coffin in the Qingtai site. Combined with the bone carving silkworms found at the Shuanghuaishu site in Gongyi, it was confirmed that the Chinese ancestors had begun to cultivate silkworms 5,000 years ago. The mulberry silk that runs through the five thousand years of Chinese civilization has gradually become a popular classic that never ends.
This year, research on Hongshan culture, Qingliangang culture, Songze culture and Liangzhu culture, which are at the same time or in the same period or age as Yangshao culture, has made important progress.
Chaoyang City Jianping County Ma'anqiaoshan site is the first large settlement site in the early Hongshan culture excavation in Liaoning Province. It has discovered different types of house sites and ash pits and other important relics, and a large number of important relics such as pottery, stone, and bone tools were unearthed. It was also found that human bones were intentionally placed in the house site for the first time. This burial custom, which is different from the Niuheliang site, was buried in a stone tomb, which provides a new clue for further understanding and exploring the Hongshan culture.
"Qingliangang Culture" is an early-named archaeological culture, but because the Qingliangang site was destroyed at that time, the cultural appearance was not clear, and it was once suspected or even denied.The Huanggang site in Huai'an, Jiangsu excavated this time is only about 20 kilometers away from the Qingliangang site. The unearthed combination of red pottery cauldrons, tripods, pottery shots and pottery legs are basically the same as the objects found at the Qingliangang site, providing new information for the argumentation and research of "Qingliangang culture". Unearthed relics such as bamboo mats, pottery mats, clay sculptures, and painted dancers show many aspects of the material life and spiritual world of the ancestors.
Jiangsu Qingchengdun site is a high-level settlement from the late Songze culture to the early and mid-Liangzhu culture. Remains such as tombs, house sites, moats, and moats were found, as well as settlement forms with a complete structure. Among them, M71 is the largest tomb of the Songze Cultural Period with the largest number of unearthed relics. The Jade Dragon buried with him is known as the "No. 1 Dragon in Jiangnan". It is not only the earliest batch of dragon-shaped jade artifacts in my country, but also the earliest dragon-shaped cultural relics in Jiangsu Province.
Longshan era Cultural and social research has been constantly surprising
After the discovery of Yangshao culture, facing the huge pressure from the west of painted pottery culture, in order to further explore the source of Chinese civilization and protect cultural confidence in the times of national crisis, the Chinese archaeological community began to excavate the ruins of Chengziya in Shandong, and finally discovered a black pottery culture that was completely different from painted pottery culture, and named it Longshan Culture. Over the past decades, the archaeological community has conducted comprehensive research on many urban sites and large and medium-sized settlements of Longshan culture, but has not learned much about the grassroots organizations at that time.
In recent years, the excavation of the Longshan Cultural Site of Ximengzhuang in Tengzhou City has brought many surprises. The Ximengzhuang site has fully exposed a relatively complete settlement of the early and mid-stage Longshan culture with relatively clear structure for the first time, and the remains of walls, ring ditches, house sites, ash pits, tombs, kiln sites and a large number of column caves were found. These relics are distributed and combined in an extremely regular manner, forming a unit that forms a closed wall settlement with one square and one circle, one front and one back. Ximengzhuang reflected a form of grassroots "villages" at that time. It provides very precious material information for us to understand the structure of the grassroots settlements of Longshan culture, interpret the life and career methods of people in the grassroots settlements of Longshan culture, and then interpret the Longshan society more fully.
Closed settlement of Ximengzhuang Site in Tengzhou City, Shandong
Rizhao Sujia Village Site is an important site in the middle and early stages of the Longshan culture in the late Dawenkou culture. The new excavation has discovered a large number of house sites and tombs, providing rich information for studying the layout and changes of second-level or third-level settlements in southeast Shandong. The discovery of stone-built house foundations unearthed in the site and stone coffin (coffin) tombs from different periods has provided new materials for the house construction technology and burial customs of Longshan culture. Not far from Sujia Village, a large number of Longshan cultural tombs have been released in Rizhao Yaowangcheng Ruins .
