From January 1, 2022, the Science and Education Channel of the Central Radio and Television Corporation, and from January 4, the Comprehensive Channel of the Central Radio and Television Station will broadcast five consecutive episodes of the documentary "The Story of Yangshao", outlining the development process of modern Chinese archaeology over the past century, and deeply excavating the connotation of Yangshao culture and its significance to Chinese civilization.
Ruins of Yangshao Village
Yangshao, what is it? How should we know and understand Yangshao today?
"Yangshao Story" takes the archaeological process of Yangshao culture as a narrative clue, and focuses on interpreting the close connection between Yangshao culture and us today.
The first episode of the film, "The First Appearance of Shaoguang", will take the audience back to a hundred years ago and jointly trace the process of the discovery of Yangshao culture and the birth of modern Chinese archaeology.
In order to facilitate life, the Yangshao period paid more attention to pottery, and pottery can be roughly divided into cookers, food utensils and containers. In addition, there are other aspects of pottery.
Faience has smooth lines and gorgeous patterns, it is undoubtedly the most recognizable and representative artifact of Yangshao culture, so Yangshao culture also enjoys the reputation of "faience culture". Faience pottery is both a living tool of the time and a wonderful handicraft. The second episode of the documentary, "The Road of Faience Pottery", takes faience pottery as the core and leads the audience to see the information of social development in the Yangshao period recorded in the faience ornamentation.
The Loess Plateau has a warm temperate semi-arid climate with an annual precipitation of 400 mm to 800 mm, an average annual temperature of 10 degrees Celsius to 15 degrees Celsius, and an annual growth period of 210 to 270 days, with four distinct seasons. The loess here is loose, vertically jointed, slightly alkaline, and is very suitable for the development of dryland agriculture. Generally in the Sichuan land and the lower surface, the humus content is high, the fertility and water holding capacity are strong, and it is a good breeding ground for Neolithic agriculture, and most of the Yangshao cultural sites are distributed in such areas.
Faience pottery in the Temple Bottom Ditch Museum
Mermaid-patterned clay pots
From the archaeological data, it can be found that thousands of years ago, our ancestors hunted and fished, they collected fruits, raised livestock, and planted millet crops. The third episode of the documentary, "Yangshao on the Tip of the Tongue", takes food as the theme and shows the profound impact of agricultural development on our ancestors and us through three meals a day by the ancestors of Yangshao.
Due to the rich connotation of Yangshao culture and the vast distribution area, there are great cultural differences in different periods and different regions, forming different cultural types. The fourth episode, "Ancient Pictures", uses the archaeological discoveries of Chinese archaeologists to unlock the civilization code left by the ancestors of Yangshao.
The fifth episode of the documentary, "Brilliant Huazhang", relies on important ruins and combines expert interpretations to find the answer to the question of "where yangshao culture has gone".
From planning, live shooting to production and broadcast, the preparation and production of "Yangshao Story" lasted more than a year. "The Story of Yangshao" involves a large number of sites and cultural relics. In order to tell the story of the archaeological discoveries themselves and interpret the historical information they contain, the film uses expert interviews to select representative important discoveries and research results, showing the brilliant achievements of Chinese archaeologists over the past century, and telling the audience the story of ancient China.
Mussel sculpture "Dragon Tiger" tomb