What ancient civilization sites are there in the Yangtze River Basin?

The Neolithic cultural remains in the Yangtze River basin are very rich. Neolithic culture in Ningshao Plain-Taihu Basin is the most distinctive cultural series in the south of the Yangtze River. 1973 Hemudu culture discovered in Hemudu, Yuyao, Zhejiang Province, is considered as the earliest and most representative Neolithic remains in Jiangnan area. Later, Majiabang culture or Caoxieshan culture developed more widely. Typical sites that have been excavated include Majiabang in Jiaxing and Caoxie Mountain in Wuxian, which developed into a highly developed Liangzhu culture about 6,000 years ago.

An ancient city with an area of 2.9 million square meters, dating from 5,300 to 4,000 years ago, was discovered in Liangzhu Ruins, and its age was no later than the late Liangzhu culture. The specific architectural age needs further archaeological determination. Archaeologists pointed out that this was the first city site discovered in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River during the Liangzhu culture period, and it was also the largest city site discovered in China at the same time. At that time, "Liangzhu" forces occupied half of China, and the newly discovered ancient city was equivalent to the capital of Liangzhu.

Some experts believe that the dating of Chinese dynasties should be rewritten from now on: from the earliest dynasty to Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, it should be changed to Liangzhu.

Under the leadership of the staff of Liangzhu Management Committee of Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, the reporter came to the ancient city site of Pingyao Town. The four city walls, east, west, north and south, are now lying quietly in the farmland, surrounded by a small number of houses.

The city wall left traces of the domestic garbage of the aborigines.

A hole was also dug in the wall of Beicheng, using the same loess and stone. The only difference is that "the pit of this city wall is elegant, and the rammed soil layer from the bottom to the surface is mixed with mud and sand, which is very regular." The sand layer is gradually thickened from top to bottom, the mud layer is gradually thinned, and the workmanship is very elegant. " According to Liu Bin's speculation, the black debris on the earth wall should be the domestic garbage left by the original residents.

The north and south of Liangzhu ancient city are branches of Tianmu Mountain, and the distance between the north and south and the mountain is roughly equal. East, West and Liangzhu Port flow eastward from the north and south sides of the city respectively. Fengshan and Luoshan are two natural hills, which are used in the southwest corner and northeast corner of the city wall respectively. Therefore, experts infer that when the ancients built the city, they obviously made a careful survey and planning of the geographical location.

The discovery of the ruins of Liangzhu ancient city was very unexpected, which was attributed to an infrastructure project in June last year to relocate farmers' houses in the protected area.

At that time, the provincial institute of cultural relics and archaeology discovered a north-south river ditch in Liangzhu period when excavating in the west side of the highland of Pingyao grape fan site. This made Liu Bin feel that he had a chance, so he led archaeologists to dig deeper. Luoyang shovel goes down one by one (Luoyang shovel has a long handle and a semi-cylindrical shovel head. When driving into the ground, the shovel head can bring out a bucket of soil to distinguish the soil structure, color, density and inclusion. At a depth of more than 4 meters, the shovel head touched a stone, then shoveled to another place, and it touched the stone at a similar depth. When the soil was dug up layer by layer, a large stone was exposed. After local dissection, it was found that this highland was artificially piled up, with a width of more than 60 meters and a depth of nearly 4 meters.

As a result, archaeologists found that the whole land was actually rammed by hand-the soil was loess, which was obviously transported from the outside by hand, unlike the gray-black silt in Liangzhu area. Under the loess, there is a layer of stone, which is very smooth and should be picked from the surrounding area. Later excavation proved that this pile of loess was the western wall of Liangzhu ancient city, and the ditch under the rice field was a moat.

The west wall is about 1000 meters long and 40-60 meters wide, and it is connected to Fengshan in the south and Tiaoxi in the north. Next, the south wall, the north wall and the east wall were discovered in turn, which were also paved with stones and compacted with a lot of loess. The city wall surrounds the ruins of Jiaomo Mountain in the middle.

Compared with the western city wall, the other three city walls are relatively more elegant: the paving stones are much sharper, obviously dug by hand; The stones on the outside of the city wall are relatively large, and they get smaller and smaller as they go in; Sometimes adding a layer of black clay on the accumulated loess layer increases the waterproof ability of the city wall.

Archaeologists speculate that these traces indicate that the ancient people first built the Western Wall, and they had more experience in building the other three walls.

