On the 8th, the preliminary evaluation of the 2021 National Top Ten Archaeological New Discoveries Selection was launched. Two sites in Henan Province were selected as candidates for the preliminary evaluation of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China in 2021.
The reporter learned that this activity was sponsored by the China Cultural Relics Newspaper National Top Ten Archaeological New Discoveries Selection Office. In 2021, more than 1,700 archaeological excavations were approved nationwide. The candidate projects were all voluntarily declared by each excavation qualification unit, and after review by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, 32 entries were finally determined. The Selection Office will organize a poll to recommend 20 items to enter the final evaluation.
Two sites in Henan Province that have entered the preliminary assessment candidate project are the Huangshan Site in Nanyang and the Taojiaying Site in Anyang.
Among them, the Nanyang Huangshan site is one of the five important archaeological discoveries in the country in 2020. It is a large-scale site with the accumulation of multiple cultural layers such as Pei Ligang culture, Yangshao culture, and Qujialing culture, and excavated the earliest jade workshop in mainland China.
According to the understanding, the archaeology of the Huangshan site in Nanyang has found 10 jade ware production workshops dating back more than 5,000 years, including 3 large-scale jade ware production workshop sites in the late Yangshao culture and 7 jade ware production workshop sites in the Qujialing culture period. Experts believe that this is a large site with the nature of a "base" for the production of large jade tools. This archaeological discovery fills the gap left by Neolithic jade workshops in the Central Plains and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.
The Taojiaying ruins are located in the northeast of Anyang City, 7.2 kilometers away from the ruins of The Yin Ruins Palace in Anyang.
Judging from the stratigraphic relationship and the shape of the excavated artifacts, the site and the Huanbei Shangcheng are one of the few known ring trench settlement sites in the middle of the Shang Dynasty, and the remains of ring trenches, tombs, ash pits, pottery kilns, cellars, and rammed earth foundation sites have been found, which is a high-specification settlement site with defensive properties. According to the analysis, the Taojiaying site was a small city with defensive functions on the outskirts of the main city in the middle of the Shang Dynasty, similar to the current satellite city.
Text/Liu Ruichao
Editor/Ni Jia Ning
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