Top 10 new archaeological discoveries in China in 2017: Zhangqiu Jiaojia Site
The Jiaojia ruins are about 20 kilometers northwest of Zhangqiu District and 5 kilometers south of the Chengziya ruins. The main remains are the middle and late Dawenkou culture, and the lower limit is the Han Dynasty. The total area of the site in each period exceeds 1 million square meters.
In the spring and summer of 2016-2017, the Department of Archaeology and Literature of Shandong University and the Longshan Culture Museum excavated the site twice, with a total excavation area of about 2170 square meters, and found extremely rich cultural remains of Dawenkou, including a circle of city walls and trenches, 218 tombs, 116 housing sites, and 1 pottery kiln. In addition, among the 974 ash pits found, a small number of Longshan culture, Yueshi culture and Han Dynasty ash pits were also included.
The main takeaway from this excavation: a clear understanding of the settlement layout and settlement changes in the excavation area; The remains of the city walls and trenches of the late Dawenkou culture have been found, and the Jiaojia site should be the earliest city site found in the Haidai area at present, which has found a local source for the grand situation of the cities in the Longshan era; A number of systematic and rich burial and sacrifice materials in the middle and late Dawenkou culture were obtained, and the use rate of burial utensils in the whole cemetery was as high as 62.8%, which is extremely rare in other cemeteries. The classification of tombs is obviously differentiated, and there is a tendency to intensify. Find a varying number of jade artifacts. The Jiaojia site represents an extremely important jade center for the Yellow River Basin. In addition, there are also phenomena such as male and female burials, tooth extraction, hand-held fangs, burial shellfish, and burial painted pottery, which have greatly enriched the understanding of the burial system and burial customs of Dawenkou culture; It fills the gap in the study of the living pattern of the dawenkou culture in the middle and late stages of the north and central Lu region
From the geographical point of view, the Jiaojia site is only 5 kilometers away from the site of the Longshan Cultural Center , the Chengziya Site, and is in the core area of the ancient cultural development area with extremely deep heritage. The discovery of city walls, trenches and a number of large tombs, coupled with the discovery of a considerable number of Dawenkou cultural jade and white pottery, shows that in the middle and late stage of the Dawenkou culture, the Jiaojia site is an important site of political, economic and cultural central significance in the Lubei region.
Long-term and systematic development of settlement archaeology and multidisciplinary comprehensive research at Jiaojia site is of great significance and value for exploring the settlement structure and human-land relationship in Lubei region, and deepening the origin and formation of civilization in eastern China.
III. Research on prehistoric settlements, cities and the origin of civilization
A Brief Discussion on the Origin of the City
Ma Shizhi's Zhongzhou Academic Journal, No. 3, 1982, pp. 121-125
This article mainly explains the origin of the "city" that distinguishes it from the "city". The "city" discussed in the article mainly refers to the city whose wall architecture is different from the political, economic and cultural center of a country or region. The author believes that the history of building cities and pools on the mainland is very long, and it is not too far away from other countries in terms of time. There are four early city sites that have been discovered on the mainland: Chengziya in Zhangqiu, Shandong, Hougang in Anyang, Henan, Wangchenggang in Dengfeng and Pingliangtai in Huaiyang, all of which belong to the Longshan cultural period and have a history of more than 4,000 years. The several Longshan Cultural Cities that have been discovered on the mainland are smaller in scale, not like the political, economic, and cultural centers of a country, but more like the architecture of a tribe or tribal confederation. The city is the product of the end of primitive society or the transition from primitive society to class society, and is not a sign of the advent of the era of civilization.
The author concludes by pointing out that after entering the class society, the city did not refer exclusively to the construction of the city walls, but more importantly to its political, economic and cultural life.
The Origin and Development of Ancient Chinese Cities
Du Yu, Studies in Chinese History, No. 1, 1983, pp. 148-157
This paper refers to the classic works of Marx's theory, and through the analysis of archaeology and literature, we argue the origin of cities, the origin of ancient Chinese cities, and the early development of ancient cities on the mainland. The author argues that, first, the conditions and roles of the city and the state are not the same, and the emergence of the city is not necessarily the product of irreconcilable class contradictions, but the defensive measures taken by people to protect the surplus property. The prototype of the city was born in the late primitive society. Second, the emergence of ancient cities on the mainland should be in the late primitive society, that is, in the transition period from primitive society to slave society, which is equivalent to the archaeological Longshan culture period, and the "city building" of the Yellow Emperor and Xia Cang before the Xia Dynasty is credible. Third, the internal facilities of the city in the late primitive society were still very imperfect, just a castle, after the Xia Shang period to obtain great development and gradually become a tool of class rule, the Western Zhou city basically followed the characteristics of the Development of yin Shang City, the Eastern Zhou Period due to the improvement of social productivity, handicraft and commercial development, prompted the ancient cities on the mainland to achieve unprecedented development.
The author concludes that the early development of ancient cities on the mainland mainly has the following characteristics: First, the development of ancient cities on the mainland is from small to large, from less to more, from simple to complex, and gradually grows and improves. Second, the early development of ancient cities on the mainland was very slow. Third, the reason for the slow development of ancient cities on the mainland was constrained by the low level of productivity