The power of ancient city civilization once influenced half of China.

Yan Wenming, a famous archaeologist and professor of Peking University, said that to explain the significance of Liangzhu ancient city, we should start from the height of "the influence of Liangzhu culture on China". According to the location, layout and structure of the Liangzhu site that has been discovered, experts believe that there was a palace at that time, where the king and nobles lived, and now the city wall has been discovered, which is equivalent to the capital of Liangzhu.

Liangzhu culture is mainly distributed in Taihu Lake basin, including Yuhang, southern Jiaxing, eastern Shanghai, Suzhou, Changzhou and Liangzhu in Nanjing. Further out is the expansion area, which reaches Anhui and Jiangxi in the west, northern Jiangsu in the north and close to Shandong. Liangzhu people fought to occupy this place. Further out is the influence zone, all the way to the south of Shanxi.

Visible Liangzhu forces occupied half of China at that time, without a high level of economic and cultural is impossible.

Some archaeologists believe that Liangzhu Ancient City is actually "Liangzhu Ancient City". With the discovery of Liangzhu ancient city, some people think that the dating of China's dynasties should be rewritten from now on-from the earliest dynasty to Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, and then to Liangzhu.

This ancient city is about the size of the Summer Palace.

The city wall is 2 ~ 4 times wider than Xi 'an.

Zhejiang Institute of Archaeology recently released a major archaeological achievement-18 months later, an ancient city with an area of 2.9 million square meters was discovered at Liangzhu site, similar to the Summer Palace in Beijing. Judging from the ceramic fragments unearthed from the city wall, the age of this ancient city is not later than the late Liangzhu culture, and the specific architectural age needs to be determined after further archaeological work. Among the great sites representing the early civilization of China, Liangzhu site is the largest and the highest level, and it is one of the regions that have proved the scale and level of China's 5,000-year civilization history.

The ancient city is about 1500 ~ 1700 meters long from east to west, and about 1800 ~ 1900 meters long from north to south, slightly in the shape of a rounded rectangle, with a north-south direction. The residual height of some sections of the city wall is more than 4m, and the method is ingenious: the bottom is paved with stones with a width of 40-60m (the most complete existing ancient city wall in China-Xi 'an ancient city wall built in Hongwu period of Ming Dynasty, with a bottom width of18m and a top width of15m), and pure loess is piled on it and compacted.

Yan Wenming, a famous archaeologist and professor of Peking University who came here specially, commented on the ancient city: this is the largest contemporary ancient city discovered in China at present, and it can be called "the first city in China"; It has changed the original understanding that Liangzhu culture is only a glimmer of civilization, which indicates that Liangzhu culture has actually entered the mature stage of prehistoric civilization development. It is another important discovery of China archaeology after the discovery of Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan Province in the last century, which will greatly promote the research process of China civilization history and the development of archaeology.

Liangzhu culture is a famous prehistoric archaeological culture distributed in the area around Taihu Lake, dating from 5300 to 4000 years ago. Liangzhu site is the central site and cultural naming place of Liangzhu culture, located in Liangzhu Town and Pingyao Town, Yuhang District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province. 1986 The site of Liangzhu Mountain was discovered for the first time, and large tombs 1 1 were excavated, including pottery, stone tools, ivory and jade-inlaid lacquerware 1200 pieces. In recent years, the number of Liangzhu cultural sites has increased from more than 40 to 135, with various remains such as villages, cemeteries and altars.

Liangzhu, with a long history and outstanding people, is known as the dawn of Chinese civilization-the birthplace of Liangzhu culture. Liangzhu culture is a late Neolithic culture represented by black pottery and polished jade distributed around Taihu Lake basin. It was first discovered in Liangzhu in 1936, and it was named after 5300-4000 years ago. The dawn of Chinese civilization rises from Liangzhu, which is the holy land of Chinese nation and oriental civilization. National Cultural Heritage Administration has officially listed Liangzhu Site in the World Cultural Heritage List.

Hemudu

The early Neolithic site in southern China, a national key cultural relic protection unit, is located in Hemudu Town, Yuyao City, about 20 kilometers away from Ningbo City, with an area of about 40,000 square meters. Excavated in 1973, it is one of the earliest Neolithic cultural sites in China.

