Henan Daily client reporter Guo Ge
What are the new archaeological discoveries in Luoyang last year? The reporter learned from the Luoyang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology held the 2021 annual business work report meeting that last year, the institute completed more than 50 archaeological investigation and excavation projects, and the archaeological results were fruitful. Certain achievements have been made in the origin of mankind, the process of civilization in the Central Plains, the exploration of Xia culture, the integration of the Eastern Zhou ethnic groups, the imperial tomb system of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Sui and Tang Dynasties system, the protection and display of immovable cultural relics, the restoration of movable cultural relics, the outreach of cultural relics, the technical defense of cultural relics, and the archaeology of science and technology.
Today, let's take a plate, in 2021, what are the new highlights of Luoyang's archaeological work.
1. Sui and Tang Dynasty Luoyang City Zhengpingfang ruins or found Taiping Princess residence
On December 14, 2021, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage released at the "Archaeological China" major project important progress work conference held in Beijing, after two years of archaeological excavations, the archaeology of the Zhengpingfang site in Luoyang City, Sui and Tang Dynasties has made significant progress, and several courtyard remains have been found in the workshop, and archaeologists speculate that it is the residence of Princess Taiping of Tang, the Confucius Temple, and the Guozijian.
According to the excavation results, the four to four squares of ZhengpingFang are basically clear, with an east-west width of 464.6 meters, a north-south length of 533.6 meters, and a wall width of about 1.3 to 1.4 meters. The general location of the north and south gates is clear. The location, width and preservation of the three avenues outside the square, namely the cross street road and the south (Yongtongmen Street), the east and the north street outside the square, are clear. Among them, the east-west street in the square is about 10 meters wide, and the north-south street is about 8.7 meters wide; the Yongtongmen Street and the east side street on the south side of Zhengpingfang are about 71.7 meters wide, and the north side street is 33.4 meters wide. Archaeologists found ruts on the streets, and you can imagine the scene of the traffic at that time.
Shi Zishe, head of the Luoyang Tangcheng Task Force of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, introduced that they found a large courtyard in the western half of Zhengpingfang, which is a large courtyard layout of symmetrical multi-entry in the central axis, with a width of about 225 meters from east to west, a depth of about 535 meters from north to south, the width of the north wall and the east wall of the courtyard is significantly wider than the square wall, and the north wall exceeds the square wall by 2.1 meters. On the north-south axis of the house center, five large rammed earth buildings were found on the foundation site of the platform, as well as the remains of the attached courtyard wall and gallery. Combined with the literature, it should be the location of the Taiping Princess's residence, that is, the location of the later Anguo Female Taoist Temple.
The ruins of Zhengpingfang are located at the junction of Zhao Village and Xigang Village in Anle Town, Luolong District, Luoyang City, and during the Tang Dynasty, this square was on the east side of the Dingding Gate, which was a very important and representative Lifang in Luoyang City. The Zhengpingfang site is a vivid example of the mill system in the capital of the Tang Dynasty, and the pattern of the Lifang connecting the north and south fangmen of the T-shaped street seen by the excavation, as well as the symmetrical and multi-entry courtyard layout of the central axis, embodies the traditional urban planning ideas of ancient China. This archaeological excavation is of great value to the study of the history of the political system and social life of the Tang Dynasty.
2. Newly discovered bones, horn tools and workshops at the Erlitou site
In December 2021, the archaeology of the Erlitou site made the latest discovery, and a number of aggregate and corner material pits were cleared near the southwest corner of the miyagi district of the site, which provided important information for the future study of the processing process, processing technology, urban layout, planning concept and other issues of the Erlitou culture bone and horn vessel.
