In the Paleolithic Age more than 14,000 years ago, a few rice husks that were discarded by the ancestors in Yuchanyan in Daoxian County, Yongzhou, Hunan Province, have become the evidence that we have today to prove that rice cultivation originated in China.
In addition, a large number of carbonized rice have been excavated in many cultural sites such as the Shangshan site of Jinhua in Zhejiang Province 10,000 years ago, the Pengtou Mountain site and the site of Bashiyuan in Lixian County, Hunan Province 8,000 years ago, and the golden rice and ancient rice fields cultivated in Hemudu site in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province 7,000 years ago have been found in these powerful testimonies that China's agriculture originated early and the region is extensive, and it is worthy of being a world agricultural power with a long history.
I have to say, the archaeologist's eyes are so good! Who would have thought that such a few ancient rice husks mixed in the garbage for more than 10,000 years and the carbonized rice mixed with pottery shards and soil clods thousands of years ago could be excavated and studied by archaeologists with a keen eye, and this is only a part of the history of Chinese civilization.
As one of the four ancient civilizations in the world, we are always accustomed to saying that Chinese civilization has a history of "5,000 years", but how can we verify the history of these 5,000 years? Why do some scholars think that Chinese civilization is only three or four thousand years? Why is it not recognized internationally that China has a history of 5,000 years like ancient Egypt and ancient India? Later, how did we verify and establish the 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization through archaeological discoveries?
Compiled by the well-known archaeological expert Wang Wei, this book "The Source Comes Like This: Follow the Archaeologists to Explore the Source", around the research results of the major national archaeological project "Chinese Civilization Exploration Project", tells the archaeological discoveries and civilization characteristics of more than 40 important historical and cultural sites in a popular and interesting way, and is equipped with a large number of hand-drawn drawings and popular science archaeological knowledge, which demonstrates the authenticity, diversity and importance of the 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization from multiple angles.
The book is also equipped with two large charts, the distribution map and the chronology of the main archaeological sites of the Chinese civilization exploration project, so that the distribution of more than 40 cultural sites in the land of China and the time of formation in history are clear at a glance.
Yuchanyan, Pengtou Mountain, Hemudu, Chengtou Mountain, Shuanghuaishu, Dadiwan, Liangzhu City, Taosi City, Erlitou ...... Although these more than 40 cultural sites are distributed in many regions of the country, the formation and excavation time are different, and the main cultural relics excavation also have their own characteristics, the book is clearly sorted out and connected through the clues of civilization, so that the seemingly scattered cultural sites and archaeological discoveries can construct a holistic and continuous development process of Chinese civilization in a networked way.
This also shows that the birth and development of Chinese civilization on the land of China is just like the concept of civilization put forward by the famous archaeologist Mr. Su Bingqi: the origin of Chinese civilization is "not like a candle, but like a sky full of stars".
Slowly flipping through the archaeological stories, it is like a journey of exploring the source of civilization on the land of China, from one site to another, from one archaeological discovery to another related archaeological discovery, from which we can see that the Chinese civilization has been continuously extended and inherited for tens of thousands of years, never interrupted, and finally formed a deep and long history of civilization.