Hemudu site was found in 1973, with a total area of 50,000 square meters and four cultural layers overlapping. The minimum age has been determined to be 7000 years ago. Through the two scientific excavations of 1973 and 1977, nearly 7,000 cultural relics, such as production tools, daily necessities, decorative handicrafts, artificially planted rice remains, dry column building components, animal and plant remains, were found, which fully reflected the prosperity of China's primitive society in the matriarchal clan period. The excavation of Hemudu site provides extremely precious physical evidence for the study of eastern civilizations such as agriculture, architecture, textiles and art at that time, and is one of the most important archaeological discoveries since the founding of the People's Republic of China. The cultural relics unearthed from Hemudu site have been exhibited abroad for many times, which deeply shocked the whole world.

Hemudu site is a world-famous Neolithic site with a total area of about 40,000 square meters and a thickness of about four meters. There are four cultural layers stacked on top of each other, and the age of the fourth cultural layer is about 7000 years ago, which is one of the earliest Neolithic strata discovered in China. The third and fourth cultural layers have preserved a large number of plant remains, animal remains, wooden building remains and components, as well as thousands of pottery, bone utensils, stone tools, wood products and so on.

Neolithic culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China. Hemudu Site in Yuyao County, Zhejiang Province was first discovered, so it was named 1976. It is mainly distributed in Ningbo and Shaoxing Plain on the south bank of Hangzhou Bay, and directly reaches Zhoushan Island across the sea. According to radiocarbon dating and correction, the age is about 6000 BC. The discovery and establishment of Hemudu culture expanded the research field of Neolithic archaeology in China, indicating that splendid and ancient Neolithic culture also existed in the Yangtze River basin.

At present, the only large-scale excavation of this culture is Hemudu Site. Under the auspices of Zhejiang Cultural Management Committee and Zhejiang Museum, two excavations were conducted in 1973 ~ 1974 and 1977 ~ 1978 respectively. 1982 the State Council was declared as a national key cultural relics protection unit. In addition, the late Hemudu cultural remains have been found in Chen Jiao, Yinxian, Zhejiang, Baziqiao, Zhoushan, Bai Quan, Daju and other places.

Hemudu Site is located in Jinwumiao Village, Hemudu Town (formerly Langshuqiao Village, Luojiang Township). It was discovered by local farmers when they built a drainage station in the summer of 1973, with a total area of about 40,000 square meters. Four cultural layers are stacked from bottom to top. According to the carbon 14 laboratory in Peking University, the fourth cultural layer is about 7000-6500 years ago, the third cultural layer is about 6500-6000 years ago, and the second cultural layer is about 6000-5500 years ago. The site was excavated twice in 1973 and 1977, with a total area of 2,630 square meters. More than 6,700 cultural relics such as production tools, household utensils and original works of art have been unearthed, as well as rich cultivated rice, large wooden building remains, bones of wild animals and livestock hunted, collected plant fruits and a few tombs. All these provide extremely precious material data for studying the origin of ancient agriculture, architecture, ceramics, textiles, art and oriental civilization in China and the evolution of paleogeography, paleoclimate and paleohydrology. The cultural relics unearthed at the first and second cultural layers of Hemudu site are similar to those unearthed at the lower layer of Qiu Cheng site in Huzhou and Majiabin site in Jiaxing suburb. The cultural relics unearthed in the third and fourth cultural layers are newly discovered in our province, with relatively developed mortise and tenon technology, and their production and living standards are in a leading position in contemporary sites in China. Therefore, it is a brand-new archaeological culture, temporarily named Hemudu. After the discovery of Hemudu site, it caused great repercussions in academic circles at home and abroad. In order to make it public as soon as possible,1April 1976, National Cultural Heritage Administration and Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Bureau held a "symposium on the first excavation of Hemudu site" in Hangzhou (actually a seminar). Experts and scholars from Beijing, Shanghai, Shaanxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Anhui and Zhejiang, as well as representatives from Yuyao County and Luojiang Township, believed that the discovery of Hemudu site proved that the Yangtze River basin was in 700 years. This is the most important archaeological discovery since the founding of New China, and they agreed to name it Hemudu Culture. 1980- 198 1 year, Zhejiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, together with relevant municipal and county cultural management committees, conducted a general survey of Neolithic sites in Ningshaoping. In recent years, some sites have been discovered in capital construction. Up to now, 47 Hemudu cultural sites have been discovered, distributed in the coastal areas south of Qiantang River and Zhoushan Islands, with Yaojiang Plain being the most dense.

