Liangzhu Ancient City Ruins Park. Courtesy of hangzhou Liangzhu Ruins Management Area Management Committee
Hangzhou, December 30 (Strict Xie Panpan Tong Xiaoyu) Recently, Quzhou, Zhejiang Province, found that the tomb of the Western Zhou Guru King more than 3,000 years ago was selected as one of the top ten domestic archaeological news in 2021. Archaeologists are still 6 kilometers away from the mound tomb, and a new site of the city of the same period has been discovered, which it is judged to be the location of the capital of the Gu Contempt State.
The "surprise" of archaeological discoveries to Zhejiang is far more than that.
"Zhejiang, which was originally known as the 'land of barbarians', has surprised us again and again because of the efforts of archaeologists." Wang Wei, chief expert of the Chinese Civilization Exploration Project and chairman of the Chinese Archaeological Society, believes that Zhejiang is not only the birthplace of five thousand years of civilization, but also a region with developed prehistoric culture, and nearly half of the early sites known to China 9,000 years ago are in Zhejiang. Through archaeological evidence, the ancestors of Zhejiang have made immeasurable and significant contributions to Chinese civilization, world development and even human progress, and are outstanding representatives of Chinese archaeology.
"If the origin of Chinese civilization is 'like a sky full of stars', then Zhejiang is one of the earliest and brightest star buckets." Yang Jianwu, a member of the party group of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and director of the Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, said that Zhejiang has launched the archaeological "Bright Star" plan to further reveal the brilliant achievements of Chinese civilization.
Ruins of Little Mojiao Mountain. Courtesy of hangzhou Liangzhu Ruins Management Area Management Committee
A city awakened for five thousand years
Located on the eastern coast, Zhejiang was once considered a "barbarian land" in history compared with the culturally developed Central Plains. Why does Zhejiang empirically prove China's 5,000-year civilization? The answer to the question is related to a city.
On July 6, 2019, the ruins of Liangzhu Ancient City were successfully applied for heritage.
For a long time, the international academic community believes that Chinese civilization began in the Yin Shang period about 3500 years ago, far shorter than ancient Egypt and ancient Greece.
In Yang Jianwu's view, Liangzhu's application for heritage was successful, "archaeology has changed the known, and now the history class of the middle school has changed, and the 5,000-year-old Civilization of China began with Liangzhu." ”
The source of Chinese civilization, why Liangzhu? Liu Bin, an important discoverer of archaeology at the liangzhu ancient city site, said that from the perspective of the excavated tombs and the scale of the ancient city of Liangzhu, the Liangzhu god and king are one, there is a clear class distinction, there is an efficient organizational and management ability, and it has the standard of civilization, that is, the form of the country.
Judging from the results of archaeological excavations, the radiation range of this country is quite wide. Yang Jianwu mentioned that in the entire Yangtze River Delta basin, more than 1,000 Liangzhu period sites have been found. He laughed and said, "More than 5,000 years ago, the center of the integration of the Yangtze River Delta was in Liangzhu. ”
Carbonized rice excavated from the Shangshan site. Photo by Tong Xiaoyu
Liangzhu's influence on Chinese civilization does not stop there. Xiang Ming, director of the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of Zhejiang Province, said that as the most perfect and advanced Liangzhu jade in the Neolithic era of China, it has become the earliest material carrier of the concept of "ware with Tibetan etiquette" in traditional Chinese culture, and the Liangzhu group of jade ceremonial ware as a sign of the identity, rank and status of the owner, as a reflection of the level and scale of the settlement, the center and the surroundings, opened the curtain of China's ritual civilization, and the Liangzhu civilization group of jade ceremonial vessels is the most prominent representative of the "instrument with Tibetan ceremony" on the chinese land before the Bronze Age of China.
In Liangzhu 5,000 years ago, there was also a "super project" that attracted the world's attention. Since the discovery of the first Liangzhu dam in 2009, a total of 11 dams have been identified in Liangzhu, and the furthest dam is more than ten kilometers away from the ancient city of Liangzhu.
These dams make efficient use of the water resources of the entire region, whether they are used to irrigate rice fields and crops, or to provide daily domestic water for residents.
"This large-scale water conservancy project is 1,000 years earlier than the legendary Dayu Zhishui. It is also by far the world's oldest and largest water conservancy system. Yang Jianwu revealed that through remote sensing images, archaeologists have recently found some new suspected dam bodies - not one, but three or four.
Colin Lunforru, a professor at the University of Cambridge and an international archaeology figure, has visited Liangzhu many times and claims to be an admirer of Liangzhu. "The Liangzhu civilization is a civilization of the same era as the ancient Egyptian and Sumerian civilizations. It advanced people's understanding of early Chinese civilization by more than 1,000 years. ”
A piece of faience pottery excavated from the shangshan site with a sun symbol on it. Photo by Tong Xiaoyu
A grain of rice "candlelight" world civilization
"The history of Zhejiang is far more than 5,000 years, and archaeology has confirmed that it will be pushed forward to 10,000 years." Archaeology completely subverts cognition. Yang Jianwu said that the source of the world's 10,000-year-old rice farming has been confirmed in Zhejiang.
A grain of carbonized rice lies quietly in the display case of the National Museum of China in Beijing "Daoyuan Qiming - Zhejiang Shangshan Culture and Archaeology Special Exhibition".
It was found in Pujiang, Zhejiang Province, and although it was so small that it could only be observed with a magnifying glass, its weight was no less than that of a large country. This is a domesticated grain of rice, which has been tested for 10,000 years and is known as "the world's first grain of rice".
