Analysis of the remains of Majia Village in Datong
Cultural Relics Quarterly, 1992.04 Haijinle (Shanxi Institute of Archaeology)
In September 1991, the Shanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute and the Datong Municipal Museum excavated the Neolithic ruins of Datong Majia Village, revealing an area of more than 70 square meters, cleaning up four ruined house sites, and unearthing a group of pottery with clear units and distinctive characteristics, which attracted people's attention (see "Shanxi Datong Majia Small Village Ruins", Cultural Relics Quarterly, No. 3, 1992). Hereinafter referred to as "Ruins").
Although the excavation area of the northern Shanxi Neolithic period has been relatively small, the excavation is not very rich, and the cultural outlook is not comprehensive enough, but the characteristics of the remains (mainly pottery) are eye-catching and of great significance for the study of the Neolithic archaeological culture in the northern region. This article intends to further discuss issues such as its epoch, cultural nature and cultural relations through the analysis of this relic. Please correct the mistakes.
One
The age and nature of the remains of Majia Village, the "Ruins" preliminarily believes that Fl-F4 is basically a remnant of the same period; the age is the Miaodigou period in the middle of the Yangshao Era; it has a rather Miaodigou cultural style.
Due to the complexity of the composition of the remains of Majia Village, further analysis and discussion are necessary.
(1) F1-F4 does not have any stratigraphic superimposed and broken relationship. Examining its chronological relationship can only be understood through a comparative study of typology.
For ease of comparison, we have made a comparison table of Fl-F4 excavated pottery by unit and class (see table below).
As can be seen from the table, Fl-F4 contains a wide ribbon bowl and a mouth bowl; Fl-F3 contains a folding edge sand jar.F3, F2 contains a pointed bottom bottle, a stacked lip basin, and a mouth jar; F2 and F1 contain a wide edge with a colored gray clay pot; Fl, F3 contains a red pottery black color scroll along the basin "Ruins" has not published a line map, because the specimen is only on the mouth rim). In addition, F1 unearthed a "four-series urn", F 3 unearthed a "four-series tank", although the utensils are different but "four series".
The most important vessels in this remaining pottery portfolio are bowls, pointed bottom bottles, and crease sand jars. The front and rear categories are more common in the four units, but the pointed bottom bottle is only from F3 and F2. There are two kinds of pointed bottom bottles, one is a heavy lip mouth, only F2 out of one piece; the other is more numerous, F3 restoration, pot mouth, pointed bottom, abdominal ornament bridge-shaped ear pair, the bottom is blunter, decorated line pattern, F2 also out of two pieces (in addition to the heavy lip bottle), one of which in addition to the mouth residue, the remaining shape characteristics are the same as F3 bottles, from which it can be inferred that the mouth of F2 this pointed bottom bottle is also a pot mouth (Figure 1, 2, 3).
The ornamentation is mainly based on line patterns, and there are also plain surfaces, faience, rope patterns and a small number of string patterns, and basket patterns are not seen. The color patterns are mainly black color, and brown color also accounts for a certain proportion, and the pattern has a wide ribbon pattern, an arc triangle pattern, and a dot pattern. F3 is richer than other units in the excavations, and the color patterns also include hook leaves, special edge triangles, half moons and vertical arcs. ’
Clay, fine mud and sand pottery are present in the pottery, and the color is mainly red and orange, with a small amount of gray pottery.
The method of making is handmade, using clay strip plate construction and socketing method, and the press pattern of the instrument table (parallel pits the size of strips and index finger) is the same (see "Ruins" Plate II, 6, Plate Wu, 5). In addition, the bridge-shaped ear is more developed (JS "Ruins", Fig. 5, 4; Fig. 6, 2, Fig. 8, 1, 2, 3, 6).
F1-F3 are semi-crypt houses, the shape of the distinguishable F3 and F?, both rounded rectangles, indoor floors and walls are coated with grass mixed with mud and roasted. The fire pit at the complete F1 stove site is connected to the doorway, and the phenomenon of laying stones at the mouth of the fire pond is quite similar to F3 (Figures 2 and 3 of the "Ruins"). Its architectural style is consistent.
According to the above comparative analysis, especially the coexistence of pottery, it is difficult to distinguish between early and late. That is, F1-F4 is basically simultaneous.
