Excavation area of the rock back site of the Yingde Rock Cottage Site (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)
Chopper
A combination of tomb pottery from the rock cottage site
antlers
spicule
pottery
Snail shells excavated from the Qingtang site
Copper axe
Jade
Copper spear
Recently, new discoveries have been made in the lingnan archaeological community. The Yingdeyan Cottage Site was selected as a major project of "Archaeology China", filling the archaeological gap of settlements in the origin stage of Lingnan civilization, and the discovery was written into this year's Guangdong Provincial Government Work Report; the Huangpu Pitouling Site in Guangzhou and the Jinlan Temple Site in Zengcheng, Guangzhou were also recently shortlisted for the preliminary evaluation of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in The Country in 2021.
These new discoveries of Lingnan prehistoric archaeology more vividly outline the unique life scenes of the ancestors of Lingnan, and also continue to prove that the prehistoric Lingnan civilization is an important part of the formation of Chinese civilization.
In 214 BC, Qin Shi Huang unified Lingnan, and the Lingnan region officially entered a period of historical review. In the long years before that, what kind of life did the ancestors of the Lingnan region live? What to eat? What to wear? What kind of house do you live in? What kind of utensils are used? Have they intersected with the Lingbei region and even the Central Plains civilization? These questions have always been the focus of research in the archaeological community.
Recently, the reporter interviewed a number of archaeologists from Guangdong Province, who used the important archaeological discoveries in the Lingnan region in recent years to depict the changes in the eating and wearing degree of the Lingnan people and the development of civilization from the Paleolithic Age 800,000 years ago to the pre-Qin period.
Text, photo/ Guangzhou Daily all-media reporter Wu Wei (except for the signature)
Early to mid-Paleolithic:
Man fights hundreds of beasts Food depends on primitive hunting and gathering
From the end of 2012 to the beginning of 2013, Liu Suoqiang, associate researcher of the Guangdong Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and director of the Field Archaeology Research Center, conducted a regional archaeological survey in the Nanjiang River Basin from Luoding City to Yunan County, and found more than 60 Paleolithic sites. With the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, from May to August 2014, Liu Suoqiang led six or seven team members to conduct archaeological excavations at the ruins of Modao Mountain in Yunnan, and found nearly 400 Paleolithic stone tools.
These excavated stone tools mainly include choppers, pickaxes, hand axes and scrapers, of which the number of choppers is the largest. These stone tools are relatively simple and rough, the blades are generally irregular, and only a small number of hand axes have two-sided machining techniques. From the perspective of its native excavation level, it belongs to the early Paleolithic Period, which is 800,000 to 600,000 years old, which is the earliest ancient human cultural remains found in Guangdong.
Liu Suoqiang judged from the archaeological data obtained that the earliest pre-democracy activities in Guangdong should be within 20 square kilometers on both sides of the ancient Nanjiang River, in the form of primitive hunting and gathering to obtain food, the relatively simple stone tool manufacturing process and the more expedient stone tool function show that the life of ancient humans at that time completely depended on natural resources, in short, "relying on the sky to eat".
Compared with the Modaoshan site, in the middle of the Paleolithic age, about 130,000 years ago, more animal fossils were found at the Qujiang Maba man site, including carnivorous hyenas, bears, pandas, tigers, dogs, badgers; tapirs and rhinos of odd-hoofed species; saber-toothed elephants and nama elephants of proboscisses, and rodent porcupines, rats, and rabbits. Among them, the largest number of fossils unearthed are even-ungulates such as deer, cattle and wild boars.
Li Yan, a researcher at the Guangdong Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, told reporters that no tools for hunting animals were found at the site, and animal fossils were not found to have traces of barbecue; Liu Suoqiang also believed that at the level of ancient human tools at that time, it was very difficult to catch large carnivores, but the primitive gathering and hunting must exist, "Due to the low degree of use of fire, even if people catch food, the possibility of eating raw is relatively large." ”
Late Paleolithic:
Deer became the main hunting object Primitive pottery and grinding bone horn tools appeared
When the time came to the alternation of the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods, the life of the Lingnan people underwent tremendous changes. The Yingde Qingtang site, which is about 25,000 to 10,000 years old, belongs to this period.
Liu Suoqiang presided over the active archaeological excavations of the Qingtang site from 2016 to 2018. He introduced that the most common animal fossil found in the site is deer, accounting for more than 80%, which is much higher than Maba, "This situation must not be accidental, but artificially actively chosen, people hunt deer as the main source of food." At the same time, it is certain that the ancient humans of this period can skillfully use and control fire, have eaten cooked food, we see many animal bones have burned marks, some even burned thoroughly; in addition to various deer, we also found fish, turtle turtles, snail mussels and birds and other animal fossils, proving that people's diets at that time have included birds and aquatic animals; to 15,000 to 10,000 years ago, with the warmer climate, dense snail shells were found in the formation. It shows that aquatic food resources were intensively utilized during this period, which also proves that the history of Guangdong people eating snails has exceeded 10,000 years. Carbonized plant fruits and starch grains were also found, suggesting that collecting plants was also an important way of livelihood at the time.
