Military grain city Tang Dynasty ruins
At the end of last month, Tianjin's cultural and cultural circles released a news report saying that archaeological excavations were carried out again at the ruins of Junliang City, and that remains such as the ancient taiji of the Tang Dynasty and the complete brine salt making workshop were found. It is the largest Tang Dynasty site excavated in Tianjin in the past 70 years.
Red flag of the archaeological team
Distribution map of the ruins of the military grain city (painted by the author)
Taking advantage of the New Year's Day holiday, the author visited the archaeological site of the military grain city site. The excavation site of the site is located on the north side of the Tianjin Rose International Commercial House under construction, which is the southwest of the demolished Liutai Village. Aerial photography shows that three areas have been excavated at the site, and the west side is near the location of Beiwang Road, which is a work shed, and several exploration pits are scattered. The area on the east side is larger, and the original earthen platform, which is more than one meter above the ground, has now been bulldozed, and should be the part of Tangcheng and the salt workshop area.
The area on the west side of the excavation site
The area on the east side of the excavation site
In fact, archaeological excavations of the ruins of the ancient tang dynasty in the military grain city began as early as the 1950s, and a large number of Tang Dynasty cultural relics were unearthed in this area. Only because of the resurgence of archaeological fever in recent years, a new round of archaeological excavation work began in April last year. This can also be regarded as a rescue excavation, because the area around the military grain city has already begun small urbanization construction, the old villages are gone, large residential areas are rising from the ground, and if the history buried in the ground is not explored, this memory will never be uncovered.
Named after the garrison during the Song-Liao confrontation, the city is still a small town of importance in Tianjin. In fact, as early as the two Jin, Sui and Tang dynasties, this area was still tianjin's "Three Meetings Haikou". That is, about 1500 years ago, the Gu river, the Qing river, and the Tuotuo River converged between the military grain city and the Nigu Haikou (now the East and West Nigu in Jinnan District) and flowed into the East China Sea. Tianjin's coastline is right here.
The pit has been flooded with gushing groundwater
Emperor Cao Cao of Wei excavated the Pingyu Canal and quanzhou Canal, and the Sui Emperor dug the Yongji Canal, making Tianjin a necessary place for ships from the four major water systems of the river, Huai, Huang, and Hai to travel to and from Zhuo County. However, in the Tang Dynasty, the use of troops was frequent, and in order to defend against the northern ethnic minorities such as Xi and Khitan, the grain of the Jianghuai army was transported to the front line of Youji, and the first harbor city in Tianjin was born- the military grain city. In the cold winter, the inland rivers are frozen for three feet, and the grain in the Jianghuai area is transported from the north of the sea road to the military grain city near the mouth of the lower reaches of the Hai River, and then transferred to Yuyang and other places.
Brine Salt Making Scene (Toray District Museum)
The archaeological excavation of the ruins of Junliang City can also verify such a historical fact from the perspective of the planned site selection and building volume of the large-scale Tang Dynasty rammed earth platform foundation. The ancient city of the Tang Dynasty was an artificial city built under the unified organization of the government for political and military purposes. The discovery of brine wells, ash pits, salt stoves, beaches, ash ditches, etc., formed a complete Tang Dynasty brine salt making workshop. It can be seen that the military grain city of that year was indeed a large-scale harbor town.
Excavation of the ruins of Junliang City (Bozang, Dongli District)
The area around Junliang City was once a beach and the terrain was low-lying. The newly excavated archaeological pit has been silted up with groundwater. In fact, there are no relics of the original site except for the accumulated cultural layers. The name of the military food city and its history are no longer known to modern people.