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Pottery is mainly carbon black pottery, sand red pottery and red gray pottery. In addition to plain pottery, it is also popular to cross-print rope patterns on the bottom of pots. The wide side of pottery is often engraved with geometric patterns such as parallel stripes, waves, circles, leaves and ears, and occasionally painted pottery with dark brown patterns on a white background. With a flat bottom and a bottom cover as the main body. Representative utensils are kettle, kettle, bowl with handle, wide-brimmed saucer, hanging bag, foot and so on. The pottery pot used for supporting feet has always been the main cooker of Hemudu culture. Bone tools are very rich, especially in the early days, the number of bone tools far exceeded the sum of stone tools, wood products, pottery and other tools. As far as we know, it is unique to the Neolithic culture in China. The woodwork is exquisite and diverse. Trapezoidal asymmetric blade stone axe, arch-backed thick-body stone hairpin, bone chisel, inclined collar bone chisel, tubular bone needle, bone whistle, wooden spear and wooden knife are all unique artifacts. A large number of mortise and tenon wood components and dry fence architectural remains show the residential characteristics of Hemudu culture.

The 4th and 3rd floors and the 2nd and 1 floors of Hemudu site represent the early and late Hemudu culture respectively. ① Early period: about 5000 ~ 4000 years ago. The pottery system is simple, and the pottery with carbon black is absolutely dominant. In addition to plain noodles, there are many rope patterns, geometric patterns and animal and plant patterns are more prominent. The main types of utensils are convergent or open-shouldered spine pot, straight-mouthed barrel pot, large-mouthed pot with two ears at the neck, wide-brimmed shallow dish, inclined abdominal basin, annular single-handle bowl, large ring bean, pot-shaped retort, block leg and so on. There are few kinds of stone tools, which are generally not polished well. Axes and hoes are thick, and the main stone tools have no holes. ② Late stage: about 4000 ~ 3300 years ago. The number of sand red pottery and red gray pottery is the largest. The front muddy red pottery has a red outer wall and a black inner wall, and red pottery clothes are often applied; The muddy red pottery in the back section is the same color inside and outside, and is rarely painted with pottery. Along the rope pattern, there is a hole pattern. New tripod, floor-standing handle, bipedal abnormity, hanging bag type. Other main shapes are open cockscomb ear pot, open flat-bellied pot, cow nose ear pot, folded pot, perforated bean, hollow inclined leg and so on. Stone tools have been polished in many ways, and there have been flat-strip stone hairpin, perforated stone axe, rectangular double-hole stone knife, stone spinning wheel and so on.

The cultural relics found in Hemudu site are characterized by a large number and rich types, which provide more comprehensive materials for studying people's production and life during the prosperity of clan commune seven or eight thousand years ago. For example, there are as many as 400,000 pieces of pottery unearthed in two excavations, which is beyond the reach of other Neolithic sites compared with the same excavation area. Another example is the unearthed spinning wheel, winding rod, diameter divider, warp beam, machine knife, shuttle, bone needle and other textile tools. According to these parts, the loom at that time can be restored, but other sites are not so specific. Its cultural characteristics are mainly manifested in rice planting, dry fence construction, textile and water transportation.

(1) Tillage: In most of the pits excavated twice in Hemudu Site, 20-50 cm thick accumulation layers of rice, chaff, rice leaves, stems, sawdust and reeds were found, with the thickest part reaching 80 cm. When rice is unearthed, it has golden color, clear glume and straight ears. Experts have identified it as a hybrid variety of cultivated rice, mainly indica rice (accounting for more than 60%). A large number of farm tools, mainly bones, were unearthed with rice, including 170 pieces, of which two bones still had wooden handles and bound rattan. The function of bone plough is similar to the shovel of later generations, and it is a farm tool to turn over the soil, which shows that Hemudu primitive rice farming has entered the "ploughing stage". At that time, paddy fields were distributed in the north and east of the excavation area, covering an area of about 6 hectares, and the highest total output was 18438+0 tons.