(2) Most of the pottery features left in Majia Xiaocun are similar to the remains of the Miaodigou period of the Miaodigou culture that we are familiar with: the narrow stripes of colored patterned mouth bowls, stacked lip basins, red pottery black color scrolls along the basin, and the mouth-clamped sand pot are almost exactly the same as similar vessels in the jinnan temple bottom ditch period; black color is the mainstay, and the motif pattern is the arc side triangle, the dot pattern faience pottery and the common application of line patterns are all cultural characteristics of the temple bottom ditch period.
It is worth noting that there are more wide colored bowls (some of which are round bottoms) and less colorless bottom bowls in this remain, and there are also more blunt pointed bottom bottles. In the Shaanxi-Jin-Yu region, if the second phase of the Banpo site, the first phase of the Miaodigou site and the fourth phase of the Banpo site (including the third phase of Xiwangcun) are regarded as the early, middle and late phases of the Yangshao era, the wide ribbon bowl and the pointed bottom bottle (the pointed bottom part) left in Majia Xiaocun are similar to the early and late Yangshao era, respectively. What is intriguing is that these two seemingly earlier and later vessels coexist with the same artifacts of the Temple Bottom Ditch period and faience pottery (F3 is the most typical). This situation cannot but be brought to our attention.
The symbiosis of wide ribbon bowls and pottery with the characteristics of the Miaodigou period in Majia Village is not an isolated case, and a similar situation exists in the remains of the "first culture" F13 of the Qingshuihe White Clay Kiln in south-central Inner Mongolia and the Diaoyutai in Quyang, Hebei. From this, we can be sure that this artifact disappeared earlier in the Central Plains and continued for a longer time in the Northern Region (the same should be true of the rainbow bottom bowl). The pointed bottom bottle of clay terracotta or orange pottery, although the bottom is blunt, but the surface is decorated with lines, and the unit (F2) also produces a heavy lip pointed bottom bottle with the characteristics of the temple bottom groove period. This indicates that such artifacts would never reach the late Yangshao era.
It can be seen that the artifacts that seem to be early or late and the remains of the temple bottom ditch period are only caused by regional differences, not chronological differences. The uneven nature of cultural development made the sequence of wide ribbon bowls and pointed bottom bottles in the Central Plains not fully applicable to other regions.
The age of the remains of Majia Village and the remnants of the Qingshuihe White Mud Kiln F1 and the lower remains of The Three Passes in Weixian Are basically the same as those of the middle of the Yangshao Era, and are the earliest miaodigou period remains found in this area. Taking into account the situation of the circular bottom vessel and the folding edge sand tank, we believe that the specific age of F1-F4 is at the same time or slightly earlier than the earlier unit in the first phase of the Miaodigou site.
(iii) In the course of its development, an archaeological culture will inevitably have a certain connection with other archaeological cultures to a greater or lesser extent. In a given remain, there are multiple cultural factors, and these cultural factors are the basis for us to measure or judge its cultural attributes.
There are at least three cultural factors that remain in Majia Village:
1, pointed bottom bottle (the mouth of the heavy lip bottle; the lower part of the mouth of the pot mouth bottle), the mouth bowl, the stacked lip pot, the red pottery black color roll along the pot, the mouth of the sand pot, the lace bottom bowl and the line pattern, most of the color pattern (mainly black color), for the temple bottom ditch cultural factors.
2. "Four-series pots", "four-series urns", round-bellied pots and gray pottery are local cultural factors.
3, pointed bottom bottle (pot mouth part), wide ribbon bowl (brown, red color), round bottom basin, mouth jar and a certain number of brown color and slash pattern red color, for the first phase of the cultural factors of hougang.
The three cultural factors do not exist in isolation, but are organically combined into one. For example, the shape of the "four-series jar" is a local factor, while the color pattern is a cultural factor of the temple bottom ditch, and the pointed bottom bottle is partly a cultural factor of the temple bottom ditch, and some is a cultural factor of the first phase of the hougang.
The wide ribbon bowl has both black color and brown and red color, which exists in the Banpo culture and the first phase of the hougang culture, and we temporarily classify it as the cultural factor of the first phase of the hougang. Folding sand tanks have been excavated in the Sanggan River Basin, south-central Inner Mongolia and Jinzhong region, which are similar to similar instruments of the late Banpo culture and close to the rail-type mouth of the Miaodigou culture.
Obviously, the above-mentioned cultural factors are divided, and the cultural factors of Majia Xiaocun Miaodigou occupy a major position in the remains, which allows us to determine that its cultural nature belongs to the category of Miaodigou culture.
