One of Nanning's past and present lives
Shell hill accompanied by Yongjiang River Snail fragrance drifted for thousands of years
——Visit nanning Neolithic shell hill culture
When some netizens wrote on WeChat describing the "fried snail" one of the outstanding representatives of Zhongshan Road food in Nanning City, they specifically found the famous sentence of the Tang Dynasty poet who used "snail" as a wine dish from the "Quan Tang Poems", believing that the history of the ancients eating snails was at least 1,500 or 600 years; some netizens continued to go back, saying that the Western Han Dynasty miscellaneous collection "Huainanzi" recorded "the ancient people... The worms in the meat of the worms are snails or mussels, which shows that the "snails" have been recognized by the majority of diners for more than 100 years BC. In fact, there is no need to bother to check the ancient books, everyone to the Yongjiang River along the shell hill ruins to take a walk, a look, will be shocked: the original ancestors as early as the Neolithic Age 10,000-6,000 years ago, on the snails and other shellfish as food, full of aquatic delicacies.
Exterior view of the Dingsishan Ruins Museum in Nanning City.
Born by the water, it contains ancient treasures
The site of Shell Hill contains ancient treasures and is a grand view. Shell mound site refers to the ancient ancestors fished for a variety of aquatic shellfish, after eating their flesh, their shells abandoned and stacked in one place, over time to form a shell accumulation of different sizes. Among these piles are the tools of production and life such as stone tools, mussels, pottery, and bone tools used by ancient humans. According to the classification of shell hill sites edited by Pan Qixu and Qin Naichang (Guangxi People's Publishing House, First Edition, April 1993), according to their geographical location, they can be divided into three types: cave shell mounds, riverside terrace shell mounds and coastal shell mounds. The ruins of Dingsishan Mountain, the ruins of The Ash Kiln Field, the Site of leopard head, and the ruins of Shichuantou found in the Yongjiang River Basin are all shell mounds in the terraces next to the river. The Yongjiang River is known as the source of Nanning's ancient civilization and the mother river of Nanning because of its large number of shell hill ruins.
Excavation site of the Ash Kiln Field Site (2005).
Regarding the time when the ancient ancestors first harvested snails and mussels for food, the General History of the Zhuang People edited by Zhang Shengzhen (the first edition of the Minzu Publishing House in June 1997) inferred to be the end of the Paleolithic Period, and the book "The Origins of the Zhuang People" records: "The primitive ancestors of ouluo's homeland ... These snails were easily harvested, heated with fire, eaten from their flesh, and discarded their shells, resulting in numerous shell remains. The snail mussels in the water are numerous and much less maneuverable than the animals on land, and it is relatively easy to catch them. In this way, the harvesting of snails in the water became one of the main economic lives of the primitive ancestors in the land of Ouluo. ”
The flourishing period of the shell hill culture was the early Neolithic period, and the leopard head shell hill site in Nanning was formed in this period. The warm and rainy climate of the Yongjiang River Basin, the vast shoal flats, the thriving plants and the rapidly reproducing aquatic animals provided a good living environment and rich food resources for the ancestors. Each of the shell hills here is a "prehistoric tribal family" of our ancestors, with many basic functions of primitive life, simple, extensive and full of human warmth. The General History of the Zhuang People records: "The Bechu culture ... It is an effective way of production and lifestyle created by the ancestors in their long-term practice for their own survival and development... According to the natural division of labor of different genders and ages, working together and living together in each shell hill site, it should be a matrilineal clan settlement. Shell hill is not only their garbage heap, but also the burial place of the deceased of the ben clan, its residence should also be next to the shell hill, the members of the clan usually work together, after death buried together in the cemetery of the clan, thus forming a unique local characteristics of the beeqiu culture. ”
The research results of successive archaeological excavations have shown that the Beiqiu culture is a very representative prehistoric culture type in Guangxi. Since the Guangxi Cultural Relics Administration Committee conducted a cultural relics census in nanning in 1963, when the Left and Right Rivers and their tributaries in the upper reaches of the Yongjiang River and the Upper Yongjiang River were discovered, nearly 40 shell mound sites have been found in Yongning, Liangqing, Qingxiu, Xixiangtang, Wuming, Long'an, Hengzhou, Jiangzhou, Fusui, Ningming, Longzhou and other counties (cities and districts) in the area, accounting for about 90% of the total number of freshwater shell mound sites found in Guangxi. These sites are mainly distributed at the bend of the big river, or on the triangular tip where the large and small rivers meet, on the river, near the open flat land, the ruins are 3 to 20 meters above the water surface, and a large number of snail shells can be seen on the surface. Nanning and its surrounding areas are the main distribution area of Guangxi Beiqiu ruins, especially in the Yongjiang River Basin, which is regarded as the central area of Guangxi Beiqiu culture, and also makes it an academic center for the study of Beiqiu culture in Lingnan. In particular, the Dingsishan site has shown a clear stratigraphic relationship, revealing the connotation and development evolution of the early, middle and late beeqiu sites in the Yongjiang River Basin, which is of great significance for understanding the characteristics and connotations of the prehistoric beiqiu culture in Guangxi and southern China, constructing the basic framework and sequence of the prehistoric culture in this region, and exploring the cultural exchanges and interaction between man and nature in prehistoric South China and Southeast Asia.