In addition to barbecue, people's cooking methods have also begun to increase. Liu Suoqiang said that early pottery dating back to about 17,000 years ago was found at the Qingtang site, "the emergence of pottery first shows that humans have been able to skillfully use fire to burn tools, but also related to eating, people in addition to putting food directly on the fire to bake, can also be boiled with water." Although the texture of the pottery at that time was very loose, it also proved that the ability of human beings to make tools and the standard of living at that time were greatly improved compared with earlier periods, and its age also confirmed that the 'Ring Nanling Area' at the junction of Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi and Hunan was the first region in the world to invent and use pottery on a large scale. ”
Another major discovery at the Qingtang site is a large number and a wide variety of grinding bone horns, including a bone needle that served as a burial object, and the bone needle was found next to the skeleton of a Qingtang maiden dating back to about 13,500 years ago, and is presumed to be her beloved object during her lifetime. "This bone needle is very well polished, and the discovery of tools such as bone needles and bone cones should be related to the fact that people sewed animal skins to make clothes at that time." Liu Suoqiang said.
Early Neolithic:
Shells "piled up into mountains" The original "casserole" appeared
About 10,000 years ago, mankind officially entered the Neolithic Age, and the level of social productivity is increasing day by day. Liu Suoqiang introduced that during this period, the tradition of eating shellfish that appeared at the Qingtang site was carried forward by the Lingnan people.
Around 10,000 to 7,000 years ago, shell mound sites began to appear on both sides of the Yongjiang River in Nanning, the so-called shell mound, that is, after people ate oysters and other shellfish, they piled the remaining shells together and slowly formed a small mountain bag. This suggests that a variety of brackish water shellfish occupied an important place in the recipes of the Lingnan people at that time.
Compared with Guangxi, the shell hill site in Guangdong appeared relatively late. In Guangdong, early Neolithic archaeological discoveries dating from 10,000 to 7,000 years ago are still blank. Li Yan told reporters that the earliest remains of the Neolithic Era in Guangdong are the relics of the Xiantouling culture dating back 7,000 to 6,000 years, and their range is as far west as Zhaoqing to haifeng. As early as the 1980s, Li Yan had conducted archaeological excavations of the local Xiantouling culture period shellfish site near the Xijiang River in Zhaoqing, and he found that 80% of the shellfish eaten by people at that time were freshwater shellfish and 20% were seawater shellfish.
Li Yan said that for six or seven thousand years, the Pearl River estuary has been constantly changing, the Pearl River Delta Plain was formed relatively late, the discovery of saltwater shellfish, indicating that the Zhaoqing area was still in the Pearl River estuary brackish water confluence at that time, and shellfish generally inhabit the river bottom, lake bottom or waterside rock crevices, not very swimming, human collection is relatively easy.
The level of pottery making in the Xiantouling period has made great progress compared with the Qingtang site, and more sand-filled pottery kettles have appeared, which are similar to the casseroles used by people now, the pottery walls are relatively thick, and the middle contains sand, which is very resistant to burning. Li Yan deduced that the shellfish and other fish collected at that time were usually boiled or boiled with hot water; not only "casseroles" appeared, but also many faience plates appeared in Xiantouling. Li Yan said that the archaeological community usually believes that these faience plates were not utensils used in daily life at that time, but were used to hold some food for sacrifice activities. "There are two kinds of pottery in the Xiantouling period, one for cooking, and the other for people's spiritual activities."
6000 to 5300 years ago:
Perch, sea catfish into the recipe The original dry-bar house appeared
Li Yan introduced that after the Xiantouling culture, the Lingnan area appeared around 6000 to 5300 years ago.
Recently, Cui Yong, vice president of the Guangdong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, was working with Li Yan to compile an excavation report for the Guyebeiqiu site, which is located on the west river in Foshan's Gaoming District, opposite Xiqiao Mountain. Li Yan said that in addition to a large number of shells unearthed at the site, there are a small number of mammals such as dogs and pigs in animal fossils; reptiles include freshwater turtles and turtles; rodents are rabbits, mice, etc., and the largest animals are Asian elephants. The discovery of olives in plants indicates that Lingnanians began collecting and eating olives about 6,000 years ago.