Sujia Village Ruins Distribution Map
Henan Huaiyang Pingliangtai Site is one of the earliest confirmed prehistoric city sites in China. Systematic excavations in recent years have discovered the earliest urban "central axis" layout characteristics, the earliest and most complete urban drainage system, and the earliest "two-wheeler" ruts. At the same time, a batch of important relics with diverse cultural backgrounds have been unearthed, including jade, a considerable number of polished black pottery cups, rich pottery carving patterns and complete yellow cattle sacrifice phenomenon. The earliest "two-wheeler" rut discovered this time was no later than 4,200 years after carbon 14 dating. Compared with the Erlitou Phase II rut discovered at the Erlitou site before, the origin of my country's "car" was at least 400 years ahead of the time, which is of great significance for studying the origin of my country's cars and early East-West cultural exchanges. The structure of the square city wall and symmetrical city gate, the clear "central axis" layout characteristics, the regular distribution of high-desktop adobe houses, and the complete urban drainage system all show that the Pingliangtai city site was the earliest and well-planned high-level prehistoric city site in my country, and it has a milestone and important significance in the history of Chinese urban development.
In addition to the Yellow River Basin, Northeast , Longshan Times archaeology in the northwest and southwest regions has also achieved important gains.
In the autumn of 1930, a Russian employee of the Central and Eastern Railway discovered a Neolithic site near Ang'ang'anxi, Qiqihar. After Mr. Liang Siyong, who was in Peiping, learned about it, he led his assistants to the Ang'anxi site on the eastern foot of the Greater Xing'anling Mountains. After extremely arduous investigation and excavation, he believed that this was a prehistoric culture type represented by fine stone tools, and gave it a memorable and pleasant name - Ang Ang Xi Culture. 79 years later, archaeologists excavated settlement facilities such as the Ang'anxi cultural house site, moat and other settlement facilities at the Honghe site, which was only 12 kilometers away from the Ang'anxi ruins, and for the first time the form of prehistoric settlements was revealed and clarified in the Nenjiang River Basin. The emergence of moats and the use of large house sites show that there was a settlement model for fishing and hunting civilization in the late Neolithic era in the Nenjiang River Basin, which advanced the Nenjiang River Basin to enter a civilized society by more than a thousand years, and then rewritten the civilization history of Heilongjiang River Basin .
Unearthed house site in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang,
Liangshan, Sichuan, Wudongde Hydropower Station, Site construction area is the largest archaeological project in Sichuan so far. Archaeologists discovered a group of sarcophagus burials 4,500-4,000 years ago here, which pushed the time of sarcophagus burials appearing about 1,000 years. It may be the origin of the sarcophagus burial customs in Shi Sichuan and even the whole country.
Qingtan PlateauThe prehistoric human biological conditions have always been an area of concern to the academic community. This year, wheat, millet and other remains about 4,000 years ago were discovered at the Liding site at the intersection of Yanghe and Yarlung Zangbo River in Linzhi City, Tibet, indicating that it was a business model for mixed crops at that time. This discovery provides clues for discussing important issues such as the spread of crops and cultural exchanges on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Research on early cultural exchanges between the East and the West has gained huge gains
Northwest region is a key area for cultural exchanges between the East and the West, and has attracted much attention from the academic community. As early as 1924, Swedish scholar Anderson took a sheepskin raft and followed the Tao River to the Siwa Mountain site in Lintao, Gansu. Here he excavated 8 tombs and unearthed a batch of cultural relics characterized by saddle-mouthed jars. In 1945, Mr. Xia Nai excavated six tombs at the same location. In his report "Excavation of Lintao Temple Wa Mountain" published in 1949, he officially named this culture the Siwa Culture. Nearly a hundred years have passed, and a new round of excavations has begun in the Siwa site, and many other relics have been discovered, including Majiayao cultural house sites, Siwa cultural tombs, as well as ash pits and pottery kilns. The application of new technologies and new means provides information support for a comprehensive interpretation of a series of issues such as the funeral customs, business forms, environmental landforms, and metallurgical technology of the Siwa population.
Xinjiang Hot Spring Husta Ruins is a large central settlement site, which is likely to be the center of power in the Bortala River Basin. The large number of horse bones and suspected residues of millet, sorghum and wheat crops unearthed at the site indicate that no later than the 17th century BC, the East-West cultural exchanges and interactions mediated by Eurasian grassland were already very mature. The Andronovo culture-type pottery unearthed at the site helped to illustrate the background and form of cultural exchanges at that time.
