Magnetic mountain culture, magnetic mountain culture.

1972 In the winter, when people in Cishan village dug canals on the platform in the east of the village, they accidentally discovered a "primitive village" that had been sleeping for more than 7,000 years, thus opening the prelude to the early Neolithic cultural exploration in the Yellow River basin.

Subsequently, archaeologists excavated a large number of remains and relics on this site with a total area of only 6.5438+0.4 million square meters. For a time, this small mountain village, which was originally silent and nameless, became the most concerned place in the cultural relics field of the whole country and even the world. In the repeated excavation for more than 20 years, a large number of precious cultural relics and relics have been unearthed one after another.

In the Museum of Cishan Ruins, there are many pits, round, oval and rectangular. Archaeologists say that these seemingly ordinary pits are not dug by people at will, and some pits are "ash pits" where ancestors dumped garbage; Some pits have steps and hard surfaces at the bottom, which is the foundation of semi-crypt thatched houses; And those rectangular pits as deep as several meters are the "pits" for ancestors to store food.

According to the data, since the excavation of the Cishan site, more than 4,000 relics such as stone tools, pottery and bones have been excavated. Among these relics, there are mainly stone millstones used to peel grain and stone sticks similar to stone hammers, as well as clay pots and brackets used for cooking. Among them, the surface of stone millstones was smooth, and after beating or polishing, some of them had enough bottoms, so the workmanship at that time was very fine.

Archaeological research shows that the site of Cishan is the remains of human beings entering the Neolithic Age, about 7000 years ago. At that time, the ancestors had ended their nomadic life of "living on aquatic plants" and had a relatively stable settlement, forming a lifestyle dominated by planting millet and supplemented by collecting fishing and hunting. During this period, ancestors could make grinded stone tools and handmade pottery, and their bone needles were not much bigger than steel needles. In this "primitive village", there are not only domestic pigs and dogs, but also domestic chickens and walnuts.

Cishan site represents the cultural outlook after the early and middle Neolithic period, and fills a blank in the cultural research of Neolithic period in China. Because of its typical representative significance, it was defined as "magnetic mountain culture" by the archaeological community, and was designated as a national key cultural relics protection unit in 1988. During the excavation, a strange phenomenon puzzled many archaeologists. On such a small website, dozens of "groups" regularly put labor tools together. These "compositions" are mostly composed of stone millstones, stone sticks, stone shovels, stone axes, clay pots and supports. Generally, there are four pieces in each group, and most of them are placed in groups according to production tools (stone shovels, axes, etc.). ), threshing tools (stone mill, etc. ) and cookware (clay pot bracket, etc.). ), and the order is very obvious. This is very rare in other Neolithic sites in China.

At first, some experts speculated that the site might be the burial area of ancestors, and this "composition" was a funerary object. However, after several years of extensive exploration, trial excavation and investigation on the periphery of the site, no human bones and funeral traces were found. On the contrary, a large number of bird bones, animal bones and even small fish bones were found.

Some experts think it may be a primitive residential area or a food processing place according to the characteristics of "composition". But they also failed to find the corresponding evidence, because no so-called living area was found here, only two houses were excavated. In addition, if it is a grain processing place or a production and labor place, each pit should have corresponding activity space, but in fact, each group of "composition" occupies a very small area, some of which are less than two square meters.

With the passage of time, some experts and scholars boldly put forward the possibility that these "components" are the relics that our ancestors deliberately piled together according to certain thought and habit formats, and are specially used for "sacrificing" souls or worshipping.

"Either way, they didn't find sufficient and accurate evidence for their views. "Han Lintai, a local archaeologist, believes that the Cishan site should have been a primitive village at that time. On March 20 10, the staff of magnetic mountain culture Museum found some white blocky objects with plant particles attached to their surfaces from a collapsed cultural layer, which experts thought might be ancient "flour". China Academy of Sciences is making further identification of this strange substance.

Are these strange white things millet, millet flour, starch or white ash? Through the inspection and analysis of the attachments on the surface of the object and its cultural layer, the cultural relics department believes that the white block object is found for the first time and well preserved, and it is likely to be a starch substance thousands of years ago, that is, the earliest flour of human beings.

After collection, magnetic mountain culture Museum has collected about 250 grams of white blocks. On March 4th, 20/KLOC-0, the staff bagged and sealed all these items, mailed some samples to China Academy of Sciences, and invited relevant experts to make further tests through laboratory tests. Cishan is the birthplace of millet. In the past world agricultural history, millet has always been recognized as spreading from Egypt and India. However, with the discovery of the Cishan site, this "conclusion" was rewritten.

Archaeologists agree through scientific appraisal that as early as 7000 years ago, Cishan ancestors began to plant drought-tolerant crop millet and achieved quite high yield.

Archaeologists found 189 "pits" for storing grain at the site of Cishan. These "granaries" are shaped like bags, and most of the pits are 1-2 meters in diameter, with different depths. The shallowest is only 0.85 meters, while the deepest is 5 meters. A local archaeologist lamented that the local soil is extremely thick, which can be said to be "wet and hard, and it can't be dug without being wet." The ancestors dug so many pits several meters deep with only polished stone axes and shovels, and their perseverance and labor intensity were unimaginable.

Han Lintai, an archaeologist who participated in the excavation at that time, told reporters that when the "pit" was presented to the world, people couldn't help but be surprised: there were a lot of "millet ashes" piled up inside. At first, they were gray-green, but after a while they turned into white ashes. In some rotten ashes, you can directly see the carbonized round millet with the naked eye.

