On December 1, 2021, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage released the "Archaeology China" major project for the fourth quarter of 2021, announcing the latest progress of the archaeological excavation project at the Nanzuo Site in Qingyang City, Gansu Province. Judging from the preliminary investigation and excavation, the total area of the ring trench settlement site in the late Yangshao culture of Nanzuo is about 6 million square meters (including the gutters formed by later erosion), and the core area around the "Jiutai" alone is about 300,000 square meters, which is one of the largest settlement sites dating back about 5,000 years. The new discovery of the Nanzuo site is of great significance for objectively understanding the key position of the middle reaches of the Yellow River, the Loess Plateau, especially the Longdong region in the origin and formation of Chinese civilization, and for the empirical evidence of China's 5,000-year civilization history.
A 5,000-year-old historical memory has been awakened again...
This year coincides with the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Yangshao culture, but also the 100th anniversary of the birth of modern Chinese archaeology, the Site of Nanzuo in the late Neolithic Yangshao culture has finally ushered in a new opportunity and prospect, which will reproduce what kind of prehistoric civilization of the Loess Plateau is waiting to see.
6 archaeological excavations
Uncover the "tip of the iceberg"
The nanzuo ruins in Nanzuo Village, Houguanzhai Town, Xifeng District, Qingyang City, Gansu Province, were discovered in the late 1950s.
At that time, the Gansu Provincial Cultural Relics Administration Committee conducted a preliminary investigation of a site found in Nanzuo based on the clues of the cultural relics census, which proved that it was a large Yangshao cultural site. The distribution range is 800 meters long from north to south, about 300 meters wide from east to west, and about 1.5 meters thick with cultural layers.
As a result, the relics of the life of the Nanzo people about 5,000 years ago have gradually unveiled their mysteries.
In 1962, the Gansu Provincial Cultural Management Commission organized cultural relics experts to conduct a detailed investigation of the site, officially identified Nanzuo as a large-scale Neolithic Yangshao cultural site, and named it "Nanzuo Knotty Canal Neolithic Yangshao Cultural Site", referred to as "Nanzuo Knotty Canal Site", and in 1963, it was announced as a provincial cultural relics protection unit.
Ruins of the Nanzo Knot Canal. Longdong Daily all-media reporter Liu Pingning photographed
In the 1980s and 1990s, archaeologists of cultural relics in Gansu Province conducted two rounds of archaeological excavations at the "Nanzuo Knotty Canal Site", but no archaeological excavation reports were published, and the available public information was limited to a few briefings published in the Yearbook of Chinese Archaeology.
In 1984, led by Yan Weiqing, an archaeologist of the Gansu Provincial Cultural Relics Task Force, the first archaeological excavation was carried out on the "Nanzuo Knotty Canal Site", and a humanoid sculpture was found in Ash Pit No. 16, which was later designated as a first-class cultural relic. Thus began the archaeological excavations at the Site of Nanzo.
Humanoid sculpture unearthed in 1984. (File photo)
According to the data provided by the Cultural and Tourism Bureau of Xifeng District of Qingyang City, the two rounds of archaeological excavation activities in the last century were mainly concentrated in the two time periods of 1984-1986 and 1994-1996. During this period, at least 6 archaeological excavations of varying sizes were carried out.
The archaeological excavation in 1985 was led by Zhao Jianlong of the Gansu Provincial Cultural Relics Task Force, and attended by Li Yangsong, a professor at the Institute of Archaeology and Literature of Peking University. This excavation provides important information for the study of the housing architecture of the late Yangshao culture in the Longdong region, the cultural enlistment, and its relationship with the "lower culture of Changshan Mountain".
In 1986, the Gansu Provincial Cultural Relics Task Force was renamed the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. In this year, Yan Weiqing led a team to carry out the third excavation of the first round of the "Nanzuo Knotty Canal Site". Zhao Xueye also participated in this archaeological excavation.
Archaeologists found a large area of rammed earth, rammed earth walls, the rammed layer is about 10-15 cm thick, the rammed nest is clear, the row of rammed wood is beaten, and found a large white ash house foundation, covering an area of more than 120 square meters. This is the first time that the remains of the transition period from the late Yangshao culture to the Longshan culture have been found in the Longdong region.