The origin of agriculture shows that human society has developed from a single predatory economy to a productive economy. This change has expanded the sources of food and laid the material foundation for human development, so it is of great significance in the history of human development. The discovery of primitive rice cultivation in Hemudu corrected the traditional view that japonica rice cultivated in China was introduced from Indian and indica rice was introduced from Japanese, and established the pluralistic view that cultivated rice in China originated from native land, which not only had 1 origin, but also greatly broadened the research field of agricultural origin. The discovery of artificially cultivated rice in Hemudu site shows that agriculture was not invented by any saint, but the result of human progress, which is conducive to people's establishment of dialectical materialist view of history and mass.

(2) Gan Lan-style architecture: A large number of Gan Lan-style architectural remains were found within the two excavations of Hemudu site, especially at the bottom of the fourth cultural layer, with the largest distribution area and the largest number. From a distance, they are dense and spectacular. According to the arrangement and trend of piles, construction experts estimate that there are at least six buildings in the fourth cultural layer, including a building with a length of more than 23 meters and a depth of 6.4 meters, and a corridor with a width of 1.3 meters under the eaves. The long house can be divided into several small rooms for a large family to live in. The cleaned components mainly include stakes, floors, columns, beams, fang, etc. Some components have tenons and mortises, and there are about hundreds of them. It can be seen that tenon-mortise technology was used at the vertical intersection of houses at that time. Hemudu site was built on the basis of large and small wooden stakes, on which large and small beams were erected, floors were laid, and the pedestal was made higher than the ground. Then, erect columns, build a herringbone roof and complete the roof truss. Finally, the fence facilities are made of reed mats or bark. Among them, the column method may also be tied with piles and wood to stand up from the ground. This kind of longhouse building with a long corridor on its head was called Ganlan building in ancient times. Adapted to the humid and rainy geographical environment in southern China, it was inherited by later generations. Today, such buildings can still be seen in the rural areas of southwest China and Southeast Asian countries. Building a huge dry fence building is far more complicated than the semi-crypt building of residents in the Yellow River basin at the same time. A huge amount of wood needs to be planned by special personnel, classified and processed after calculation, and someone needs to direct the construction on the spot, otherwise the house with seven heights and eight low twists and turns is not solid. Architectural technology shows that the IQ of Hemudu people is as high as that of modern people.

(3) The emergence of textile, transportation and painting techniques: The number and types of textile tools unearthed from Hemudu site are rare in Neolithic site archaeology. The largest number is spinning wheels, with more than 300 pieces. The texture is mainly pottery, but also stone and wood. The most common shape is oblate, and a few sections are trapezoidal. There are warp beams, split beams, winding rods, toothed devices, machine knives, shuttles and so on. Textile experts believe that these are parts of the original loom. There are more than 90 bone needles used for sewing. The smallest bone needle is only 9 cm long, with a diameter of 0.2 cm and a pinhole of 0. 1 cm, which is similar to today's large steel needle. Judging from the unearthed reed weave patterns and exquisite patterns on the utensils, the fabrics at that time were herringbone patterns and diamond patterns with the same number of latitude and longitude lines. Eight wooden paddles unearthed from Hemudu site are made of logs, which are similar to those of later generations, but slightly smaller. There must be a boat with oars. It is speculated that Hemudu people have been rowing canoes to fish and collect diamonds in the lake, which may also be used as a means of transportation for inter-clan communication. There are more than 20 lacquerware found in Hemudu site. In the early days, natural paint was applied to the surface of wood, and later red minerals were added to the natural paint to make the color of the utensils more vivid. One of the representative works is the wooden tire lacquer bowl unearthed in the third cultural layer.

(4) Discover the original artworks represented by ivory carving: The original artworks found in Hemudu site can be divided into two categories: pure artworks that exist independently and decorative arts that are carved on the surface of vessels and have practicality and appreciation, and the latter category is mostly, which fully shows the aesthetic taste and civilization of Hemudu people. The most famous work of art is the ivory carving with the pattern of "two birds facing the sun". It is 16 cm long, 5.9 cm wide and about 1 cm thick, and looks like a bird's nest. The center of the object is carved with five concentric circles, and the upper part of the outer circle is carved with flame patterns. There is a bird with round eyes and a beak on each side. The layout of the picture is rigorous, the lines are combined with reality, and the picture has profound implications. Some people say that it symbolizes the sun, while others think that birds are hatching eggs, symbolizing the worship of life and reproduction. It shows that this artifact has strong religious significance, and the primitive ancestors had a complicated spiritual life.