Modern Express News (trainee reporter Zhang Wenying, reporter Hu Yumei, Ding Mengsha) How did the people of Nanjing live more than 5,000 years ago? Following 1997, archaeology has been made at the xuecheng site of the "first ancient village of Jinling" in Gaochun. Recently, after 3 months of field excavations, archaeologists found more than 60 Neolithic tombs dating back more than 5,000 years, and unearthed more than 100 pieces of pottery, jade and bone tools.
△ (side view) Gangnam First Dragon
Among the many discoveries, a dragon-shaped remains made of clam shells has been praised by experts as the "first dragon in Jiangnan".
Restart excavations, and the "First Ancient Village of Jinling" will be unveiled again
Located in Chunxi Subdistrict, Gaochun District, Nanjing, the Xuecheng Ruins are Neolithic sites discovered in 1997, dating from 5500 to 6300 years ago, making it the largest known prehistoric ancient cultural site in Nanjing, so it is known as the "First Ancient Village of Jinling".
△ Ruins of Xuecheng
In 1997, the former Xuecheng Health Center discovered the ruins of Xuecheng during the construction of a new office building. Subsequently, the Nanjing Municipal Museum and the Gaochun County Cultural Bureau formed a joint archaeological team to carry out rescue excavations of the exposed parts. Excavations have shown that the site has rich cultural connotations, and its cultural accumulation is mainly divided into upper and lower layers, a total of 115 Neolithic tombs have been found, and more than 600 cultural relics such as pottery, stone tools and bone tools have been excavated.
In 2010, the Nanjing Municipal Museum and the Gaochun County Cultural Bureau formed an archaeological team to jointly excavate the Xuecheng ruins for the second time.
△ Schematic map of the excavation area in 2021
In 2021, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, Nanjing Normal University established a field archaeology practice base at the Xuecheng site, and cooperated with the Nanjing Archaeological Research Institute and the Gaochun District Cultural and Tourism Bureau to jointly carry out the third archaeological excavation of the Xuecheng site.
In September this year, the joint archaeological team launched the excavation of the Xuecheng ruins, and after nearly 3 months of excavations, more than 60 Neolithic tombs, 1 clamshell pile plastic remains, 1 red-burned earth remains, more than 20 Neolithic ash pits, and more than 100 pottery, jade and bone tools have been excavated.
Experts said that the archaeological discovery is of great academic significance for the study of the Neolithic ecological environment, the economy of life, burial customs, the differentiation of rich and poor, and social complexity in Nanjing and Zhenjiang.
5,000 years ago, the Gaochun people lived next to the water and fished for food
Xu Feng, deputy dean of the School of Social Development of Nanjing Normal University, told the Modern Express that among the more than 60 Neolithic tombs found, there is a peculiar phenomenon - the head of the tomb is mainly north-east, which may be related to specific burial customs. Judging from the bones found, the age of these tomb owners is generally between 20 and 30 years old, and they are all adults. After more than 5,000 years of sleeping underground, human bones are still so well preserved that they provide a valuable batch of physical materials for the study of physical anthropology.
△ Archaeological site
This archaeology also revealed the lives of the ancestors of Gaochun. Xu Feng said that in tombs, strata, and ash pits, many aquatic animal remains have been found. Xuecheng ruins are located on the south bank of Shiushu Lake, the ancestors lived near the water, and the fishing and hunting economy accounted for a large proportion of their livelihood economy, reflecting that the Xuecheng ruins are a typical Lake Swing type site.
The clam shell stacking sculpture "Jiangnan First Dragon" may be related to the primitive beliefs and funerary customs of the ancestors
The most surprising thing about this excavation was a "dragon-shaped" relic made of clam shells.
It resembles a large crocodile crouching from east to southwest. The "head" is 0.5 meters from the ground, and the mussel shell poses the image of the "snout", and there are two large mussel shells "eyes"; although the "neck" is destroyed, a small number of shell marks can still be seen; the "back" is high and bulging, with a thickness of 0.2 meters; a large "tail" of 3.34 meters in length and up to 0.5 meters wide, 0.67 meters deep from the ground, dotted with multiple large mussel shells.
△ (Overlook) The first dragon in Gangnam
Zhang Min, former director of the Jiangsu Institute of Archaeology and researcher at the Nanjing Museum, told the Modern Express that crocodiles are reptiles and are the first and original shapes of dragons. The dragon with clam shells is the first and only discovery in the Gangnam region, and it is well deserved to call it the "First Dragon of Gangnam".
Zhang Min introduced that at present, only two pieces of dragon shapes with shells have been found in the country. Among them, the mussel sculpture dragon excavated in 1987 on the west slope of Puyang, Henan Province, more than 6400 years ago, is known as the "first dragon in China". The "dragon" excavated by Gaochun is more than 5,000 years old, and in terms of time, it is later than the former.
Why does the xuecheng ruins appear "The First Dragon of Jiangnan"? Zhang Min said, "The First Dragon of Jiangnan" is located on the altar, and there is a tomb on the east side, and the two are roughly in the same period, and there may be a certain relationship between them. Whether it was used for sacrifice or as a symbol of the status of the tomb owner needs to be further studied.
Xu Feng told reporters that the dragon-shaped sculpture is likely to be related to primitive beliefs and animal worship. Its discovery can prove that the rank of the Xuecheng ruins is not low, and it has a good status among the surrounding similar sites, which may be a central settlement in the ancient Danyang Lake area at that time.
Excavations continue, and the results can be seen in the Heritage Park in the future
For the follow-up excavation of the Xuecheng site, Wang Zhigao, the leader of the archaeological work and the director of the Department of Cultural Relics and Museology of Nanjing Normal University, told reporters that Nanjing Normal University has established a field archaeology practice base at the Xuecheng site, and plans to arrange students to carry out archaeological excavation work every year in the future.
Xu Feng said that in the next 5 to 10 years of excavation plans, they hope to gradually unveil the cultural appearance of the Xuecheng ruins, rebuild the prehistoric history and culture of Gaochun, and restore the glory of Gaochun's early civilization.
The Xuecheng ruins have now been built into a ruins park, and the important tombs and ruins excavated will be gradually opened for display in the future. Wang Zhigao said that Nanjing Normal University will work with the provincial, municipal and Gaochun district cultural relics administrative departments and relevant experts to further discuss the excavation and protection of future sites.
(Courtesy of School of Social Development, Nanjing Normal University, Edited by Huang Yuanyuan)