" Archaeological China " research project has achieved remarkable results
This year, many important discoveries are related to the "Archaeological China" project. In November 2016, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage issued the "13th Five-Year Plan for the Protection of Large Sites", which plans to carry out systematic archaeological excavations with a focus, promote cross-regional comprehensive archaeological research projects such as research on civilization model in the downstream of the Yangtze River, settlement and social research in the Hetao region, and research on civilization process in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and continuously deepen the understanding of the long history and valuable value of Chinese civilization. These projects are collectively called "Archaeological China". In the past few years of implementation, the project has achieved fruitful research results and contributed solid archaeological strength to "telling good Chinese stories". In 2019, with the support of the archaeological Chinese project, a number of key sites such as Lushan Maple in Yan'an, Shaanxi, Shenmu Shimao in Tianmen, Hubei, Shijiahe and Shayangcheng River in Huarong, Hunan, Sunjiagang, Jizhaicheng City, Yuhang, Zhejiang, and Yuhang Liangzhu , and Deqing Zhongchuming continued to carry out work, and achieved fruitful research results, providing academic support for the research on the great process of diversification and integration of Chinese civilization.
Stone sculpture No. 47, Dataijinan Guarding Wall, Shenmu Shimao Site, Shaanxi Province,
On July 6, Liangzhu Ancient City site was successfully applied for World Heritage, and all walks of life were in full swing. Relying on the topic of "Archaeology China·Research on Civilization Models in the Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River", the archaeological work of the Liangzhu site in and the peripheral water conservancy system continues to be carried out. The jade-making workshop in the middle of the Deqing Middle School of the Liangzhu, which was related to the Liangzhu ancient city, was discovered in many places of the Liangzhu cultural earth platform, tombs and house sites, enriching the archaeology content of the Liangzhu ancient city, reflecting the long-distance large-scale professional production model, and an important manifestation of the highly developed Liangzhu ancient country.
is located in the Shijiahe, Chenghe, Qixingdun and Jijiaocheng ruins in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. It is an important city site of Qujialing and Shijiahe culture and a key node of the ancient city network system at that time. The new discovery deepened the research on the network system of Qujialing-Shijiahe society. The Sunjiagang site is an important settlement of Houshijiahe culture. It was once famous in the academic community for the unearth of a large number of Houshijiahe jades. The newly discovered "pad burial" in recent years provides new materials for understanding the burial status at that time. The new jade patterns and settlement structures have opened a window to understand the role played by Dongting Lake District in the formation of early Chinese national civilization and its relationship with early national civilization.
Shaanxi Shenmu Shimao Ancient City is one of the most important archaeological discoveries in China in recent years. Its huge size, magnificent buildings, exquisite jade and human heads lay the foundation, bringing strong shock and endless imagination. Long-term settlement archaeological research shows that the Shimao site consists of three parts: Imperial City Platform, inner city and outer city. The city has an area of more than 4 million square meters. It is the largest known city site from the late Longshan period to the early Xia Dynasty in China. In 2019, archaeologists excavated the "big base" in the east of the Imperial City Taiding, opening the curtain to explore the zoning and functional properties of the Imperial City Taiping settlement. The more than 70 newly discovered exquisite stone sculptures are closely related to the stone sculpture tradition in northern China, and are very similar to the artistic conception and pattern style of jade and bronze ritual vessels that were later, which has attracted great attention from the academic community. The discovery of stone sculptures in Shimao shows the height of civilization and spiritual world of early China, and reveals the inheritance of the belief system of Chinese civilization.
The above discovery is only limited information we have learned from the Internet. Many important archaeological work is still in progress and has not been released in detail. I believe that these excavations will bring us new surprises and thoughts.
Review in 2019, the new discoveries brought by archaeologists with hard work and sweat have shown us the magnificent path to the evolution of Chinese civilization. Looking forward to 2020, I believe that new field work will refresh our understanding of prehistoric China again, and thus contribute an indispensable "archaeological force" to the research on the unique development path of Chinese civilization.
(Text information is quoted from the Internet resources of many media such as "Wenbo China", China Archaeology Network, Xinhuanet , Sina , Tencent, and other provinces and cities, as well as official websites of archaeology in Shaanxi, Zhejiang, Hunan, Henan, Liaoning and other provinces and cities. The picture information is quoted from the "Wenbo China" official account, China Archaeology Network, hereby explain)
