As we all know, Shaanxi is an important birthplace of the Chinese nation and Chinese culture, and 14 regimes such as the Western Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang dynasties built their capital in Shaanxi. The history of Shaanxi Province can be traced back to ancient times, and the 212-year-old Lantian Shangchen Site in Xi'an is the earliest site of human activity in Northeast Asia. The 260,000-year-old Dali people of Weinan are the origin of Chinese direct ancestors, breaking the understanding that modern humans are all descendants of African ancestors. More than 8,000 years ago, the distant ancestors of the Chinese nation, the Yellow Emperor and the Yan Emperor, and the first grandmother of Chinese civilization, Hua Xu, created China's farming culture and created the history of China's eight-thousand-year civilization. Shenmu in Shaanxi Province is the largest county in Shaanxi Province, with a long history and culture, and there were human settlements in the territory for 4000 to 5000 years ago. Today I want to tell you about the site of Shenmu Shi'an in Shaanxi, about 4,000 years ago, the largest prehistoric city site in China, and experts say it may be the capital of the Xia Dynasty.
The shijia site is located on a mountain ridge west of Shi'e Village, Gaojiabao Town, Shenmu City, Yulin City, Shaanxi Province, on the northern edge of the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi Province. In the 1970s, archaeologists from Northwest University conducted an expedition in Shanxi, and heard the legend of the Shenmu Stone Pass from the folk, so they rushed to the Stone Pass to investigate. After systematic investigation and archaeological excavations, the site of Shi'an City was discovered, which is a grand stone masonry city site, which is composed of three parts: the Imperial City Terrace, the Inner City and the Outer City, with a total area of more than 4 million square meters. After preliminary exploration and excavation, it was found that there were house sites, ash pits, earth pit tombs, stone coffin tombs and urn coffin tombs, and hundreds of pottery, stone tools and jade were excavated. The polished jade excavated from the site is very exquisite, the raw materials are mainly ink jade and chalcedony, and the utensils include axes, knives, sickles, shovels, cymbals, and human-shaped statues. The shiya site is much larger than the Liangzhu site and the Tao Temple site of similar age, and is the largest prehistoric city site in China found so far. Located in the center of the western part of the inner city, the Imperial City Terrace is a four-bread stone wall with slope protection, which is roughly square.
More than half a century later, in 2012, archaeologists in Shaanxi Province re-excavated the Shi'an site, and this archaeological excavation excavated a city gate site in the north of the outer city of Shi'an City, and this archaeological excavation unearthed 6 complete pieces of jade, and the jade was found inside the stone wall, which is a more peculiar place. A jade head of a person of very high value unearthed at the Shi'an site is currently in the Shaanxi History Museum and is the only jade object carved from a human being found in a Neolithic site in China. Archaeologists also found murals at the east gate of the outer city, and the geometric patterns painted by the murals were the largest number of murals found in the ruins of the Yongsan period. During the excavation, two remains of concentrated burial of human skulls were found, and some of the skulls of women identified as women around the age of 20 were clearly cut off, which experts said may be related to the sacrifice activities during the construction of the city wall. However, the sacrifice of young female skulls is very rare in archaeological excavations in China, and this is also the first time it has been found in northern Shaanxi.
During the excavation of a housing site in Houyang Bay, a broken double bristle was found, which contained some limb bones, ribs, etc., which were later identified as belonging to a baby under 1 year old. Experts say the custom of burying premature babies with cooking utensils was very common in China at that time. Some textile fragments have been found on the bones of babies, bearing in mind that the northern climate is dry and very few textiles have been preserved, which are very rare to preserve more than 4,000 years ago. This shows that in the north 4,000 years ago, the ancestors already understood artificial textile technology, which is of great significance for the study of the history of Chinese clothing, confirming the saying of "Northern Ma Nan Silk". Archaeologists have found many "stone statues" on the walls of Shicheng, which initially confirms that the ancient city once played an important role in primitive religious beliefs. In the area of the Imperial City Terrace of the Shi'an site, archaeologists have discovered large architectural sites dating back 4,300 years, and a passage made of stone has been found that leads directly from the bottom of the Imperial City Terrace to the top. In the backfilled soil, stone vans for making bronze weapons were also found.
After more than two years of archaeological excavations, the Imperial City Gate Site at the Shi'an Site is the largest and most complex gate site structure in the late Longshan Period confirmed in China. The ruins of the Imperial City Gate are mainly composed of four parts: the square, the outer urn city, the north and south piers and the inner urn city, and the square is located at the outermost part of the gate site, with an area of more than 2100 square meters, which is also the largest square in the prehistoric period of Our country. A large number of artifacts have been excavated within the site of the gate, and the date of the relics is inferred that the ruins of the city gate date from about 4200 to 4300 years ago, and some handicraft workshop remains have been found in the collapsed building. More than 70 exquisite stone carvings were found at the southern parapet of the Imperial City Oftai Taitai, most of which were carved on one side of the stone block, and a small number were double-sided. The Imperial City Taimen site represents the early royal state to enjoy the highest level of regulation in the ethnic group, archaeologists said that the Shi'an site and the Yellow Emperor's activities of the time is roughly the same, from which it is inferred that the ancient city of Shi'a is inhabited by the Yellow Emperor's tribe, and more experts say that the Shi'a site is likely to be the capital of the Xia Dynasty.