Two
The nature of the remains of Majia Village was roughly estimated before the excavation of the site, according to many sources in the surrounding area. What is the relationship between this remain and the contemporaneous remains in the surrounding area, especially in the Zhangjiakou area of Hebei Province, this is the second question we want to discuss.
(1) In the Jinzhong region, the published materials are: Fenyang Duanjiazhuang H3, Liulin Yangjiaping F1, Lishijijiazhuang F1. The basic combination of pottery is the pointed bottom bottle of the car lip, the rolling pot, the mouth bowl, the sand line pattern string pattern jar, the stacked lip pot; the faience pottery is all black color, with the arc triangle, the dot pattern constitutes the pattern motif, no animal-shaped pattern; the ornament is in addition to the plain surface. Lack of kettles and stoves.
(2) The Hetao area is represented by F1 and part of the remains of the second layer of the J point of the White Mud Kiln of the Qingshui River (the remains of Liangcheng Fox Mountain also belong to this stage). The utensils are: folded lips, heavy lip pointed bottom bottle, tinder furnace, broadband pattern bowl, folding edge sand jar, rolled edge pot, stacked lip basin, mouth or flat mouth Rope pattern jar; the color pattern in addition to the wide stripe is mainly curved triangle, dot pattern, black color is mainly a small amount of brown color; the pattern is mainly line pattern. Lack of kettle stove.
(3) The Zhangjiakou area is mainly represented by the lower level of Sanguan in Wei County. The utensils are: the tip-bottom bottle of the mouth. Flat bottom bottle, wide band pattern compound color bowl (mouth), round bottom bowl, all kinds of sand pots, pots (bottles), stacked lip basins, rolled basins, etc.; the color pattern is based on the arc side triangle, dot pattern as the motif, and there is a diagonal pattern, no animal-shaped pattern, black color, there is red color; the decoration is mainly line pattern, there is a grate dot pattern, geometric shape "Zhi" character pattern. The utensils have multiple bridge-shaped ears and no kettles or stoves.
Most of the artifacts in the three regions are similar to the Miaodigou culture, and there are commonalities but also personalities. They all lack the animal-like patterns found in kettles, stoves, and faience. The Jinzhong region is closest to the Miaodigou culture for geographical reasons; the Hetao region is distinguished from other regions by the many characteristics of tinder stoves, mouth-to-mouth or flat-mouthed jomon jars, and folded-lip pointed bottom bottles.
The remains of Majia Village are the closest to the lower level of Sanguan. The same or basically the same utensils are: pots (pointed bottom bottles), mouth bowls, plain or wide ribbon bowls, mouth sand pots, folded edge sand pots, stacked lip pots, utensil accessories bridge-shaped ears are very developed; faience pottery is based on dots, arc side triangles as the motif (Figures 2, 3). Black color is the mainstay, there is a compound color; the application of line patterns is common; the production method is basically the same. The ground and wall treatment of the house foundation, the location of the stove site at the entrance of the doorway, the phenomenon of the fire pond communicating with the doorway are very similar; the stone axes in the production tools are all straight blades, and the pottery knives are processed with linear clay pottery pieces, all of which have grinding rods and traces of long-term gripping and grinding.
It should be noted that there are also differences between the remnants of Majia Village and the lower layer of Sanguan, the former's urn, mouth jar, round pot and round belly jar (these vessel-shaped except for the remaining number of small cans) are not found in the lower layer of Sanguan, the heavy lip mouth pointed bottom bottle is also different from the lower layer of Sanguan, and the gourd mouth flat bottom bottle and urn of Sanguan are not found in Majia Village; the three passes have grate dot patterns and geometric shape "zigzags"; the shape of the house is fan-shaped, and the Majia village is rectangular.
These differences should be carefully analysed. First of all, it is certain that there are indeed differences between the two remains, but the distance between Majia Village and Sanguan is only more than 100 kilometers, and it belongs to the Sangan River Basin, and the commonality of its cultural characteristics is still the main one. The differences that make them may have to do with the following points:
First, the site of Majia Village is small in area, the excavated relics are not rich, and the houses cleaned up are too dilapidated, and the cultural appearance is limited.
Second, although the Sanguan site has undergone large-scale excavations, all the information has not been published, and many of the remains have not been described in detail.
Third, due to geographical reasons, the lower layer of Sanguan was influenced by the Hongshan culture and the "zigzag" and other ornaments appeared.
The third point above is clear. The first and second points may be related to the differences created by the two remains.
