Source: People's Daily
Dialogue among civilizations spanning four thousand years
The site of Shanxi Tao Temple and the site of Shi'an in Shaanxi are often compared together because of their geographical proximity and proximity to the times. In recent years, the two sites and the sites associated with the two sites have been continuously discovered by archaeology, which continue to attract the attention of the academic community and the public. Recently, the "Logo of the Yellow River Civilization - The Archaeological Revelation of Tao Temple and Shi'an", which was exhibited at the Shanxi Museum, for the first time concentrated on the achievements of archaeology over several years, and the "civilization" that once faced each other across the river was placed in one place for the first time, allowing the audience to see through things, see through things, see people, and find the stories of exchanges, collisions, and integrations that occurred on both sides of the Yellow River 4,000 years ago.
Tell the story of the Yellow River civilization
The special exhibition "The Identification of the Yellow River Civilization - Archaeological Revelations of Tao Temple and Shi'an" determines the time and space range in the middle reaches of the Yellow River about 4,000 years ago, focusing on the two super-large central settlements of Tao Temple and Shi'an. The prologue hall takes the topographical road map of the Yellow River flowing through the background as the background, the rushing Yellow River is about to come out, and the dragon plate and the stone carved animal face excavated from the Tao Temple are represented as the icons, which clearly indicate the specific geographical location of the Tao Temple and the Stone Pass, and the civilization dialogue through time and space has begun.
The archaeology of the Tao Temple site lasted for more than 40 years, and exquisite cultural relics such as painted dragon plates, pottery drums, shrew drums, stone chimes, and jade were unearthed from the royal cemeteries in the early and middle periods. The flat pot with Zhushu characters written on it, the earliest bronze container, the earliest astronomical observation relic observation observatory discovered in China so far, the large-scale early city site, the middle city site... This all shows that the Tao Temple society has entered the stage of civilization. Many important excavated cultural relics at the Tao Temple site are collected in many museums in China, and this time they have been supported by many units to gather together to let the audience feast their eyes.
The temple does not exist on its own. The pottery, jade and other artifacts excavated from Linfen Xiajin and Ruicheng Qingliang Temple enrich the audience's understanding of the living conditions and production technology of the ancestors in the Jinnan region and the tao temple site from another aspect. The cultural factors from the Dawenkou culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Shijiahe River in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River are also gathered at the Tao Temple.
Shi'an, a stone city with a total area of 4 million square meters, was born, which changed our understanding of the site of the late Longshan culture. Archaeology has revealed a magnificent structure composed of three structures of the Imperial City Platform, the Inner City and the Outer City, and a complete defense system of city gates, piers, horse faces, and corner platforms. A large number of precious relics such as pottery, jade, bone, bronze, stone carving, murals and wood outline the civilization of the prehistoric Stone City cultural system in northern China, indicating that this period has entered the development stage of the early state. This exhibition is the first large-scale concentrated appearance of cultural relics excavated from the Shi'an site.
There are also several ruins around the super settlement of Shiya. Typical artifacts excavated from the Tianfeng Pingdong site and the Bicun site are an important supplement to the Shiya culture. The Lushan'an site is an intermediate node connecting the Tao Temple and the Stone Pass in time and space, and the cultural relics unearthed here such as jade, stone knives, and tiles clearly show their interconnection with each other at a glance, which makes the exchange and interaction between the two major civilizations of tao temple and stone temple logical, and also enables the audience to more fully understand and understand the relationship between the two major cultural subjects of tao temple and stone.
Present the latest archaeological achievements
The biggest highlight of the exhibition is the selection of many of the latest archaeological materials as exhibits. The Shi'a site is one of the most important new archaeological discoveries in China in the 21st century, and was twice selected as one of the "Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries in China" in 2012 and 2019. Archaeology of the temple site is ongoing, and new discoveries are emerging, especially in Miyagi architecture and more bronzes. The Site of Lushan Mountain was selected as one of the "Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries in China" in 2018, and the Bicun Ruins of Xingxian County, Linfen Xiajin And Ruicheng Qingliang Temple Cemetery in Shanxi Are all important archaeological excavations of the Shanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute in the past decade. The Tianfeng Pingdong site is the latest archaeological discovery in 2020. These prehistoric sites are very important archaeological discoveries in the exploration of civilization, with a high degree of attention, and many excavated cultural relics are also the first time to face the public.
The display of cultural relics is the most ingenious. Earthen drums, special chimes and other ceremonial instruments, high-grade jade ware such as bi, chun and ya bi, non-practical painted pottery... The artifacts reflecting the ritual system in the ruins of the Tao Temple are concentrated together, forming a group of artifacts of the Tao Temple ritual culture in space, supplemented by exhibition panels, showing the "initial formation of the ritual system" of the ancient tao temple. Similarly, the jade, stone carvings, bones and other artifacts excavated from Shi'an are also concentrated in one area, showing the cultural characteristics of the Shi'an people who "hide jade on the wall". The cultural relics themselves speak, and the audience can clearly feel the multi-source, selectivity and complexity of the spiritual world of two different cultural settlements or material cultures.
The exhibition not only pays attention to the display of existing research results at the Tao Temple, Shi'an and other sites, but also pays attention to academic hotspots, especially pays attention to the comparison and induction of the social development status and organizational structure reflected in archaeological culture, and strives to comprehensively and systematically disseminate the results of the research on the origin of Chinese civilization to the audience.
Tao Temple and Shi'an, as a significant symbol of the civilization in the Yellow River Basin dating back about 4,000 years ago, have jointly promoted the formation of the integration pattern of Chinese civilization in exchanges and collisions.
Liu Linglong Cui Yuezhong