Li Yan introduced that the skeletons of two kinds of fish in the Site of Guyebechu have been found very much. One is the perch that modern people often eat, and the other is the sea catfish. Wild perch usually live in the sea, but migrate to the estuary twice a year in the spring and autumn, in spring to lay eggs and autumn to fatten, and sea catfish have similar habits.
"The presence of a large number of skeletons of sea bass and sea catfish proves that the Guyes mastered the migratory habits of many fish. They no longer rely on the sky to eat, they have eaten science and experience. Li Yan said.
Another important discovery at the Cuye site is the dry-column architecture. Li Yan introduced that this kind of architecture is one of the important architectural forms since the Neolithic period south of the Yangtze River in China, and in Guye, archaeologists have found a large number of column holes, which have a lot to do with dry column buildings. Dry-column building is a house built above the ground on the base frame of a wooden (bamboo) column to adapt to the wet and rainy environment on the ground.
In addition, Li Yan introduced that in terms of pottery, Guye and Xiantouling are not much different, pottery is mainly used for cooking, but the types of clay pots have increased, and pottery for storage has appeared.
5,000 to 4,000 years ago:
The burial area reflects the class differentiation and cultural exchanges with the Lingbei region
In the next millennium after the Guye site, there were more late Neolithic remains in the Lingnan area, including the Yingde Rock Cottage Site and the Shaoguan Qujiang Stone Gorge Site. Archaeologists said that the remains of this period indicate that the Liangzhu culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River began to spread to Lingnan, and the cultural exchanges between the Lingnan region and the Lingbei region gradually strengthened, and jade, rice, millet and so on also appeared.
Liu Suoqiang told reporters that the site of Yingde Rock Cottage was first discovered in 2017, and from 2019 to now, he led the team to conduct 3 years of archaeological excavations on the Rock Cottage. Judging from the preliminary results, the site area is relatively large, more than 80,000 square meters, the actual area is about 100,000 square meters, and the historical span extends from the late Neolithic period to the Eastern Zhou Period, about 5500 to 2500 years ago, "In these 3000 years, the rock cottage has been inhabited." In terms of the scale of the site, it is the largest of the lingnan area sites in the same period, and the previously larger one was the Shixia site, with an area of only 30,000 square meters, so we deduced that this should be a central settlement site. ”
Liu Suoqiang introduced: "In the past 3 years, we have mainly excavated the tomb area in the ruins of Yan Shanzhai. Here we find high-grade tombs, as well as civilian tombs, which indicate that there was already a clear disparity between rich and poor and social strata at that time. From the pottery excavated from the tomb, the pottery production at that time has been relatively developed, and the types of utensils are also very rich, mainly including ding, beans, plates, pots, kettles and pots, etc., there are used for cooking, tableware, used as drinking water, and for storage, relatively large pottery diameter is forty or fifty centimeters; in the high-grade tombs of Yanshanzhai also unearthed jade ceremonial ware, jade shape, technology and Liangzhu culture used in the jade is very similar. In addition, archaeologists have also discovered carbonized rice in the site by flotation. ”
Li Yan told reporters that rice was also found in the Shixia site, which is about 5,000 years old, "Before, we thought that rice should be the same as jade, from the Liangzhu culture in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River to Lingnan." But recently we found that we found not only rice, but also millet, which is more like it was introduced to Lingnan from the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. ”
Liu Suoqiang believes that agricultural development is crucial to the progress of ancient society, and only agricultural development can support a large-scale population and derive a complex social structure.
5,000 years ago was just the stage of the origin of Chinese civilization, The Chinese civilization was pluralistic and integrated, and Lingnan also participated in the grand historical process of the origin of Chinese civilization during this period, and had cultural interaction with the Lingbei region, "If we rely on the historical records alone, we may think that until Qin Shi Huang unified China, Lingnan did not have a relationship with the Lingbei region." In fact, as early as the origin stage of Chinese civilization or even earlier, we had cultural exchanges, and the rice and jade found in Yanshanzhai are good evidence. Liu Suoqiang said that in the next few years, they will carry out a lot of archaeological work on other areas such as the residential area of the Rock Cottage site, and look forward to more archaeological discoveries.
Li Yan introduced that in the Shixia site in the same period, archaeologists found the remains of the housing site, "from the perspective of the house, the area was relatively large at that time, and the house construction was planned, and the houses formed a 'concave' shape around the middle cemetery." ”
During this period, pottery spinning wheels also appeared in several sites. "Scholars generally believe that silk appeared relatively late, when the fibers woven by the spinning wheel were still wild hemp such as ramie, and the emergence of textiles was different from the clothes that people made of animal skins or other things in the past, which could be cut, decorated, and could mark the identity of the owner." Li Yan said.