On the east side of the newly discovered bone, horn and workshop area, there is a circular pit, the inner wall and bottom of the pit are covered with a large number of snail shells, and the surrounding area is scattered with animal limb bones, antlers, and some bone tools and horn tools similar to bone hairpins, bone cones, and bone cones. In the middle and west of the bone-making workshop area, archaeologists have also cleared out a large piece of bone remains, and various animal limb bones, ribs, horn bones, tooth bones and some larger pottery pieces are scattered on the cultural layer of the site. It is revealed that the relatively complete bone making process, from the complete limb bone to the blank to the final finished product, as well as the waste material produced during the production process, are well preserved, and it is initially speculated that this may be a workshop that processes bone and horn tools in the late Erlitou culture.
The "tic-tac-toe" road and multi-grid layout of the Erlitou site are also clearer. Current archaeological findings confirm that in the multi-mesh space formed by the "tic-tac-toe" roads, in addition to the walls outside Miyagi and the workshop areas south of Miyagi, there are also walls in the two areas on their west side. Following this clue, archaeologists excavated west-to-east along two east-west roads in the south and north of the palace area, and found more than 400 meters of road remains on the west side. In addition, some two-meter-wide rammed earth walls were found on the south and north sides of the road, which were parallel to or in the same line as the north and south walls of Miyagi, further confirming the multi-grid layout.
3. Yiyang Suyang site excavation of regional central settlement site
Since the formal archaeological excavation of the Suyang site in June 2021, archaeologists have achieved a series of important results, providing more empirical evidence for the cultural exchange of the prehistoric society of the Chinese land more than 5,000 years ago, basically confirming that this is a regional central settlement site with the Yangshao culture as the main body with a double ring trench, and important relics such as artificial ring trenches, living areas, tomb areas, and artificial lakes and swamps have been found in this area.
Archaeologists also found a stone carving of the head of the beast with the characteristics of the Hongshan culture, which is exquisitely carved and resembles a tiger's head, and from the overall shape and production process, archaeologists initially deduced that the stone carving may be a scepter head component. This kind of stone carving is the first time to be found in the sites of the same period in the Central Plains, which provides an important material witness for exploring the exchange between the Hongshan culture originating in the northeast region and the upper social classes in the Central Plains.
Located in Zhangwu Town, Yiyang County, Luoyang City, the Suyang ruins are divided into two areas, Xiacun District and Suyang District, with an area of more than 600,000 square meters. At present, archaeologists have cleaned 11 housing sites, 126 ash pits and cellars, and 1 ditch. The excavated relics are mainly pottery, stone tools, and bone tools.
4. The small city of Yanshi Shangcheng confirmed the ruins of the city gate for the first time
In December 2021, the Yanshi Shangcheng archaeological team found a Shang Dynasty city gate site in the small town of Yanshi Shangcheng in Henan, with a hidden canal under the city gate, which provided a new historical demonstration for the study of the road system, water system distribution, urban layout and functional attributes of Yanshi Shangcheng.
This discovery is the first gate site that can be confirmed at the ruins of yanshi shangcheng, which is the east gate of the small city. The gate is a single doorway, the width of the doorway is about 3.2 meters, the north and south sides of the doorway are distributed rammed earth column troughs and rows of column holes, there are 8 column holes in the south column trough, and 5 pillar holes remain in the north column trough.
Under the gates of the small city, a culvert was also found with a drainage of about 1.8 metres wide and 80 centimeters high. There are stone slabs above the canal to facilitate pedestrians to travel east-west. It can be seen that as early as the early Shang Dynasty 3500 years ago, a three-dimensional transportation system with pedestrian passages and drainage ditches in parallel was formed.
The ruins of Yanshi Shangcheng in Luoyang, Henan Province, were discovered in 1983 and have a total area of about 2 square kilometers. After nearly 40 years of excavation, it has been discovered that there are three castle walls of Miyagi, Kojo and Ogi castle. The discovery has a clearer understanding of the urban skeleton outlined by the water system and roads, which will surely promote the understanding of the layout and age of the Yanshi Mall based on the defense system, road and water system and functional zoning of yanshi mall, provide strong support for the in-depth study of the nature of yanshi mall, and provide new materials for the construction of the heritage park.