Looking at the cultural outlook of Majia Small Village, the remnants of the lower layer of Sanguan, they have the characteristics of taking the Miaodigou culture as the main body, and also contain the factors of the cultural relics of the First Phase of Hougang, and in the process of development, they also produce (or absorb) some new cultural factors (small-level differences). However, it is clearly different from Jinzhong, Hetao and other regions. In this way, we have reason to think that the remains represented by the majia small village, the lower layer of Sanguan, are a local type of miaodigou cultural distribution area. Its range is roughly centered on the Sangan River Basin, bordering the Hetao region to the west, to the edge of the Zhangjiakou region to the east, to the north may include a small part of the southern edge of Inner Mongolia, and to the south is adjacent to Jinzhong.
Regarding the origin of the Miaodigou culture, in the past, the academic community tended to the Banpo culture. Recently, due to the discovery and research of various relics such as Jinnan Zaoyuan H1, Nanqi H1 and Nanqi H2, this problem has made new progress and understanding. There are different origins of Banpo culture and Miaodigou culture, and their distribution has its own center of gravity, so that the cup mouth bottle and fish pattern of Banpo culture, the heavy lip bottle and plant pattern of Miaodigou culture are respectively more reasonable explanations.
The cultural distribution center of Miaodigou is in the Jinnan region of the Fenhe River Basin. Around the time of Nanqu H2 or slightly earlier, the two passages of the Yellow River and the Fenhe River developed upwards and northwards, and the West Branch (Yellow River) entered the Hetao area through the Lüliang Mountains. The East Branch (Fenhe River) enters the Sanggan River Basin through the Jinzhong Basin. After reaching the Sanggan River Valley, the Miaodigou culture of the Middle East Branch continuously communicates with the existing local culture and the surrounding cultures, and influences each other, so that several cultural factors are organically combined into one, constituting characteristics that are different from other regions, thus developing into a local type with distinct characteristics on the northeast edge of the Miaodigou culture.
Three
The early remnants of the Yangshao era in the Datong Basin are now blank. However, the cultural features of the surrounding areas are close to the Hougang Phase I culture, which can be affirmed that the cultural nature of the remains at this stage also belongs to the Hougang Phase I culture.
The remains represented by Weixian Forty Mile Slope, Baotou Ashan Phase I, Liangcheng Hongtai Slope, Lou Fu Tong Zi Cliff F2 and Taigu Shangtuhe H1 are quite similar to the Hougang Phase I culture, and the characteristic instruments are Ding, Red Top Bowl, String Pattern Jar and Folded Lip Bottle or Kettle (different from Forty Mile Slope), in addition to the Black Color Broadband Pattern Bowl similar to the Banpo Culture and hougang Phase I culture. Some scholars believe that the cultural nature of this period belongs to the cultural category of The First Phase of Hougang. The black color wide stripe bowl exists in both the Banpo culture and the Hougang Phase I culture, but the former is more than the latter, that is, this artifact is not unique to the Banpo culture. The characteristic cup-mouth pointed bottom bottle of the Banpo culture, fish-patterned faience pottery has not been found in the Jinzhong, Hetao and Sanggan River basins, and even in the Jinnan region (Linfen Basin), which is close to the Banpo culture in the Weihe River Basin, there has not yet been found a site that is clearly identified as the Banpo culture. In this way, there is no development route for the Banpo culture to the north, so it can be considered that the Banpo culture has not reached the Sanggan River Basin, or even entered the Jinzhong region.
The Sanggan River Basin was controlled by the Hougang Phase I culture in the early Yangshao era, so the remnants of the Miaodigou culture in MajiaXiaocun are not a continuation of the local pre-cultural subjects. Nevertheless, some of the factors of this legacy are closely linked to the local post-post phase I culture.
The mouth and shoulder shape of the two-eared pointed bottom bottle (F3:10) left in Majia Village are very similar to the forty-mile slope amphora noodle pot belonging to the Cultural Category of Hougang Phase I (Figure 1, 1, 2); the heavy lip bottle (kettle) (F2:5), which expands sharply under the mouth outwards, which is also similar to the early pot. The circular bottom basin (Fl:2), the mouth jar (F3:4) (or pot) and the Hougang site have similarities; the brown color and a small amount of red color second only to the black color, the pattern of the wide ribbon red slash compound color bowl (F2:l), the brown color broadband pattern bowl (F4:l) and the rare "red top bowl" (F2) (narrower ribbon) all contain the characteristics of the Hougang Phase I culture, which can be regarded as a legacy of the Hougang Phase I culture.