4000 to 3000 years ago:
Learning to raise pigs and make salt influenced by the Central Plains culture
After experiencing the opening of the exchange of civilizations between the north and the south, 4,000 to 3,000 years ago, the eating and wearing degree of Lingnan people has gone up to a new level.
Li Yan introduced that the Dongguan Cuntou site, which dates back about 3800 years, is the largest excavation area in guangdong during the same period, the most abundant remains, the largest variety of excavated relics, and the largest number of shell mound sites, and he has carried out archaeological excavations on the site. A large number of animal bones have been found at the site, and there are 6143 specimens of animal remains, of which the animals that can be identified are: sambar deer, spotted deer, rhinoceros, tigers, pigs, dogs, wild cats, porcupines, elephants, turtles, turtles, etc. The most excavated in the bones of terrestrial animals is the mandible of pigs, with a total of more than 400 pieces.
In 2006, archaeologists from Peking University's School of Archaeology and Archaeology conducted a study of the bones of these pigs and made a surprising discovery, "90% of pigs die about 2 years old, and only a few sows can live to 5 years old." Li Yan told reporters, "This conclusion has very significant significance, because the puberty of pigs ends around the age of 2, and there is almost no meat after that." The wild animals hunted by the ancients were either particularly young or very old, and the pigs unearthed at the village site obviously did not conform to this law. This proves that people began to raise domestic pigs at that time, and the level of breeding was very high. ”
The village head site also unearthed stone ge, stone spear, stone cluster and other weapons, bone zhang, stone zhang, tooth zhang and other ceremonial instruments, of which the number of 18 pieces of tooth zhang unearthed is the highest in Lingnan, Li Yan told reporters, yazhang is the Central Plains xia, Shang era ceremonial instruments, mainly used for sacrifice, and the village head site unearthed yazhang, indicating that the Lingnan people at that time have been affected by the Central Plains culture, not only the Yangtze River Basin.
Another major discovery of human eating habits in this period is at the site of Dong'ao Bay in Zhuhai, Li Yan introduced that in Dong'ao Bay, the Lingnan people at that time had learned to make salt, "When we were doing archaeological excavations, we found some things like stoves, but not stoves, but gourd-shaped, with three or four stove eyes, and a lot of pottery pot fragments piled up next to them." Its shape is very similar to the salt-making tools found in Ningbo in the late Liangzhu culture, and the discovery in Guangdong has also been highly recognized by Li Shuicheng, a domestic salt archaeologist and professor at Peking University. Li Yan told reporters that after the appearance of salt, not only the cooking dishes are more flavorful, the human body will be healthier, "we analyzed the salt making method at that time, that is, to lead the seawater to a certain place, first let the sun bask, let the seawater concentrate, and then put the water into the container, heat it with firewood, evaporate the water, and what remains at the bottom of the pot is salt." ”
In addition, there were many new advances in the life of Lingnan people during this period, such as the settlement has a sense of planning. Through archaeological excavations, Li Yan found that the residential area of the village head site is mainly distributed in the northeast, with public activity places in the middle and garbage areas in the south; in addition, trenches have been dug outside the settlement, which have obvious defensive functions.
From 3,000 years ago to the unification of Qin:
Bronze bells and tiles have appeared one after another, and jade hanging ornaments show aesthetics
With the further evolution of the times, 3,000 years ago, after entering the Western Zhou Dynasty, more and more bronzes began to appear in archaeological discoveries in the Lingnan region, which also shows that the combination of the Lingnan region and the Central Plains civilization is getting closer and closer.
Li Yan introduced that in the Boluo Hengling Mountain, there were copper dings and bronze bells from the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Warring States, "which shows that at that time in Lingnan, the 'Bell Ming Ding Food' house had already appeared." People can eat while listening to music. At that time, the material richness of society can be said to be beyond imagination. ”
Li Yan also introduced that during this period, people's houses also had great changes, the roof of the house in the past was usually covered with thatch, and in the Warring States period, the Lingnan area introduced tiles from Lingbei, and people began to use tiles to build roofs, so the living conditions were much better than before. Until the unification of Qin, the houses in the Lingnan area were not much different from those in the north.
In terms of clothing, more and more ornaments on people's clothes began to appear. For example, small pieces of jade pendants began to increase, and various beads and beads showed people's aesthetics. This is a clear difference from almost all the jade artifacts of the Neolithic era, which are symbolic.
Li Yan concluded: "Judging from the current prehistoric archaeological findings in Lingnan, at least from 5,000 years ago, the Lingnan civilization was one of the 'family members' of the early Chinese civilization, which is greatly related to the later Qin unification of Lingnan and the incorporation of the central dynasty. It was cultural identity that brought Lingnan and the entire northern region closer together and eventually evolved into China. ”
Source: Guangzhou Daily