In order to cooperate with the "Maritime Silk Road Beihai Historical Sites" to declare the world cultural heritage and further find out the distribution of historical and cultural relics in Beihai, the Beihai Municipal Heritage Office and the Municipal Museum have continued to carry out systematic archaeological surveys in recent years, and found a number of ancient cultural relics from the Neolithic period to the Ming and Qing dynasties, among which the important discoveries are the Tang Dynasty kiln site group of Taro Tang Dynasty and the ancient tomb group of Dashugen.
▲ On January 13, 2022, Xie Riwan, deputy director of the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Autonomous Region, and his party went to Beihai to investigate the protection and utilization of cultural heritage, and affirmed the archaeological survey of the Beihai coast, and pointed out that the Beihai region is rich in historical and cultural relics, not only ancient tombs, ancient city walls, but also widely distributed ancient kiln sites, of which the discovery of the ancient tomb group of big tree roots provides a new perspective for the study of the history and culture of the Beihai. The height of the Shangyao kiln fort and the relatively rare preservation of the whole are of great value to the study of the Maritime Silk Road in the North Sea.
01
Large tree root tomb group
The Dashugen Ancient Tomb Group is located on a slope of about 200 meters on the northwest side of Dashugen Village, Fucheng Town, Yinhai District, Beihai City. The northwest is a new river flowing through, which has now dried up, and about 1.5 kilometers from the tomb in the east is a tributary of Bailonggang. The terrain is low in the northwest and high in the southeast, with a distribution area of about 70,000 square meters. At present, the Beihai Museum has joined hands with the Yinhai District Cultural Relics Bureau and the Fucheng Town People's Government to set up a protection sign in the tomb area to prevent further destruction of the tomb.
The most prominent feature of this tomb group is that the burial chamber is generally constructed with a stone piece commonly known as "grinding wheel piece", and some tombs are composed of masonry and stone, with narrow and shallow shapes and simple regulations. The relics collected in the cemetery include pottery, porcelain, iron and other types, and the recognizable vessels are hard pottery four series pots, sand clay kettles, celadon bowls, and iron knives. Pottery ornamentation is relatively rich, there are water ripples, milk nail patterns, leaf veins, grate scratches, string patterns and so on. In addition, more geometric tiles and a small number of "Pavilion" inscription bricks have been found. Combined with the characteristics of the tomb shape system and the collection of relics, it is speculated that the age of the tomb group is about the Six Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and such tombs are rare in Beihai and even in Guangxi, and have high research value.
▲Collect milk nail pottery around the ancient tomb group
▲ "Pavilion" inscription brick rubbing
▲Geometric tomb tile rubbing
02
The site of the ancient city village
The site of Gucheng Village is located in Gucheng Village, Fucheng Town, Yinhai District. The site of the city is square in plan, with a side length of about 120 meters, and the walls are earthen, and there is no obvious sign of a moat. A small number of checkered pottery pieces were collected from the surface of the city site, which are fragments of the mouth edge and abdomen of the pot. The relics collected at the city site are generally few and relatively small, and the cultural accumulation in the city is thinner. Combined with the literature and the distribution of the surrounding tombs (Dashugen Ancient Tombs), it is preliminarily speculated that the city site may be the southern dynasty Yantian County Or the early Tang Zhuchi County.
03
Taro Tang Dynasty kiln site group
Located in Leitian Village, Nankang Town, Tieshan District, the distribution area is about 50,000 square meters, and it is close to Baishatou Port in the north. The kiln group mainly includes two kiln areas on the east side of the back mountain and the west side of the white tiger head, the two mountains extending towards the bay, connected in a "V" shape. Among them, the back mountain kiln farm is about 300 meters long from east to west, about 50 meters wide from north to south, and the distribution range is about 15,000 square meters; the white tiger head is narrow and long, and the kiln area is distributed on the entire slope of the mountain, with an east-west length of about 400 meters, a north-south width of about 90 meters, and a distribution range of about 36,000 square meters. The entire kiln group is surrounded by shrimp ponds, most of the kiln sites are destroyed by shrimp ponds, a large number of ceramic fragments are scattered on the surface, and thick waste products can be seen on the broken wall. The kiln site here is the "largest group of Tang Dynasty kiln sites" found in Guangxi, which provides a physical basis for studying the history of export porcelain in the Beihai region of the Tang Dynasty.
More than 100 ceramic specimens were investigated and collected, and some of the utensils were well preserved. The porcelain carcass is thick and heavy, mostly gray-white, the inner wall is full of glaze, the outer wall is glazed less than the bottom, the glaze is slightly rough, and the main instrument types are jars, bowls, saucers, bowls, pots, plates, kettles, cushions, etc. Most of them are plain faces, and only the shoulders of individual utensils are decorated with water ripples, and occasionally inscribed text or symbols are seen. The inner walls of bowls and saucers are often left with four to five sets of square nail marks.
▲ Taro Tang Dynasty kiln site surface scattered porcelain pieces
▲Taro Tang kiln site to collect porcelain
04
Lower kiln site
The cellar site of Xiayao Village is located in Haicun Kiln Village, Fucheng Town, Yinhai District, Beihai City. In 1962, it was announced as a cultural relics protection unit in Guangdong Province, and in 1965, it was classified as a cultural relics protection unit in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. There were originally 12 kiln bags in the kiln site group, with a branch area of about 30,000 square meters, an east-west width of about 100 meters, and a north-south length of about 300 meters. Ceramic fragments can be seen everywhere on the cellar site, ceramic fragments are abundant and thick, up to 50 centimeters, visible utensils are pots, pots, etc. The kiln site provides physical information for the study of the history and culture of the North Sea and the Maritime Silk Road.
▲Ceramic pieces are scattered on the surface of the kiln site in Xiayao Village
05
Upper kiln site
Shangyao Village kiln site is located in Shangyao Village, Fucheng Town, Yinhai District, Beihai City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the kiln is a sloped dragon kiln with a slope of 25 °, 50 meters long, about 17 meters wide, and the kiln is brick. In 1980, the site was excavated, and there were urns, pipe mouths, wine glasses, pots, bowls and other ceramics, which were hard and mostly plain, as well as seabirds, tangles, bees, cloud thunder and other ornaments and "Fu, Shou" and other ornaments. In 1981, it was announced as the second batch of cultural relics protection units in Hepu County, and in 1995, it was converted into a cultural relics protection unit in Beihai City.
▲The site of the upper kiln
Judging from the continuous archaeological survey of the Beihai coast in recent years, the ancient remains of Beihai City are widely distributed and diverse, and the age covers almost all periods since the Neolithic Age. Based on historical documents and the results of archaeological surveys over the years, we have basically clarified the historical and cultural development of the Beihai region. The discovery of other relics such as ancient kiln sites has further enriched our understanding of the history and culture of the Beihai, and provided more physical basis and theoretical support for the declaration of the "Maritime Silk Road and Beihai Historical Sites" as a world cultural heritage.
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