In the early Yangshao era, the Sanggan River Basin and Hetao and Jinzhong regions were distributed with a relatively unified and stable Hougang Phase I culture; in the middle of the Yangshao Era, when the Miaodigou culture developed from southern Jin occupied these areas, it collided and integrated with the local Hougang Phase I culture, which led to the upper remnants of Majia Xiaocun Yisanguan in the Sanggan River Basin, which bred local cultural factors in the process of development, and at about the same time, the local Hougang Phase I culture declined. However, there are still some traditional cultural elements that stubbornly infiltrate and exert influence on the Miaodigou culture. Due to the geographical proximity, the lower remains of Sanguan had a weak connection with the Hongshan culture, so that the lower remains of Sanguan produced factors such as "Zigzag" patterns.
The local cultural factors mentioned above in Majia Village, that is, the "four series" and other instruments, are obviously very different from the well-known cultural factors, what is behind it, still need to be done, work, but according to the current information, it can be said that it is a relatively early and very characteristic remains found in the northern region.
In the late Yangshao era, various archaeological cultures on a large scale were sharply differentiated and began to take different paths. In Hebei, Hetao and Jinzhong regions, cultural relics represented by the Culture of Dasikong Village, the Culture of Haisheng Bulang and the Yijing Have Appeared respectively. There are fewer data in the Sanggan River Basin, and judging from the artifacts and faience pottery in the early remains of Datong Jijiazhuang, it is closer to the culture of Dasikong Village. In the remnants of the Yangshao era of Weixian Sanguan and Sieve Aya luo, 'faience pottery has inverted hook patterns, jagged teeth, and arc-edged triangular patterns, which are similar to the culture of Dasikong Village in Hebei Province, and should be regarded as the predecessor of the cultural part of Dasikong Village. It is possible that the cultural remains of the late Yangshao period in this area are similar to or close to the culture of Dasikong Village.
Four
The object of archaeological study is material culture, and material culture is the embodiment of human spirit or consciousness. In other words, the will, thoughts, and ideas of the ancients were expressed through various aspects of material culture. Then, the archaeological culture itself contains information on the spiritual culture of people or society at that time, and archaeology is very important to summarize and summarize these information.
The Miaodigou culture rose to prominence with the Fenhe River Basin (Linfen Basin) as the center of gravity. Its distribution and influence extend beyond any archaeological culture throughout the Neolithic age. The social organization form of the Miaodigou culture, from a certain time frame, is certainly far less rigorous and perfect than the social organization structure of the Xia and Shang periods in the later stages, and can be ruled politically and economically. So under this relatively loose social organization structure, what is the force that makes the Miaodigou culture develop rapidly? The first is the large population. According to the survey and published data, the density of this cultural site distributed in and around Jinnan is relatively large, including many large sites, which are distributed in valleys, plains, mountain fronts and mountains, which can be inferred that the population was relatively dense at that time. People are the first element of productivity, the region is located in the middle latitude, the geographical environment, climate is superior, suitable for the development of agriculture. The culture unearthed various production tools that showed its techniques in agricultural planting aspects. Surgery is more progressive. On the basis of the above two points, culture (spiritual and material) must be relatively developed, and under the role of traditional concepts and religion, social organizations (certain groups) have a certain cohesion and eclectic external relations, so they have strong vitality. It has developed rapidly around itself with its own advantages, constantly growing its power in the competition with other archaeological cultures - space (or fusion). One of the northward-developing ones entered the Sangan River Valley (Majiashi 'Village – remnants of the lower sanguan) and had a period of contact (or even conflict) with the local Hougang Phase I culture that existed here due to differences in ideas or religious beliefs. Due to the advantages of the Miaodigou culture in agricultural production and culture, the power of the Yifang side was gradually weakened. The local Hougang Phase I culture was thus squeezed out of this area, but at least some of the Ju clan was integrated with the residents of the Miaodigou culture, while also absorbing some other factors suitable for their own archaeological culture, and creating a cultural component with local characteristics, which became an important part of the Miaodigou cultural heritage in Majia Village.
Some areas of the Miaodigou culture distribution, such as Hetao, Yiluo-Zhengzhou and other areas, have also experienced this situation similar to the Sangan River Basin. The Jinzhong region is not obvious enough because of its location close to the center of the Miaodigou culture.