"This is currently the world's earliest evidence of rice domestication." We have also found cultivated rice remains at the Shangshan site, as well as a complete chain of evidence for rice harvesting, processing and consumption, which is the earliest known remains of rice farming in the world. Jiang Leping, the discoverer of Shangshan culture, said, just as Yuan Longping, the "father of hybrid rice", wrote: "Ten thousand years up the mountain, the source of Chinese rice."
Since its origins tens of thousands of years ago, rice cultivation civilization has taken root in Zhejiang. The large-scale ancient rice fields of the early, late and Liangzhu culture of the Hemudu culture, which were first discovered at the Shi'ao site in Yuyao, are the largest, oldest and most well-documented ancient rice field remains in the world; the ancient rice field sites of the Liangzhu culture period found in Linping Maoshan are estimated to have an yield of up to 141 kg per mu according to the weight relationship between the silicon bodies planted in the rice field soil and the rice.
A series of archaeological discoveries have proved that Zhejiang is undoubtedly the birthplace of the world's rice culture. At the same time, more "earliest" on the mountain is constantly excavated in Zhejiang.
The remains of wooden structures and ring moats found on Shangshan are the earliest primary villages found in East Asia so far; the faience pottery of the Shangshan culture is the earliest faience pottery found in China so far.
Yang Jianwu also shared a detail. A complete human skeleton was unearthed at the Shangshan site. In front of the human bones, there is also a red clay pot buried. In clay pots, the researchers detected a gelatinized starch produced by heating that matched the characteristics of low-temperature fermentation, which is the basic principle of winemaking. That said, this is likely to be the earliest evidence of winemaking in China.
"The Shangshan culture advanced the history of civilization in the lower Yangtze River and southern China to 10,000 years ago." Yang Jianwu commented.
Large-mouth basins excavated from the shangshan site. Photo by Tong Xiaoyu
One star decodes culture Zhejiang
From the splendid prehistoric spark to the brilliant ancient civilization, from the turbulent modern changes to the contemporary development of global attention, Zhejiang has a long history and is the empirical place of millions of years of human history, 10,000 years of cultural history, and more than 5,000 years of Chinese civilization history.
Yang Jianwu said: It is no exaggeration to compare Zhejiang to a "rising star" in the history of Chinese civilization. All the past is the prologue. In his view, the next task of Zhejiang archaeology is to continue to explore the unknown.
Making this star more dazzling and further displaying the brilliant achievements of Chinese civilization is the original intention of Zhejiang's implementation of the archaeological "Enlightenment Star" plan, and it is also the only way to accelerate the construction of a cultural highland in the new era.
"From tens of thousands of years to seven or eight thousand years, and then to five or six thousand years, Zhejiang's archaeological and cultural genealogy must be constructed first." Yang Jianwu reported a string of Zhejiang place names: Shangshan, Cross-lake Bridge, Hemudu, Majiabang, Liangzhu, Haochuan, Qianshanyang, Shoulder Lane... They are all archaeological cultures named after locations, covering almost the entire picture of the lower Yangtze River from prehistory to the Bronze Age.
For the archaeology, excavation and collation of these sites, Zhejiang has been continuing, and proposed to carry out special research around major topics such as the origin of the world's rice farming, prehistoric civilization, and the great history of Zhejiang.
The Jingtou Mountain site in Yuyao, Ningbo is the first shell mound site found in the Yangtze River Delta region, and it is also the earliest and deepest buried shell mound site found in China. Two pieces of wood excavated at the site are determined to be the earliest lacquerware in China. This discovery advances the history of lacquer use in China and the world to more than 8,000 years ago.
In order to restore the picture of 10,000 years of life on the mountain, the archaeological work of the Yiwu Qiaotou Site and the Taizhou Xianju Xiatang Site is also advancing.
"Archaeology is not a treasure hunt from the beginning." A sentence that Xiang Ming said is intriguing.
The Western Zhou Mound Tombs group located in Quzhou, Zhejiang. Photo by Zhang Sen
He said that in the future, Zhejiang will strengthen the excavation, collation, and interpretation of archaeological achievements such as excavated cultural relics and sites, clarify and thoroughly explain the Zhejiang cultural genes contained in them, and promote new archaeological discoveries and new research achievements to go out of the warehouse, out of the laboratory, into the museum, and into the masses. Deepen international exchanges in the field of archaeology and tell the historical story of Zhejiang.
A few days ago, 10 important archaeological discoveries in Zhejiang in 2021 were revealed, and the cultural inheritance and cultural integration of Zhejiang from prehistory to the Ming and Qing dynasties were restored by one site after another.
For example, the Yuhang Jumping Head Site in Hangzhou first discovered the relatively clear bronze casting settlement site of the late Shang Dynasty; the first phase of the Shaoxing Lanting Wildlife Park cemetery reveals the level of local economic development from the Warring States to the Ming and Qing dynasties.
"Archaeology is actually like Sherlock Holmes, the essence is to explore and decode. Its highest state is to restore the production, life and social innovation of that time. "Yang Jianwu said that there are still many unsolved mysteries in Zhejiang that need to be solved by archaeology, just like the Long March, which only took the first step." The ultimate goal is to show the history and culture of Zhejiang and build Zhejiang's cultural self-confidence. ”
Decoding history and building cultural self-confidence is also the only way to build cultural Zhejiang.
Yuan Jiajun, secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial CPC Committee, stressed that it is necessary to implement the cultural Zhejiang project in the new era with a high degree of cultural consciousness and firm cultural self-confidence, write a new chapter of faithfully practicing the "Eighty-Eight Strategy" and striving to create an "important window" culture. (End)