The excavation also cleared 25 meters of rammed earth layers like the city wall found in 1984, but this rammed earth wall did not attract the attention it deserved at the time.
In 1994, the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology launched the second round of archaeological excavations, and carried out three archaeological excavations. In response to the problems left over from previous excavations, Zhao Xueye and archaeologists followed the vines and continued to clean up the rammed earth wall found in 1984, but they were surprised.
Archaeologists found that the rammed earth wall was only a side wall of a very large site, which is the most core area of the current Nanzo site - the F1 site. It is a large house site with an indoor area of 630 square meters, which is in a northwest-southeast direction, about 18 meters wide from east to west, about 33 meters long from north to south, and the front and back rooms are extremely spectacular. Four other sites were discovered around the F1 site, with an excavation area of 910 square metres. It was preliminarily concluded that its age was the late Yangshao culture, and its function was a place of collective activity.
Site of F1 at the Nanzo Ruins. Longdong Daily all-media reporter Yan Hui took photos
In 1996, the archaeological excavation of the "Nanzuo Knotty Canal Site" was completed, and in order to implement effective protection, archaeologists backfilled the F1 housing site.
Civilization heralds
What the settlement site says
Located in the eastern part of Gansu Province, Qingyang City, known as "Longdong", has a long and splendid history and culture. Qi Bo, the ancestor of Qingyang and the originator of Traditional Chinese medicine, once discussed medicine with the Yellow Emperor here, and achieved the Chinese medical masterpiece "The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic"; Zhou Ancestor Bu Zhi once "taught the people to harvest" in Qingyang, opening a precedent for Chinese agricultural civilization. According to the review of the "Qingyang Regional Chronicle and Culture Chronicle", "The Neolithic sites are quite densely distributed in the area, and there are a large number of remains in the 7 counties of the region, especially in the two basins of Malian and Puhe in the south-central region. ”
The "Nanzuo (Knotty Canal) Ruins" are three ditches facing the east, west, south, east, west, and the west, and the southern ditch, and the three ditches join the Pu River in the southwest corner of the site. The unwashed part of the north has an east-west, nearly rectangular platform, and around it and on both sides of the central ditch, there are nine mounds of varying sizes (soil bumps on the rammed earth platform), from which the name "bumpy canal" is derived. According to folklore, this platform is the "palace" of the king of Zhou Zhao's westward journey, and the nine mounds are the "Nine Female Flower Terrace".
According to the bulletin of the "Chinese Archaeological Yearbook", from September to December 1985, the archaeological excavation activities led by Zhao Jianlong cleared out eight house foundations, four of which were relatively complete.
The house is a semi-crypt building, the plane is a rounded rectangle and a double "Lu" glyph, the largest area is more than 30 square meters, and the living surface and the four walls of the semi-crypt are smeared with a layer of white ash surface with a thickness of 0.2-0.3 cm, and the surface is smooth and smooth. The thick accumulation of house ruins indicates that people have had a long-term settlement life.
At that time, there were stone axes, stone knives, spinning wheels, bone fences, bone needles and a large number of pottery fragments. The pottery decoration is more oblique blue and jomon, and the pottery color is mainly red, followed by gray and a small amount of black.
Pottery pieces excavated from the Site of Nanzo. (File photo)
From April to July 1996, in the archaeological excavation activities led by Zhao Xueye, archaeologists further clarified that F1 is a ground-type building, and from the partition wall and the annex wall in the room, its use period can be roughly divided into two stages, and the 6-layer white ash surface of the ground can indicate that it has been repaired for reuse 5 times. At the same time, it was also found that a large number of braised soil blocks and animal bones, carbonized grains (rice, millet, millet, millet), etc. were mixed in the rammed soil, which was of great significance for studying the origin of ancient Chinese agriculture, crop planting and distribution.
According to two rounds of archaeological investigations and excavations in the 1980s and 1990s, some of the first appearances of the prehistoric civilization of Nanzuo can be roughly depicted: about 5,000 years ago, in nanzuo village in the town of Houguanzhai in the present-day Xifeng District, there lived an early human settlement group. They lived on the edge of the ruined ravine and were not only able to make exquisite pottery, but also mastered exquisite architectural art, building a front hall and a back room with an indoor area of 630 square meters. In addition, they began to eat rice and millet, and tried to domesticate food crops, and their lives were close to the precursor of civilization.
