Li Yongqiang's report from the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is entitled "New Archaeological Discoveries and New Progress at the Pei Ligang Site". Since 2018, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Zhengzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology have launched a new round of excavation work on the site, with a new excavation area of about 2,000 square meters. According to surveys and excavations, the site area can reach 60,000 square meters, and the preservation status of the site and the layout of the settlement are becoming clearer. New excavations have shown that the southern area of the Pei Li Gang site has a wide distribution range of tombs, and the entire burial area may be nearly double that of previous understanding. In the west of the site, newly found late Paleolithic remains, continuous accumulation, no significant change in soil color. Combined with other situation analysis, the late Paleolithic stage of the Peiligang site is likely to be an important camp for long-term use, which will play a major role in the study of the transition stage of neolithic population from mountainous areas to plains, from frequent migration to relative settlement, and there are also new important breakthroughs and progress in regional systematic investigation and multidisciplinary cooperative research.
[The report was published at the 2021 Henan Archaeological Work Achievements Exchange Conference, on the morning of December 17, 2021, Nanyang, Henan. 】
8,000 years ago, the Pei Ligang people had already made wine from Aspergillus flavours
Release time: 2021-12-18 Xinhua News Agency official account
Zhengzhou, December 18 (Xinhua) -- Li Yongqiang, assistant researcher of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and head of the Pei Ligang site project, disclosed at the 2021 Henan Archaeological Work Achievements Exchange Meeting on the 17th that the latest discovery of the New Zheng pei Li Gang site is about 8,000 years ago using aspergillus flavours fermentation to make wine, which is the earliest empirical evidence of the use of this winemaking technology found in China.
"The study confirmed the winemaking method of the Pei Ligang people using asparagus flavours as a startling agent, mainly using rice, and using mustard and wheat seeds as raw materials." Li Yongqiang said that previous studies have revealed that the brewing method of Yangshao culture includes the use of aspergillus flavouris as a starter culture, but later than the Pei Ligang culture.
The research team of Professor Liu Li of Stanford University, who participated in the detection and research of the excavations, detected rich Aspergillus flavouria hyphae and closed capsule shells and rice starch grains with fermentation characteristics in the residues of two clay pots, indicating that the clay pots were used for winemaking and wine storage. The site also unearthed a leaker or a leaker for filtering fermented liquor, or a cookware for warm wine.
Archaeological findings show that the ruins of JiaHu Lake in Wuyang, Henan, The Qiaotou site in Yiwu, Zhejiang, and the Site of Zero Mouth in Lintong, Shaanxi, have all unearthed pottery pots for serving wine, dating back to 9,000 to 7,500 years ago.
Li Yongqiang said that the discovery of wine at multiple sites reflects a change or popularity in the way the ancestors process food is processed, and there may be a path of technological dissemination.
Located in Xinzheng City, Henan Province, the Pei Ligang site is about 8,000 years old, is one of the 100 major archaeological discoveries in China in the 20th century, and is now jointly excavated by the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Zhengzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, which has provided a large number of important physical examples for the study of China's agricultural origin and development, pottery making, textile industry, winemaking technology, etc.
"The site also unearthed more plant phloem fibers, and the latest tests show that some of the fibers show blue, black and pink, mainly blue, indicating the existence of the use of pigment dyeing processes." Li Yongqiang said that it is not yet possible to identify the source of the dye, and this mystery is expected to be solved through chemical analysis in the future. (End)
4 archaeological excavations The dawn of Chinese civilization has been recreated under the thick soil of Pei Li Gang
Zheng Bao all-media reporter Li Hongyu
The Pei ligang site has become an important material for studying the trajectory of human society and cultural development in prehistory
In 2018, excavations at the Pei LiGang site, about 8 kilometers northwest of Xinzheng, resumed. This time, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Zhengzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology found a rich accumulation of late Paleolithic remains dating back about 30,000 years to the west of the site. This discovery of the Pei Ligang site will become an important material for studying the trajectory of human society and cultural development in prehistory.
At the archaeological excavation site, it was learned that the accumulation thickness of the site reached 225 centimeters and the distribution area exceeded 5,000 square meters. The discovery greatly enhanced the connotation and status of the PeiLigang site.
The Pei Li Gang site has undergone 3 large-scale excavations
From 1977 to 1979, the Pei Ligang site underwent three large-scale excavations, which are determined to be about 8,000 years ago, extending the history of Chinese civilization forward for more than 2,000 years, filling a historical gap in the early Neolithic period before the Yangshao culture in China. Xu Shunzhan, a famous archaeologist, pointed out that the archaeological cultural remains represented by the Pei Li Gang site are "Pei Li Gang Culture".
At the excavation site, in the face of the obvious bulging and densely arranged "markers" in the exploration square, Li Yongqiang, assistant researcher of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, introduced: "This is the late Paleolithic remains excavated, including stone chips, bones, ostrich eggshells, etc., 26,000 to 30,000 years ago. "The pottery manufacturing of the Pei Ligang period has also matured, with a wide variety of vessel shapes and gradual diversification of ornamentation.
In previous excavations, symbolic primitive scripts engraved on tortoiseshells, bone tools, and stone tools have also been found, which have provided clues to the study of early Chinese writing.
It is also understood that a large number of stone grinding discs have been excavated from the Pei Ligang site, and the shape of the grinding stone sickle similar to the modern sickle, as well as the silken, stone axe, stone shovel, the processing technology is amazing. In addition, a large number of carbonized fruit shells, animal bones, and a small amount of grain carbonized seeds have been found.
The Pei Ligang people ushered in the Neolithic era
From the analysis of the connotation of excavated cultural relics, archaeologists believe that the Pei Ligang people have broken away from the original state of "slash and burn" and begun to hoe farming agricultural civilization 8,000 years ago. At that time, human society embraced the tide of the productive forces revolution for the first time, opened the era of the Neolithic Era, and laid a solid foundation for spiritual civilization and material civilization for entering the period of yangshao culture. Archaeology has found that the cultural layer of the site is more than one meter thick, indicating that the ancestors of Pei Ligang once began a long-term settled life here in order to meet the needs of agricultural production.
The origin of Chinese civilization is full of stars, and the Pei Ligang culture is a star that cannot be ignored. The excavation of the Neolithic site of Pei Li Gang was selected into the list of the 100 most important archaeological discoveries in China in the 20th century, and the Pei Li Gang culture has also entered the annals of human civilization as a symbol of the times.