The beauty of the shell hill has been frozen for thousands of years
The beiqiu culture left behind in the Yongjiang River Basin is like a star, which has attracted the attention and amazement of the world. Among them, the most famous shell mound ruins are the dingsi mountain ruins, the ash kiln field ruins, the leopard head ruins, and the stone boat head ruins. According to Qin Cailuan's "Discovery and Distribution of Neolithic Relics in Nanning" ("Yongzhou Archaeology", Guangxi People's Publishing Society, May 2001, first edition), other representative Shell Hill sites include Tianwo Ruins, Nabei Tsui Ruins, Niulan Stone Ruins, Qinglongjiang Ruins, Changtang Ruins, Shiphead Ruins, Lingwupo Ruins, South Snake Slope Ruins, Dragon Neck Ruins, Changjiangling Ruins, Qingshan Ruins, etc. The beauty of these shell hills, which has been frozen for thousands of years, how can people not lament that the two banks of the Yongjiang River have been blessed places of human civilization since ancient times?
One of the exhibition halls of the Dingsishan Site Museum in Nanning.
Located in Xinxin Village, Pumiao Town, Yongning District, Nanning City, the Dingsishan site has many "best" honors, including: the largest, most completely preserved and most abundant Neolithic Shell Hill site in Guangxi, which contains the most complete prehistoric human bone data in Guangxi; it was selected as one of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China in 1997 and was listed by the State Council as the fifth batch of national cultural relics protection units in China.
Tourists visit the Dingsishan Archaeological Site Park to understand the life and production of the ancient Dingsishan people.
Li Zhen wrote "Yongning Dingsi Mountain Shell Hill Ruins" (see "Chinese Cultural Heritage" Magazine, No. 5, 2008) introduced: The cultural accumulation of the DingsiShan site can be divided into four periods. The first phase is a brownish-red clay accumulation, which does not contain or contains a small amount of snail shells, and the excavated relics include a large number of glass meteorite fine stone tools, stone cores, a small number of perforated stone tools and pottery. The cultural remains of the second and third phases are the most important part of the Dingsishan site, and the cultural appearance of the two phases is basically the same, such as the stratigraphic accumulation of snail shells and aquatic and terrestrial animal remains, there are a large number of tombs based on flexion burial, there are a large number of mussels in the relics, and the characteristics of pottery, stone tools and bone tools are basically the same. Economic life is mainly based on fishing, fishing and hunting and gathering. There are large cultural differences between the first and fourth period remains and the second and third period remains, and a certain number of rice silica stones have been found in the soil samples of the fourth period, which may have an agricultural economy.
Interior view of the Dingsishan Ruins Museum in Nanning City.
The Dingsishan site is the most commonly found in the prehistoric cultural sites in Guangxi, with a total of 331 tombs cleaned up, more than 400 human skeletons unearthed, and unique burial styles, especially dismemberment burials. This discovery shows the unique burial customs and rich cultural connotations, and provides extremely important information for the study of the local social structure and customs at that time.
In addition, the lily kiln field site on the first-class terrace on the north bank of the Yongjiang River located at the foot of the Liyao Tianling Mountain in the south of the San'an Horticultural Field in Qingxiu District, Nanning City, the leopard head site on the first-class terrace on the left bank of the Yongjiang River about 2 km southwest of the Liusha Horticultural Field (Naba Village) in Qingxiu District, Nanning City, and the stone boat head site on the first-class terrace on the south bank of the Yongjiang River about 3.5 kilometers north of Nahuang Village in Nahuang Town, Liangqing District, Nanning City, were all listed as cultural relics protection units in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in 1981.
The Nanning Museum recreates the daily life of the dingsishan people.
Civilization Code Inherits Memory
Cultural relics that are the same or similar to the second and third phases of the Dingsishan site are widely distributed in the Yongjiang River Basin of Nanning and the surrounding counties, and the Guangxi Task Force of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences wrote "Excavation of the Dingsishan Site in Yongning County, Guangxi" (see "Archaeology" Magazine, No. 11, 1998), according to the principle of archaeological culture naming, for the first time, a unified cultural naming of these ancient relics - "Dingsishan Culture" was proposed, and was recognized by the academic community. This is the first prehistoric cultural type named after Guangxi place names in China, and it is also the first Neolithic archaeological culture in Guangxi. The dingsi mountain culture is rich in connotation, distinctive characteristics, and clear sequence of cultural development, and has become a benchmark for the study of neolithic archaeological culture in Guangxi.