In order to identify the composition of these grains, the diggers went to Beijing twice, but they couldn't find a suitable storage method. These specimens magically turned to dust after arriving at the destination. Finally, archaeologists in Beijing identified the specimens by "gray image method" and thought that people in Cishan ate "millet" at that time, which was the earliest discovery in the history of artificially planting millet today.

Archaeologists are rejoicing, but at the same time, a rather puzzling problem is also in front of them. Because the thickness of "millet ash" in these pits is generally 0.2-2 meters, with 10 even reaching more than 2 meters. According to the specific gravity and volume, these 189 granaries should store at least 50,000 kilograms of millet. Under the crude production conditions at that time, it was almost unimaginable to have so much food left.

For a time, experts put forward various speculations about this large-scale "granary": it may be that agricultural production at that time had reached a high level, with some surplus besides enough food; Maybe it's a grain seed stored by a tribe. Before sowing, a major natural disaster happened, and all the people fled their homes.

Some people think that this place may be the place where ancestors sacrificed to the "Five Grains God". In order to pray for a bumper harvest, they offered the best grain to the gods. Meanwhile, some scholars questioned whether the cellar was a "granary" after the experiment. They think that some "pits" are extremely narrow and it is difficult for people to enter, so how did those ancestors take and put grain?

In the face of external confusion, local villagers have their own explanations. They believe that this is the place where the legendary "Shennong" lived, and hundreds of caves were the "Shennong granary" at that time. In the Cishan site, in addition to a large number of stone tools, pottery and accumulated "millet ash", archaeologists also unearthed more bird bones. Whether these bird bones came from domesticated early domestic chickens is also considered as an important mystery in magnetic mountain culture.

According to tradition, domestic chickens originated in India around 2000 BC. However, experts compared the bird bones in the Cishan site with the modern bird bones in beijing museum of natural history, and found that they were different from the modern chicken bones. Bones are similar in shape and size. Therefore, they think that the bird bones unearthed in Cishan are most likely to belong to chickens, and they may also be early domestic chickens.

Experts who support this statement also put forward the following facts: First, at that time, agriculture in Cishan had made great progress, and there was a surplus of grain, which provided certain material conditions for raising poultry; Secondly, according to the research of modern zoologists, domestic chickens were domesticated from original chickens, and the distribution of ancient original chickens in China has included the northern and central plains regions.

However, some experts and scholars have put forward different views on this. They think that similarity does not mean the same.

In addition, when studying the bird bones in Cishan, we also found a very interesting question: What is the tarsal structure of Cishan "domestic chicken"? Bones, except one female, are all male.

What does the emergence of a large number of male "domestic chickens" represent? Did the ancestors deliberately choose the rooster because of the need of some religious ceremony? Did our ancestors, like modern people, leave only the chickens that laid eggs and kill the redundant cocks? Is it the hunter's selective killing of pheasants? At present, no one can find relevant clues and evidence.

However, if the bird bones found in Cishan are indeed the bones of domestic chickens, then the domestication of domestic chickens in China can be traced back to 5400 BC, more than 3000 years earlier than that in India. The history and culture of any period should have its background. As the only archaeological culture named after place names in our province, "magnetic mountain culture" is called a mysterious culture because of its origin and why those ancestors suddenly "vanished", which still puzzles many experts and scholars.

For this problem, some experts believe that because there is no Neolithic cultural site in the Central Plains earlier than the Cishan site, the origin of this culture is certainly difficult to trace back. The Yangshao culture discovered before is separated from magnetic mountain culture for thousands of years. So far, the archaeological community has not found the inevitable connection and connection between them.

Qiao, director of Handan Cultural Relics Protection Institute and an archaeological expert, said: "The main reason for many questions is that people's lifestyles, folk customs and the shape and structure of houses were very different from those of today, so it is difficult for people to imagine and find conclusive evidence to verify their authenticity." He believes that with the continuous development of archaeological work, these "mysteries" will find reasonable answers.

According to the latest news, Mr. Guo Xiaoliang of Hong Kong Shennong (Yan Di) International Industry Group pointed out through the study of the invasion era that some ancestors of farming civilization in Cishan, Hebei Province went to Taihang Mountain in the west after being invaded and destroyed, and merged with local aborigines, and began to grow grains and taste herbs in Taihang Mountain area. Pottery is an invention of China people and a great contribution to world civilization. Most of the pottery unearthed from Cishan site is sand pottery, and a few are mud pottery, all of which are hand-made and mainly plain. Among the unearthed pottery, there are round-bottomed pots, three-legged pots and almsgiving-shaped ding. Among them, the pottery group composed of pottery pots and pottery brackets is unique and most representative. Stone tools unearthed in the site include hammer stone tools, ground stone tools and ground stone tools. The main shapes are millstones, grinding rods, axes, shovels, chisels, hoes and sickles. Among them, millstones and grinding rods are food processing tools, which have great archaeological value.

The pottery of Cishan site is mainly red pottery with sand, with low temperature, rough texture and simple surface. Pottery is mostly made of clay strips with irregular shapes. There are rope patterns, weave patterns, grate patterns and chest nail patterns on the surface of pottery. There are oval clay pots, shoe-shaped brackets, pots, bowls and so on.

Judging from the specimens and a large number of artifacts unearthed from the Cishan site, as early as 7000 years ago, there was a relatively developed agriculture in the eastern foot of Taihang Mountain in southern Hebei Province. At that time, the level of productivity had been divorced from the primary stage of agricultural economy, and quite a few people had engaged in special manual labor. Primitive manual labor has become an important part of primitive agriculture, fishing and hunting, gathering, production and life. The rich connotation of magnetic mountain culture site provides a new important link for studying and exploring the early Neolithic culture in China.