Red Star News Network (reporter Dan Tangwen) reported on January 21 that this morning, the Baodun Ruins Exhibition Hall in Xinjin District of Chengdu unveiled the mystery, the "Root of Tianfu" Baodun Ruins and Baodun Cultural Exhibition opened to the public, and the pottery stoneware, ivory rods, and carbonized rice that had been buried underground for 4,500 years... We will tell you about the early years of the ancient Shu civilization - the Baodun culture period, the history of the ancient Shu ancestors going deep into the Chengdu Plain and playing with the water.
Discover Baodun Ancient Shu ancestors lived in the city with the water game
Located on the top of the flat and fertile fields of Baodun Village in Xinjin District, the Baodun Ruins Pavilion is a hall where the lights create a mysterious atmosphere that guides the audience into the lesser-known ancient period of the Chengdu Plain.
4500 years ago, a group of ancient Shu people built a city on this land, cultivated, lived, and the strong city walls they left behind were weathered into mounds in the past few thousand years, and it was these mounds that stood on the fields, guiding archaeologists to excavate this long history that was once regarded as an ancient legend.
In 1995, with the confirmation of Baodun Ancient City, the first Neolithic ancient city discovered in the Chengdu Plain, the Chengdu Plain finally found the dawn of civilization 4500 years ago. Subsequently, archaeologists successively discovered 7 ancient cities such as Pixian Ancient City, Wenjiang YutaiCheng, Dujiangyan Mangcheng, etc., and proposed the "Baodun Culture" - the name of the first Neolithic culture in the Chengdu Plain, which was widely recognized by the academic community. At this point, people's understanding of human activities in the Chengdu Plain has advanced for 800 years, and the Chengdu Plain is considered to be one of the pluralistic centers of the origin of Chinese civilization.
The first exhibition hall, "Discovering Baodun", tells in detail the work process of three generations of archaeologists at the Baodun site and the confirmation of Baodun culture since the 1980s.
Entering the second exhibition hall, the first thing that appears in front of everyone's eyes is a huge ebony excavated from the Baodun site, which lies quietly there, telling people about the natural environment of the early Chengdu Plain, and the color pictures on the wall behind the ebony show the ecological environment of the growth of grass and trees in the Baodun period more concretely in front of the audience.
Moving forward, a huge projection screen, there appeared animated images, this is the baodun ancient city ruins of the big view map, through animation, the audience can clearly understand the development and evolution of the ancient city of Baodun, when the towering double wall of the ancient city of Baodun was not built at the same time, is the result of population expansion and water game. Moving forward, on the glass screen in front of the city wall construction scene, the ancient Shu ancestors are piling up earth to build the city, through animation, the audience can intuitively understand the construction process of the ancient city of Baodun: digging the trench and building the city wall are carried out at the same time, and the city wall is slapped and raised layer by layer.
The painstaking archaeological achievements of archaeologists for more than 20 years have been successfully transformed into animated images that make the audience see at a glance. "This is a new attempt, while writing a professional archaeological report, we will transform the results of archaeological excavations into an easy-to-understand exhibition language, and present the first-hand information of excavation and research to the public in a form that is popular with the masses." Tang Miao, director of the Baodun Site Archaeology Workstation of Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and curator of the "Root of Tianfu" Baodun Site and Baodun Cultural Exhibition, introduced it.
"The development and construction process of Baodun Ancient City shows the development trajectory of the earliest ancient city in the Chengdu Plain. When the ancient Shu people walked down the plateau and first entered the Chengdu Plain, they chose to build an ancient city in the transition zone from the highland to the low-lying area, reflecting the site selection concept of the ancestors who wanted to use water and avoid water. Tang Miao said.
What is food growing rice to raise domestic pigs
Living in this big city of 2.76 million square meters, why did the ancient Shu ancestors live for food? What was the first form of the village? In the center of the exhibition hall, there is a large settlement pattern sand table, which shows the earliest village forms and different types of ancient houses in the Chengdu Plain restored by archaeologists in the past five years of excavation work. The introduction on the exhibition board reveals that these houses are not utopian, but archaeologists have found the base trough for building houses at the Baodun site through archaeological excavations, and carbonized bamboo chips have been found in the pillar holes in the base trough, proving that the bamboo bone mud wall houses commonly found in the Sichuan Basin have appeared in the Baodun period.
"The braised clay found on the base site of the houses also proves that the mud walls of these houses have been fired." Tang Miao said.
So why did the ancient Shu ancestors eat? "Through plant archaeology, it was found that the ancient Shu people of Baodun ate rice, and this rice was planted by themselves. Why? Because we found suspected rice field remains at the Baodun site in 2020, in this ruins, not only the phytosilic bodies of mature rice were found, but also the phytosilic bodies of rice at different growth stages, which fully shows that the Baodun people have begun to grow rice. Tang Miao said.
In the exhibition hall, through a magnifying glass, the audience can see the "rice" and "corn" of 4500 years ago, these plant seeds have long been carbonized, but through the efforts of plant archaeologists, we can still find and identify them.
Through plant archaeology, it was also found that in the Baodun period, in addition to rice, grapes were also the favorite food of the people at that time. Through animal archaeology, it was found that people had begun to raise domestic pigs at that time, and in the exhibition hall, the audience could see the bones of domestic pigs in the Baodun period. The grinding neolithic tools used by various fisheries and hunters also open people's eyes, and they can travel through 4500 years and imagine the lives of their ancestors.
Pottery is the most important living utensils of people in the Baodun period, and the pottery pieces excavated at the Baodun site are spelled out of the clay pots and pottery stoves of the ancient Shu period, and their design is very exquisite. Although the pottery is a practical utensil, the Baodun people beautify it with their own skillful hands, and in the exhibition hall, you can see various patterns on the Baodun pottery, the most common is the rope pattern, and the most special is the water ripple and the rice ear pattern.
The mysterious leader with the scepter Who is he?
For thousands of years, the legend of the King of Shu has been circulating in the Land of Shu. In 2013, a tomb from the Baodun culture period dating back more than 4,000 years was found in The village of Hongqiao in Wenjiang, in which a man in his 30s, about 1.60 meters tall, with an ivory scepter about 1.04 meters long on his left hand, and behind him, there was an ivory plaque. Based on these funerary objects, archaeologists believe that he may have been a tribal leader, but who was he? This is still an unsolved mystery.
Where has Baodun culture gone? The mysterious golden staff found at the Sanxingdui site is so similar to the mysterious ivory staff of the Baodun period, is there a relationship between them? A jade quince from Liangzhu was found at the Jinsha site more than 4,000 years ago, could this jade be as early as the Baodun period and follow the ancestors to migrate? On the walls of the exhibition hall, these questions are left in the minds of archaeologists, waiting for future archaeological discoveries to be answered.
"The 'Root of Tianfu' is intended to lead us to explore the origin of the ancient Shu civilization, where did it originate, and where did it go?" Tang Miao said. The ancient city of Baodun was built on water, and it was wasted by water. The ancient Shu ancestors took root and multiplied on the vast plains of Chengdu, bursting with superhuman wisdom in the face of natural challenges. Although there are few records of ancient Shu in ancient documents, the arduous field archaeology has made the ancient Shu culture show a brilliant and dazzling light. The Baodun Site and Baodun Cultural Exhibition, which comprehensively presents the archaeological achievements of Baodun for more than 20 years, will take people back to the once forgotten years of human childhood.
(Photo courtesy of Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Xinjinrong Media Center)