Zhejiang Channel, January 11 (Xinhua) -- Hangzhou Future Science and Technology City, located in The Yuhang District of Hangzhou City, is a new high-tech industrial city, and in the late Shang Period 3,000 years ago, it was also a "high-tech area". After two years of work, the Hangzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology discovered the site of a late Shang copper casting workshop in the local area. This is a clear site of the same kind in the lower Reaches of the Yangtze River. Bronze smelting in human society at that time belonged to the "top stream technology".
Bronze axe
The site is located near the jumping head village of Zhongtai Street in Yuhang District, Hangzhou, so it was named the jumping head site. It is located at the junction of the mountainous area of western Zhejiang and the plain of northern Zhejiang, and belongs to the alluvial zone of the valley area, close to the tributary of DongyuanXi and the Future Science and Technology City. Since July 2020, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Hangzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology has carried out formal excavations of the Jump head site on the basis of preliminary exploration, with a total excavation area of 3,000 square meters, and discovered different strata and remains from the Liangzhu culture, Guangfulin culture, Maqiao culture to the Late Shang, Western Zhou and Spring and Autumn periods. After the Spring and Autumn Period, this area was flooded for a long time by the South Lake formed by the confluence of the Nan moxi stream.
Clay pots
The late Shang strata have unearthed a number of well-preserved remains of stone fans, bronzes, copper ingots, gravel and charcoal directly related to cast copper. Lin Sen, a librarian in the second department of archaeology of the Hangzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that the remains at this stage are well preserved, and the excavated relics are the most abundant. At the same time, the settlement pattern of this period was also the most perfect, and the ancestors separated the production area from the living area by digging ash ditches and piling up soil ridges. The excavated stone fan material is siltstone. Basically a stone fan is responsible for casting a bronze vessel. Archaeologists found bronze axes, spears, arrows, etc., and collected charcoal samples near Shifan for carbon-14 dating. According to the dating tests of beta laboratories in the United States, the sample is about 3000 years old.
Jade
The Shang Dynasty was a peak period for ancient bronze smelting technology in China. The familiar Yin Ruins, in addition to being known for their oracle bones, have also unearthed many important bronze artifacts such as the Houmu Pengding. In the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the Shang Dynasty also set up a military stronghold in order to control the local copper resources, which is now the famous site of Panlong City in Hubei Province. Lin Sen said that the source of the copper ingots excavated at the Jump head site is still unknown, and may be produced from copper mines in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and sent as raw materials.
The Jump head site has been selected as one of the top ten important archaeological discoveries in Zhejiang in 2021. In the older strata of the Jumping Head site, archaeologists have also found some meaningful clues. They found that in the strata belonging to the Guangfulin culture, the earlier Liangzhu culture lost control in the local area, and there were "invaders" from the Central Plains and the southwestern Zhejiang and northern Fujian regions. Lin Sen said that further research on the Jumping Head site will help to study cultural exchanges between the Central Plains of the Shang Dynasty, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and the northeast of Gansu, southern Zhejiang and northern Fujian.
Source: Xinhua News Agency