Exploration work scene of Yijing site in Mengzhou
Aerial panorama of the Taipu ruins in Yuxian County
Mengzhou Xixiaoqiu site collects relics of Wangwan Phase III culture and Erlitou culture
Zhang Hengheng of the School of History of Zhengzhou University's report is entitled "Major Harvests of The Investigation and Exploration of Remains in the Qinhe and Beiru River Basins during the Yuxia Period". In order to comprehensively clarify the typical settlement morphology, settlement distribution and settlement relationship from prehistoric to Xia Dynasty in the middle and lower reaches of the Qin River and the middle reaches of the Beiru River, and further reveal the important position of the two regions in the process of civilization and the study of Xia culture in the Central Plains, since November 2020, the Department of Archaeology of the School of History of Zhengzhou University, together with the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of Jiaozuo City, the Cultural Relics Bureau of Pingdingshan City, the Cultural Relics Administration bureau of Jiyuan City, the Cultural Relics Bureau of Ruzhou City, and the Cultural Relics Bureau of Ruzhou, has conducted detailed archaeological exploration of the ruins of Mengzhou Yijing, Taipu in Wuxian County, and Lilou in Ruzhou. At the same time, a systematic survey of the main sites in the surrounding area of the site was carried out. At present, more than 90 sites in the middle and lower reaches of the Qin River and 35 sites from Longshan to Xia Dynasty in the middle and lower reaches of the Beiru River have been investigated, and more than 10 sites from this period have been newly discovered, of which the existing area of the Mengzhou Yijing site is about 450,000 square meters, mainly based on the Wangwan Phase III culture, and a small number of Erlitou culture and Eastern Zhou Dynasty remains. The existing area of the Taipu site in Yuxian County is about 750,000 square meters, mainly the most abundant remains of Longshan and Zhou Dynasties, as well as a small number of Erlitou and Erligang cultural remains. This is of great academic significance for comprehensively understanding the settlement changes, settlement relationships, hydrology and transportation geography of Longshan to Xia Dynasty in the two regions.
[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:
Mengzhou Yijing site
(Excerpt from "Mengzhou Geographical Name: The Whole Village Located on a Provincial Cultural Site", author: Liang Yongzhao)
The south cliff of the Yijing site
Ash pits on the cliffs
Yijing Longshan Cultural Site is surrounded by ditches, east, west and north of Caoma Ditch, south of the Yellow River beach cliff, just in a terrace, basically square, 650 meters long from east to west, 700 meters wide from north to south, with a total area of 455,000 square meters.
The Yijing site has not undergone formal scientific excavation, and the content of the cultural elements contained in it is not very accurate, but after years of cultural investigation and analysis of samples collected in the site, the cultural connotation of the Yijing site is still quite rich.
The western and southern parts of the site due to the years of erosion of rain and river water, especially in the south, the history of the Yellow River water washed away many times, forming a large cliff surface, the formation has been exposed to the soil layer, from the section can be seen, below 1 meter from the surface of the cultural layer, the thickness is generally about 3 meters, the thickest place up to 5 meters.
There are more than 30 ash pits found on the walls around the Yijing Longshan Cultural Site, most of which are concentrated on the west cliff and the south cliff, and it can be seen from the cliff that the ash pits are mostly garden-shaped bag-shaped pits, and there are oval and irregular shapes. Most of these ash pits are filled with yellow-brown soil with red-burnt soil blocks, and most of the ash pits are found to have plant ash accumulation at the bottom. Ash pits are generally between 1.5-2.5 meters in diameter and between 1.5 and 2.5 meters in depth, but there is a large ash pit in the northwest corner with a diameter of 4.5 meters and a depth of 3.6 meters. A large number of pottery pieces are sandwiched between the fills of these ash pits, and stone tools and human bones have also been found.
Taipu ruins in Wuxian County
(from the Web)
The ruins of Taipu Zhai are located in and around Taipu Zhai Village, 23 kilometers northwest of the county seat of Yuxian County, Henan Province, with an area of about 7 square kilometers.
In the spring of 1954, a large number of bronzes were excavated outside the south gate of the village. There are more than 150 pieces of Ding, Mane, Dragon Pattern Jianpan, Ri Yao Zhen and Eight Fortresses, Fang Zhen, Jue, Che Ma Ornament, Horse Jue, Copper Bell and so on. According to the identification of experts, these cultural relics belong to the early Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which are Zheng ware and are now in the Henan Provincial Museum. From 1957 to 1975, a large number of pottery, stone tools and bronze tools were excavated from the site several times. The oil black and shiny ceramic fragments collected here are hard in texture, as well as extremely thin gray eggshell pottery pieces, as well as non-bright large utensil fragments such as rope patterns, blue patterns, geometric patterns, and wheel products such as pottery spinning wheels. It has the cultural characteristics of Yongsan.
Ruins of Li Lou in Ruzhou
(Source: Ruzhou Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics)
The site of Li Lou is located in the northwest of Li Lou Village, Yanglou Town, Ruzhou City, Henan Province, 625 meters from east to west, 713 meters from north to south, and an area of about 445625 square meters. From 1991 to 1992, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences excavated in the central area of the Li Lou site, proving that this is a neolithic Longshan cultural relic with rich connotations. From September 2009 to May 2010, in order to cooperate with the construction of the second line of the West-to-East Gas Transmission Project, the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Ruzhou Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics jointly carried out archaeological excavations in part of the Lilou site occupied by the gas pipeline.
The relics excavated from the two excavations at the Lilou site can be roughly divided into four categories according to the different textures: stone, pottery, bone, and mussels. The largest number of pottery fragments, the vast majority of which are gray pottery, red pottery is very small; pottery is mostly sand pottery, followed by clay pottery; the decoration is mainly blue pattern, and there are also a small number of rope patterns and additional pile patterns. Among them, there are 115 complete or restorable small pieces of utensils, including stone axes, stone hammers, stone sickles, stone knives, stone stones, stone spinning wheels, pottery spinning wheels, bone cones, mussel cones, mussel sickles and other production tools and processing tools; hunting tools such as stone balls, stone hammers, bone hammers, bone hammers, pottery, pots, axes, beans, pots, cups, urns, pots, and lids; ornaments such as bone fences and mussel ornaments; and the remains of edible animals such as snails, animal bones, and deer horns.
From the cultural nature, the Lilou site belongs to a settlement of the Longshan culture Wangwan Phase III coal mountain type, and the excavated production tools, living utensils and food varieties show that the people of the Longshan culture era lived a settled life based on farming, supplemented by various economic models such as hunting and gathering; its palace-like architectural form opened up a precedent for the construction of the Erlitou cultural palace. This archaeological excavation in conjunction with the West-to-East Gas Transmission Project enriched the excavation data of the Lilou site in the 1990s, and provided physical data for the study of the production methods, living conditions and funerary customs of the ancient ancestors in the Ruhe River Basin during the Longshan culture period in Henan.
On March 5, 2013, it was announced by the State Council as the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units.