When it comes to the important source of Chinese civilization and Neolithic culture, many people first think of the Yangshao culture in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. However, the ancient ruins of the sand pit in Jiesheng Town, Shanwei City, also record a very long history, and the Yangshao culture is the same period of Chinese national civilization imprints.
Jiesheng Town, Shanwei City, as a "Daya Township" with both a 6,000-year prehistoric cultural history and a 600-year history of city founding, there are these famous ancient ruins in its area. It contains the ruins of Bunker North and Dongkengzhong of the early Neolithic "Bunker North Culture", the triangular tail ruins of the "Triangle Tail Culture" of the middle Neolithic Age, the Sandkeng South Ruins, the Dongkeng South Ruins, the Beef Tripe I Ruins, and the Tripe II Ruins of the Late Neolithic "Jingziyuan Culture", the Dongkeng North Ruins and the Bunker Ii Ruins of the Bronze Age "Baolou Culture", and some village ruins of the Tang and Song Dynasties.
Before the excavation of the bunker culture, the international academic community always adhered to the thesis that "no stone tools in South China". It was not until the excavation of ancient kiln sites in the sand pit site group, neolithic and bronze age pottery, stone tools, bone tools, bronzes, jade and other cultural relics in the sand pit site group that broke this thesis, so that the sand pit culture was recognized as an early Neolithic cultural site in the same period as the Yangshao culture.
In the 1930s, international archaeological organizations and foreign Shanwei missionaries visited the sand pit area several times. In 1934, through Hong Kong to Shanwei, Irish archaeologist, priest Fen Daili and Italian priest Mak Siu-leung found local excavated cultural relics pottery pieces similar to those unearthed on Hong Kong's Lamma Island. After Findaili's death in 1936, Mak Siu-leung conducted archaeological research on his own and devoted himself to the study of prehistoric culture in eastern Guangdong, including Jiesheng, for more than ten consecutive years.
The archaeological investigation of the bunker site by Father Fendali and Father Mak Siu-leung is inseparable from the guidance and help of local villagers, and the picture shows the photos of the two priests and villagers.
Mai Zhaoliang is very talented in language, and after living in Shanwei for a period of time, he learned to speak Shanwei dialect, which is easy to communicate with the locals, so the cultural relics he collected are extremely rich. Among these cultural relics, there are painted circle foot plates and open jars at the north site of the sand pit, the flow belt handle pot excavated from the south site of the east pit, the dwarf foot clay pot excavated from the shajiaowei site, and a large number of stone tools, pottery, and pottery fragments. During this period, Mak Zhaoliang published a series of archaeological research articles, he put the archaeological discoveries in the north of the bunker, the south of the bunker, the south of the east pit, the south of the sand pit, the tail of the sand corner, and the concept of "bunker culture" appeared in scientific treatises for the first time, and at this point, the concept of bunker cultural sites was officially established.
Father Mak Siu-leung often wandered the countryside with his assistants, wearing a black robe, a black beard full of cheeks, and a black hat on his head, which was particularly conspicuous.
In 1942, Yang Chengzhi, a famous anthropologist and ethnologist in China, came to the coast of Jiesheng to conduct archaeological research in order to rescue the prehistoric cultural relics of Shanwei. Before the founding of New China, the ethnologist Gu Jiefu also came to Jiesheng and Shading Archaeology. According to their research, the materials, production methods, shapes and ornaments of the artifacts excavated from the bunker have the cultural characteristics of the middle and late Neolithic period, which proves that this is a Neolithic site, thus overturning the Western historical conclusion that "there is no Neolithic culture in Southern China". In the same year, Yang Chengzhi negotiated with Mai Zhaoliang and selected 8 large boxes of cultural relics to be transported to Sun Yat-sen University, but unfortunately, due to the impact of the war, most of them were lost on the way, and only some of them were successfully transported to Sun Yat-sen University. Mak siu-leung brought the remaining relics to Hong Kong, which are still preserved in the Hong Kong Museum of History.
Mai Zhaoliang found a circle foot pottery plate with painted and carved wavy patterns, cut holes and other decorations in the north of the bunker, and he believed that the circle foot offering plate was a sacrificial tool.
In many international academic conferences and articles, Mai Zhaoliang believes that the bunker culture has a direct relationship with the Yangshao culture in the Yellow River Basin, and is the earliest culture of the Neolithic to reach Shanwei, from which the origin of Chinese culture in the Neolithic era can also be traced.
In 2003, Professor Qiu Licheng, then deputy director of the Guangdong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics, led a team to Jiesheng to inspect the stone tools and pottery excavated from the bunker site, and confirmed that the bunker culture can be traced back to more than 5,000 years to 6,000 years ago. In 2018, the Shanwei Urban District Bureau of Culture and Sports and the People's Government of Jiesheng Town invited Qiu Licheng to come to the excavation of the Shakeng Site Group again, put forward protection opinions, and organized some archaeological investigations.
The belt pot excavated from the south of the East Pit has a diameter of about 15 centimeters. It is now in the collection of the Hong Kong Heritage Museum.
In 2019, the people's government of Jiesheng Town renovated and upgraded the original school building of the vacant Bunker Primary School, collected relevant exhibits from the public, and built the Bunker Culture Museum.
In November 2021, Tang Jigen, chair professor of southern university of science and technology and chief researcher of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, went to the ancient ruins of Shakeng to investigate, and after combing through the excavated cultural relics specimens, Tang Jigen pointed out that Jiesheng was the first place to discover prehistoric cultural relics in the coastal area of South China 6000-7000 years ago, and the ruins of Shakeng South or a "regional central settlement" on the southern coast of China during the late Shang-Western Zhou period (between 3300-2800 years ago) have important archaeological value and historical value. Another important phenomenon is that in the cultural relics specimens in the south of the bunker, the number of jomon kettles folded along the fold is extremely large, or reflects that the local culture in the Jiesheng area 3,000 years ago has been influenced by the culture from the Central Plains, which is of great significance for understanding the "pluralism and integration" of China's ancient culture. Tang Jigen also pointed out that the ancient ruins of Jiesheng also reflect the phenomenon of local "settlements" moving from high to low, such as the relatively high terrain in the north of the bunker, while the relatively low terrain in the south of the bunker, which provides important information for the study of environmental changes and human social changes in the southern coast of China.
In order to better define and excavate the "bunker cultural sites", sort out the cultural genetic map of the entire Lingnan region, and continue the chain of prehistoric civilization history in South China, under the organization of the urban people's government and the Jiesheng Town government, in early January 2022, Professor Tang Jigen and the Guangdong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology officially launched a global archaeological survey of the ancient ruins of the bunker.
[Reporter] Peng Jun
[Correspondent] He Bihuai
【Author】 Peng Jun
【Source】 Southern Press Media Group South + client