5. Mengjin Yellow River Beach Han Tomb Group excavation of painted pottery figurines from the Western Han Dynasty
In February 2021, the Luoyang Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology excavated more than 10 painted pottery figurines from the Western Han Dynasty in the process of cleaning up the ancient tomb groups in the Mengjinhui section of the Yellow River.
Female figurines are divided into standing, kneeling two postures, standing figurines about 60 cm high, kneeling figurines about 40 cm high, "body" still leaves orange red, light yellow, crimson and other painted traces, from the clothing, hair bun and production process, it and Hanyang Mausoleum excavations unearthed Tao Shi female figurines are particularly similar, can be confirmed as items of the Western Han Dynasty. A total of more than 110 tombs of various types (including under the water surface) have been found here, and as of now, more than dozens of hollow brick tombs and small brick tombs have been excavated and cleaned, and more than 100 pieces of various cultural relics have been excavated. It mainly includes clay pots, pottery dings, pottery figurines and pottery horses, pottery chickens, pottery dogs, etc.
The area where this tomb group is located is located at the northern foot of mount Yao and on the south bank of the Yellow River, with a flat and open terrain, and Mengjin Pass, one of the eight passes of Luoyang in the Han Dynasty, is also within this area. Liu Bin said that the large number of Han Dynasty tombs and other archaeological remains found this time provide important clues for finding the location of Pingyin County, Ping County, and the specific location and historical changes of Mengjin Pass.
In addition to the above 5 archaeological excavation projects, Luoyang archaeological work in 2021 has been very fruitful. The Xuyang Cemetery Archaeological Project was awarded the "Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries in China in 2020", and the Xuyang Cemetery, the Baicaopo Eastern Han Cemetery Site, and the Sui tang Luoyang City Zhengpingfang Site Project won the "Five New Archaeological Discoveries in Henan Province". Among the national and provincial "Top 100 Archaeological Discoveries in 100 Years", 5 archaeological projects in Luoyang were rated as the "100 Archaeological Discoveries in 100 Years" and 21 archaeological projects were rated as the "100 Archaeological Discoveries in 100 Years" in the province. These fruitful results further demonstrate the important role of Luoyang in the origin, formation, development and evolution of Chinese civilization.
This year, the Luoyang Municipal Department of Cultural Relics and Archaeology will continue to carry out work around the protection of cultural relics and archaeological excavations, helping Luoyang to become an important platform for dialogue between Chinese historical civilization and world civilization.
●Focusing on the important role of Luoyang in the origin, formation, development and evolution of Chinese civilization, we will plan projects and continue to carry out archaeological excavations at paleolithic sites such as Longquan Cave in Luanchuan
●Promote the investigation and excavation of the "Research on the Civilization Process in the Central Plains", "Xia Culture Research" and "Archaeological China" projects such as the Suyang Ruins in Yiyang, the Ruins of Yanshi Ancient City Village, the Ruins of Xiwang Village in Luoning, the Site of Siling in Yiyang, the Xia Cultural Sites in the Yiluo River Basin, and the Contemporaneous Sites around the Erlitou Site
●Carry out investigation and excavation work such as The Xuyang Cemetery in Yichuan, the site of the Eastern Han Cemetery in Baicaopo, and the site of Zhengpingfang in Luoyang City, Sui and Tang Dynasties
●The cultural relics and archaeology department will continue to deepen cooperation and cooperate with Uzbekistan and other countries to carry out overseas archaeological projects
●Strengthen the collation and research of scientific research results such as archaeological reports, academic works, papers, and topics
●Revitalize cultural relics resources and continue to promote the outreach of cultural relics
●Enhance the exhibition design of Luoyang Archaeological Museum and disseminate archaeological knowledge
●Strengthen cooperation with universities to improve the level of protection and restoration of immovable and movable cultural relics
●Focusing on Luoyang's rich cultural heritage resources, we plan cultural relics security and technical defense projects
●Continue to promote activities such as archaeology into the classroom and the community