Henan Archaeology 2021: Jia Yifan's report of Henan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology is entitled "Archaeological Harvest and Preliminary Understanding of Yuzhuang Site in Yexian County". The Yexian Yuzhuang site is about 1600 meters long from east to west, about 1400 meters wide from north to south, with an area of more than 1 million square meters, and the carbon 14th year measurement is between 2400BC and 2000BC. In order to explore the early Xia culture, since August 2020, the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, together with the Pingdingshan Municipal Cultural Relics Bureau and the Yexian Cultural Relics Bureau, has excavated the Yuzhuang site. The Yuzhuang site has been included in the major project of "Archaeological China Xia Culture Research", which has revealed an area of more than 2,000 square meters and found nearly 300 ruins such as tombs, ash pits, housing sites, and wells. Among them, 16 large tombs in the Longshan period of the Central Plains have been found, and 12 have been excavated, with the same direction, regular layout, and more than 30 pieces of pottery vessels with a combination of utensils and fixed placements, filling the gap of no high-grade tombs in the Central Plains Longshan culture. The Yuzhuang site has emerged with the characteristics of early civilization with the ritual system as the core, which is of great significance for the study of the funerary system, social complexity, cultural exchange and integration, and early Xia culture in the Central Plains during the Longshan period.
[The report was published at the "2021 Henan Archaeological Work Achievements Exchange Meeting" held in Nanyang, Henan on the afternoon of December 17, 2021]
Extended Materials:
Groups of Ming artifacts were found at the site of Yuzhuang in Pingdingshan Ye County more than 4,000 years ago
Pingdingshan Observation 2020-11-27
On November 25, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage held an important progress meeting on the major project of "Archaeology china" in Beijing, and reported five important archaeological discoveries. Henan accounts for 4 projects, among which the major discoveries made at the Site of Yuzhuang in Pingding Mountain will effectively promote major academic topics such as the study of Xia culture and the origin of Chinese civilization.
According to Zhang Shuimu, director of the Cultural Relics Affairs Service Center of the Pingdingshan Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics, the Yuzhuang site is located in the south of Yuzhuang Village, Yandu Street, Yexian County, Pingdingshan City, west of S103 Provincial Highway (Yexian East Ring Road), and about 4 kilometers northwest of Shahe. Judging from the preliminary archaeological survey and exploration, the Yuzhuang site is 1600 meters long from east to west, about 600 meters wide from north to south, and has an area of more than 500,000 square meters. From December 2019 to January 2020, when the city's cultural relics department conducted cultural relics exploration on the site, it found that there was a large number of cultural layers under the topsoil layer, which was determined to be an early site, and later confirmed that the site was a Longshan cultural site.
Recent archaeological investigations show that the Yuzhuang site is a large-scale Longshan period settlement site, with an area of about 500,000 square meters, and more than 50 relics such as tombs, housing sites, cellars and other relics have been found, of which the Longshan culture M10 is the Longshan culture tomb with the richest number of burial artifacts, the highest grade specifications and the most clear ceremonial color found in Henan so far. And the tomb is well preserved, with an area of 3.12 square meters. Direction 110°. A single coffin, buried in the coffin, buried on his back and with his limbs straight, with his head facing east, and cinnabar on his skull. In addition, there is also a person buried on the north side of the coffin, which is also buried on the back and straight limbs. There are 33 burial utensils in the tomb, all of which are pottery, with clay black pottery as the bulk and a few gray pottery as the bulk. 32 pieces were placed on the second floor platform of the eastern part of the tomb chamber; 1 piece was placed on the left side of the waist of the person in the tomb chamber. Burial pottery includes two major categories: eating utensils and wine utensils, which are arranged in an orderly manner and in groups, showing a distinct ceremonial color. This group of pottery is small in shape and well-made, and belongs to the Ming ware. Two trenches were found in the northern part of the site, one running in a southwest-northeast and another running northwest-to-southeast. In the two trenches, a large number of pottery pieces of the Longshan period were found, mainly clay gray pottery, and a small amount of black pottery and reddish brown pottery, with main decorations such as basket patterns, and a small number of checks and rope patterns. The important discovery of the Longshan cultural cemetery at the Yuzhuang site provides important physical data for studying the origin of ritual system and the process of social complexity in the Central Plains in the late Neolithic period.
▲Pottery excavated from the Tanfang excavation at the Yuzhuang site in Yexian County, Henan Province, with the designation number T0405, this group of pottery is arranged in an orderly manner, showing a distinct ceremonial color (photographed on November 3)
The five important findings of this briefing will effectively promote major academic topics such as the study of Xia culture and the process of civilization in the Central Plains. Under the overall framework of the major project of "Archaeology in China", the State Administration of Cultural Heritage will strengthen overall planning and deployment around major historical issues such as the study of Xia culture and the history of the Xia Dynasty, the study of the origin of Chinese civilization, and continue to promote the relevant regional cultural relics departments and scientific research institutions to concentrate on tackling key problems and continuously make new breakthroughs.
A long-necked pot unearthed from Yuzhuang
A tall cup unearthed from Yuzhuang
The Highest Grade Longshan Culture Tomb Group!
Henan News Broadcast 2020-12-07
Cheng Bingbing, reporter of Elephant News and Journalism Department
At the recent work conference on the new progress of major projects in "Archaeology in China" held by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, 5 major new archaeological achievements were released, and Henan accounted for 4 of them, namely the Yanshi Erlitou Site, the Zhoukou Huaiyang Shizhuang Site, the Pingding Shan Ye County Yuzhuang Site, and the Nanyang Huangshan Site.
Among them, the ruins of Yuzhuang in PingdingshanYe County have just been discovered and excavated for only three months, and the first batch of relics and relics have been unveiled. The reporter visited the site and took you into the Longshan Cultural Tomb Group with the highest grade specifications!
The Yuzhuang site is located in the south of Yuzhuang Village, Yandu Street, Yexian County, Pingdingshan City, where it was originally planned to build a local standardized factory building, and when excavating the soil layer, the Longshan cultural tomb group with the highest grade specification was accidentally discovered.
Judging from the current archaeological findings, the site is a large-scale and simple cultural connotation of the Longshan cultural settlement site.
The Longshan tomb number M10 is buried with a single coffin on its back and a straight limb, and a person is also buried on the north side of the coffin, which is also buried on the back. There are 33 burial utensils in the tomb, all of which are pottery. This group of pottery is small in shape, well-made, orderly in arrangement, and the utensils are grouped, showing a distinct ceremonial color. This is the Longshan culture tomb with the richest number of funerary artifacts and the highest grade specifications found in Henan.
At present, more than 50 relics such as tombs, house foundations, ash pits and cellars have been cleared out of the Yuzhuang site.
When archaeologists leave the archaeological site, they will cover the ruins with waterproof and sunscreen facilities to protect the ruins from damage.
At the residence of the archaeological team at the Yuzhuang site, archaeologists led by Wu Weihua, an associate researcher at the Henan Archaeological Research Institute, have restored some cultural relics, and some pottery fragments need to be further studied and restored.
The Site of Yuzhuang in Yexian County provides important physical data for studying the ritual system in the Central Plains during the Longshan Period, and also provides new data for studying the process of social complexity and civilization in the Central Plains.