"Excavations of Dingsishan Ruins in Yongning County, Guangxi" summarizes the common characteristics of many shell mound sites of the Dingsishan culture, including: all of which are based on the remains of various aquatic animals - snail shells as the main accumulation of the site, and contain a large number of terrestrial animal remains; all are in a relatively concentrated distribution range; all have similar geographical locations, generally facing the river back mountain, located at the bend of the river or on the triangular mouth at the confluence of the two rivers; there are the same type of artifact combinations, pottery is mostly handmade, the utensils are relatively simple, with open mouth, neck, deep abdomen, The pots at the bottom of the circle and the deep-bellied circular bottom kettle are the mainstay, and there are a small number of high-necked pots; there are the same burial customs, which prevail in different types of flexed limb burials; there are the same economic activities and living habits, fishing and hunting are the common means of obtaining food for the ancestors, the traces of the agricultural economy are not obvious, and the collection still occupies a large proportion.
Since the archaeological excavation of the Beiqiu site in the Yongjiang River Basin was carried out, many scholars and teams have studied the dingsishan culture involving anthropology, zoology, botany, ecology, medicine, ethnology, folklore, religion, production tools, diet, funeral science and many other disciplines, which can be described as vigorous and endless. For example, rows of regular column holes were found at the Dingsishan site, indicating that it was a rectangular dry-column building, which was first identified in guangxi prehistoric archaeology, and is a major spectacle in architecture, which is of great value for exploring the prehistoric human habitation form and the origin and development of dry-column architecture in Guangxi. In addition, the various cultural relics found in the shell hill site, such as stone tools, bone tools, mussels, pottery and architectural relics, all reflect the wisdom and wisdom of ancient humans, and the selection, shape and production methods of their utensils reflect the production and living conditions at that time, and also prove that our ancestors gradually mastered higher production skills in the Neolithic Age.
Nowadays, Nanning City has also carried out innovative development in the research and development of cultural and creative products and the integration of culture and tourism with the theme of Dingsishan Culture, and has continuously made new achievements. Located at No. 201-2 Chaquan Avenue, Yongning District, Nanning City (Southwest of Nanning Garden Expo Park, Dingsishan Pastoral Scenery Area), the Dingsishan Ruins Museum in Nanning City is a window for the masses to understand and explore the culture of Dingsishan Mountain. As a professional museum, the exhibition has five units: the prologue hall, the ancestors and the shell hill, the settlement and civilization, the rich and the comfortable, and the life and paradise. It mainly exhibits neolithic stone tools, bone tools and other historical relics excavated from the Dingsishan site, showing the development sequence of the Neolithic shell hill culture in the Pearl River Basin and the ancient human civilization in Nanning. Combining the positioning characteristics of the site museum and the archaeological site park, the museum makes full use of the site advantages of the archaeological site park, actively designs and develops more than ten youth study courses with archaeological experience as the core content, and carries out nearly 100 research activities, which are very popular. In 2020, the museum was awarded the "First Batch of Primary and Secondary School Research and Practice Education Bases in Nanning City" and in 2021, it was awarded the "Autonomous Region-level Primary and Secondary School Students Research and Practice Education Base".
The famous historical and cultural city is the epitome of the long and splendid history and culture of the Chinese nation. Cultural relics and monuments are an important pillar of a famous historical and cultural city, and are the material basis for the existence of the name of a famous city. Sites are the historical and cultural carriers of a country or city, have the important value of carrying forward and inheriting regional culture, and are our precious wealth. The shell hill site and the various precious physical relics excavated by it are the material carriers of Nanning's historical memory, and the cultural code it contains has penetrated deep into our bone marrow and will be passed down.
Only by appreciating the past can we better embrace the future. As a scarce cultural resource that cannot be copied, the Neolithic Shell Hill Site in Nanning contains rich historical, scientific and cultural connotations, is one of the important foundations for improving the historical and cultural taste of Nanning, is an important place for the public to understand archaeology, paleoanthropology and environmental ecology and other disciplines, trace the origin of human civilization, and identify with the Chinese national culture, and plays an important role in improving the public's awareness of cultural relics protection and enhancing the national pride of nanning local residents. (Reporter Yun Yiyun Photo: Reporter Pan Hao, Liang Feng, Song Yankang, Lai Youguang, Mo Lanyuan)
(Author: Yun Yiyun)