Shao Jing excavated the sacred stone pillar at the Shi'an site. Courtesy of respondents
Wrapped in a step-like stone wall and decorated with stone carvings on the top wall, the Imperial City Terrace is decorated with stone carvings. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Yimiao
Stone carvings found at the site of Shi'an. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Yimiao
The embarrassment of living in an abandoned cave, the shock of discovering exquisite stone carvings, the surprise of the appearance of the "Imperial City Terrace"... Shao Jing, a research librarian of the Shaanxi Archaeological Research Institute and deputy leader of the archaeological team at the Shi'an site who has been engaged in archaeological excavation work at the Shi'an site for ten years, said: "This is perseverance, but also enjoyment. ”
In gaojiapu town, Shenmu City, in northern Shaanxi Province, a lonely "stone city" has stood silently on the Loess Plateau for about 4,000 years. In recent years, with the continuous excavation of this grand city site by archaeologists, not only tens of thousands of jade, bone and pottery have been found, but also the remains of the city gate and the palace area of the site have also been revealed one by one, and a picture of the life of the ancestors is slowly unfolding.
With an area of more than 4 million square meters, the shijia site is the largest prehistoric city site found on the mainland. "The scale is so large, the relics are so rich, about 4,000 years ago in the northwest corner of China, this mysterious civilization force flourished for hundreds of years, but it has not left a record in historical documents, which is why the discovery of the Shi'an site is so 'earth-shattering'." Shao Jing said.
The existence of the Shi'an site is not without "clues". As early as the end of the 1920s, a batch of jade from yulin shenmu began to circulate in the hands of antique dealers, and eventually flowed into Europe and the United States. Since 2011, the regional systematic archaeological survey and key review of the Shi'a site have been officially launched.
Shao Jing still remembered the first time she came here ten years ago. The 25-year-old had just graduated from school, and the ruins of Shi'an at that time were just some of the ruins and broken walls between the beams and ridges on the Loess Plateau. The only place to stay is a few earthen cave dwellings that have been abandoned for many years.
With no water, no electricity, no cell phone signal, Shao Jing and his colleagues lived in the old cave for several years. The first thing to do when you wake up early every day is to go to the town a few kilometers away to fetch water. In the winter, the low temperature of more than 20 degrees Celsius below zero froze the shell of the tricycle engine.
"Suffering is suffering, but compared to the surprises that the Shi'an ruins continue to bring us, those hardships are nothing." Shao Jing said.
Before 2020, Shao Jing worked more than 300 days a year at the excavation site at the Shi'an site. The appearance of the Shi'an site is also gradually clear between the hand shovel brushes: the grand scale and well-built outer city east gate site, the row of house base sites, high-grade tombs, etc. are constantly discovered; the triple city wall composed of "Imperial City Platform", inner city and outer city is revealed; the "Imperial City Platform" is wrapped in dozens of step-like stone walls and the top wall is decorated with stone carvings, which represents the respect and glory of the "ruler" of Shi'e.
With the unremitting efforts of archaeologists, the "Imperial City Platform" shaped like a pyramid, the rock-solid defense system, and the settlement structure of the stars and the moon... By restoring the picture of the "Shi'an Kingdom", the Shi'an civilization, as an important force, is merging into the great current of the origin of Chinese civilization.
Shao Jing can't forget that afternoon in the summer of 2019, in the middle of the corridor leading to the top of the "Imperial City Platform", the hand shovel gently brushed away the sand, and a stone carving with a circular outline was found, and as the surrounding loess was pulled away little by little, a sacred stone pillar with a diameter of about 50 centimeters and a height of nearly 1 meter revealed its true face. Judging from the excavation and preservation, this stone pillar has always remained in place and has never moved.
On the pillar, the eyebrows of the people are raised, and the eyes are protruding. "The moment I looked at him, history came alive at once, and at this time I seemed to be facing a living 'Shi'an man'. Why build such a grand stone city? Why is jade hidden in the wall and sacrificed to foreign maidens? I have too many more questions to ask. Shao Jing said.
Today, the Shi'an site is well known at home and abroad for its endless new discoveries. In 2020, with the discovery of a hierarchical Shi'an cultural cemetery at the Zhaishan site 60 kilometers away from Shi'an, a multi-level stone city cluster centered on Shi'an, surrounded by several sub-central settlements and general settlements, gradually emerged.
Zhang Hongyan, a professor at Northwest University, said that the multi-level management system and the development of social members from equality to inequality show that shi'an society has separated from a simple and equal society and formed a complex society composed of multi-level management system, and shi'an has entered an advanced stage of civilization development - the early state form.
In the past decade, the Site of Shi'an has moved from an "unknown place" hidden deep in the Loess Liang'an in northern Shaanxi to the world stage. Shao Jing said: "In the past ten years, I have not regretted it, and I will not regret it in many decades. ”
(Reporters: Yang Yimiao, Han Xiao)
Source: Xinhua News Agency 2021-02-09