According to the "Chronicle of Gansu Province and Cultural Relics", "the large-scale hall-like building of this site is another important discovery after the large-scale housing site of the late Yangshao culture discovered in Dadiwan and Gaositou in Lixian County, qin'an, and is of great value to the study of the human social form and the process and nature of civilization in the northwest region of the late Yangshao culture." ”
Due to various conditions, the archaeological excavation activities of the last century were intermittent, although they only revealed the tip of the iceberg of this site, but they left a large number of valuable clues and unsolved historical mysteries, which have never been forgotten. The layout of the site settlement, the status of social organization, production methods and development status, whether the site has a special burial area, etc., need to be further archaeological exploration and investigation to find the answer and solve the mystery.
Restart archaeological excavations
Looking forward to solving the mysteries of history
In 2001, the State Council announced the Nanzuo ruins as the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units, and the "Nanzuo Knotty Canal Site" was officially named the Nanzuo Ruins.
In April 2012, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage approved the preparation of the nanzuo site protection plan, and the archaeological excavation work around the nanzuo site was once again put on the agenda. In order to promote the research on the protection of the Nanzuo site and grasp more basic information, the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted archaeological exploration of the Nanzuo site twice in 2014 and 2020, and organized experts to conduct on-site research and archaeological surveys on the Nanzuo site.
In June 2021, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology took the lead, and jointly formed a joint archaeological team with Chinese Min University, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Lanzhou University and other units, led by Han Jianye, professor of the Department of Archaeology and Literature and Doctoral Supervisor of the School of History of Chinese University, to carry out new archaeological excavations and surveys and explorations of the Nanzuo site.
Han Jianye led the team to carry out new archaeological excavations and surveys at the Nanzuo site. (File photo)
The relevant person in charge of the Cultural and Tourism Bureau of Xifeng District of Qingyang City told reporters that the new archaeological excavation work is planned to be carried out in five years, this year is the first year, the excavation area is about 1,000 square meters, and the surrounding area is preliminary archaeological and geomorphological survey and exploration work. After the start of the archaeological excavation work, 850 square meters were excavated on the south side of the F1 site and 220 square meters were excavated in the trench at the edge of the Rammed Earth Platform No. 1, the purpose of which was to further study the distribution of the remains around the F1 site, determine the formation age and relationship between the trenches and rammed earth platforms around the site, and their relationship with the F1 site.
Han Jianye, head of the archaeological excavation project at the Nanzuo site, professor of the Department of Archaeology and Literature of the School of History of Chinese Min University, and doctoral supervisor, said that the large rammed earth wall building F1 only has an indoor part of 630 square meters, and the volume scale is unparalleled in the same period, it should belong to the palace-style building, the "nine platforms" are symmetrically distributed and located in the center of the settlement, and the large building area is located in the north of the center of the nine platforms, and its layout is unprecedented. The sheer size of the "Nine Platforms" and the large buildings, as well as the sheer scale of the trenches and rammed facilities outside the platform, is also unprecedented. "All this reflects the existence of strong social public power, indicating that the Longdong region has entered the early stage of state or civilized society." Han Jianye said.
In addition, the white pottery pots, white pottery pots, white pottery pots, white pottery pots, flat-bottomed faience pottery vases with plug lids, painted black pottery, cinnabar painted pottery, cinnabar painted stone pendants, bone hammers and river-shaped remains from the Nanzuo site are rare or absent in the middle reaches of the Yellow River at the same time, and a large number of rice remains. "These relics have a strong sacrificial and ceremonial color, and the production of white pottery and black pottery reflects a high level of professionalism, which also shows that the Nanzuo site is one of the key core sites for exploring early Chinese civilization." Han Jianye said.
The white pottery from the ruins of Nanzo. (File photo)
The major progress in archaeological excavations is inseparable from the use of new technologies and new technologies, Bruce Lee, assistant professor of the Institute of Cultural Heritage of Northwestern Polytechnical University who participated in the excavation, told reporters: "This archaeological work uses a lot of new technologies, from the previous written records to the current use of aerial photography, simulated three-dimensional images and other digital methods for site restoration." The concept of archaeological research is also more scientific and comprehensive, developing the vision from only studying F1 housing sites to settlement archaeology, and going deep into the study of the entire social form at that time. ”
Plan first
There is still a long way to go to protect the site
On October 22, 2021, the Gansu Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics organized an expert consultation meeting on the archaeological project of the Nanzuo site, and the experts unanimously agreed that the Nanzuo site was a large-scale central settlement in the late Yangshao culture in longdong. The large area, rich connotation and relatively complete preservation of the site are of great significance for correctly understanding the key position and important role of the middle reaches of the Yellow River - Loess Plateau in the origin and formation of Chinese civilization, and are also of great significance to the study of the origin and early development of Chinese civilization. Therefore, it is of great academic value and practical significance to promote the subsequent archaeological excavation, site protection, display and utilization of the Nanzo site.
The relevant person in charge of the Cultural and Tourism Bureau of Xifeng District of Qingyang City said: "Judging from the current situation of archaeological excavations, the Nanzuo site, as a paleoanthropological center settlement site, has its unique value embodiment compared with other ancient sites of the same type. ”
Nanzuo site is a large prehistoric paleoanthropological center settlement site in the Neolithic Yangshao culture of the Yellow River Culture Loess Plateau area of the Yellow River culture, with a grand scale, and the F1 housing site is the largest single paleoanthropological settlement building discovered so far, which fully demonstrates that the architectural art of the Nanzuo people has reached a very high level. This archaeological excavation unearthed a restored faience pot, with a belly diameter of 78 cm and a height of 70 cm, and a thick atmosphere, which can be called the king of Chinese faience pottery, indicating that the pottery making process of the Nanzuo people reached the highest level in the same period. In addition, the Nanzo people may have been the first to master the unique rammed earth protection process, and the southern ditch wall of the inner ring trench on the west side of the No. 1 rammed earth platform has been carefully rammed earth protection, which is extremely rare in the Neolithic Age.
Some of the relics excavated at the site of Nanzo. (File photo)
With the continuous deepening of archaeological excavation research at the Nanzuo site, the attention of all sectors of society and the public to the Nanzuo site has also been continuously improved, and new requirements have been put forward for the protection of the Nanzuo site.
It is understood that at present, the "Nanzuo Ruins Protection Plan" and the "Nanzuo Ruins Yellow River Cultural Prehistoric Site Park Construction Plan" compiled by the Qingyang Xifeng Cultural and Tourism Bureau have been reported and awaiting organization and review. "How to better link the protection of cultural relics with rural revitalization and the prosperity of villagers, mobilize the enthusiasm of villagers in the protection of cultural relics in the site, and promote the strategy of rural revitalization with cultural relics protection is a new issue that needs to be solved urgently." The relevant person in charge of the Cultural and Tourism Bureau of Xifeng District of Qingyang City said.
Han Jianye said in an interview with this reporter that the Nanzuo site with an area of 6 million square meters and a main palace-like building of 630 square meters in the ring trench is one of the most important central settlement sites 5,000 years ago. The new discovery of the Nanzuo site is of great significance for objectively understanding the key position of the middle reaches of the Yellow River, the Loess Plateau, especially the Longdong region in the origin and formation of Chinese civilization, and for the empirical evidence of China's 5,000-year civilization history.
Regarding the plans and expectations for the next step of archaeological excavation work, Han Jianye said: "The next step will be to improve the medium- and long-term archaeological work plan of the Nanzuo site in accordance with the requirements of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, continue to carry out archaeological work, and try to fully understand the overall appearance of the site." It is also hoped that the cultural relics protection and utilization plan of the Nanzuo site will be completed as soon as possible, the production and construction activities within the large site protection area will be standardized, the trees that endanger the important relics in the core area of the site will be cleaned up as soon as possible, the houses in the core area of the site will be relocated, the soil erosion in the core area of the site will be treated, and great efforts will be made to comprehensively protect the cultural relics of the site and the surrounding environment. ”
The Nanzuo site, a period of 5,000 years of dusty historical memory, will return to the public eye with the launch of a new round of archaeological excavations, and will also inject new connotations into the historical process of human civilization in the Longdong region of the Loess Plateau.
(Courtesy of information photo: Qingyang Xifeng District Bureau of Culture and Broadcasting)