From 1981 to 1985, the mainland began the second national census of cultural relics and the review of cultural relics.
This work is mainly to find out the family background of the mainland cultural relics and protect some cultural relics that have great scientific research significance or are in urgent need of protection.
During the census, the staff came to Lajia Village in Qinghai Province and Hui Turk Autonomous County, and during the visit, archaeologists heard shocking news.
Some people said to archaeologists: In the process of soil extraction in the early years, jade rings were found, but I don't know what the use of jade rings is, and they are used as toys for children.
The news left archaeologists both excited and distressed.
Excitedly, there are probably tombs or other sites here.
Sadly, these jade rings can be described as priceless treasures, but they are played as toys by children and disappear.
Fast forward to 1999, when a joint archaeological team composed of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of Qinghai Province began excavations here.
Soon, archaeologists found the ruins of two houses in Lajia Village, which was also named "Lajia Ruins" and belonged to the "Qijia Culture".
The Qijia culture is a late Neolithic culture centered on Gansu, dating from about 2200 BC to 1600 BC, with a history of more than 4,000 years.
The Qi family culture pottery industry was very developed, and at that time, it had mastered the complex kiln technology, laying the foundation for the later development of bronze culture.
In 2000, during the excavation process, archaeologists successively removed 25 human remains from 5 house sites, which were very well preserved and could be seen from their posture.
Among these remains, some are women holding babies, some are adults and children hugged together, these 25 human remains shocked China and foreign countries once found, known as the "Pompeii of the East".
But the archaeological value of the Lajia site is even more important than Pompeii.
When they see the remains, many people will think of it for the first time: the tomb.
But archaeologists first ruled out tombs, because these human skeletons were older and younger, and died at the same time, which is obviously impossible.
In addition, these human skeletons were found in houses, not in tombs.
In addition, these human skeletons still maintain their pre-erection posture, which is completely different from the posture of the tomb.
For these 25 bizarre human skeletons, the archaeologists first thought of "disaster", believing that only natural disasters could freeze these people in this moment of death.
What kind of disaster is that?
In fact, there are many disasters that can make human beings die instantly, such as: the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which led to the collapse of Pompeii, and the people living in Pompeii were also buried by high-temperature volcanic ash, which was instantly frozen into eternity.
But there are no traces of volcanic eruptions in the location of the Lajia ruins, and the volcanic eruptions were first ruled out as an option.
At the same time, archaeologists have found a type of red clay at the archaeological site, which is the sediment left behind by the yellow river flood. This means that the Yellow River flood once reached here.
However, archaeologists have found that the Lajia site is 1,000 meters away from the Yellow River, 30 meters above the river surface, which means that the flooding of the Yellow River is difficult to reach here.
So what exactly caused the flood of the Yellow River to reach here?
Archaeologists brought in geographers, and after geographers studied the Ruins of Lajia and the nearby mountains, they made a surprising discovery that the Ruins of Lajia were probably not directly killed by floods, but were destroyed by another catastrophe: the earthquake.
Scientists have found seismic remains on the nearby mountain, including ground cracks, collapses, folds and undulations, etc., combined with the collapse of the houses in the Lajia ruins, the seismic intensity of the Lajia ruins at that time was about VIII. degrees, and the magnitude was about 6-7.
Researchers believe that the Lajia site must have been the first to suffer a huge earthquake, which caused the house to collapse, and the residents hiding in the room were crushed to death by the collapsed roof, which explains why residents of different ages died at the same time, and their limbs maintained their pre-life posture.
After the earthquake, another flood flooded the place and buried these humans here permanently.
The reason why it was not the first to encounter floods is because the Lajia site is high in altitude, and it is difficult for ordinary Yellow River floods to flood here, and even if they can flood here, archaeologists believe that people living here have enough time to escape.
More importantly, if the flood caused the death of 25 people at the Lajia site, then the 25 people should have floated with the flood, not in the room, not maintaining their pre-life posture.
As we said earlier, the Lajia site is high in altitude, and it is difficult for ordinary Yellow River floods to flood here. So what kind of flood was able to flood the Ruins of Lajia?
The researchers found that the flood was related to the dammed lake that formed after the earthquake.
The big earthquake that killed people at the Lajia site also formed a dammed lake 25 meters upstream of the Lajia site.
Because the dammed lake blocked the outlet of the Yellow River, the water level in the upper reaches continued to rise. The water level of the dammed lake is 185-210 meters higher than the current water level of the Yellow River, and the water storage capacity has reached 12 billion to 17 billion cubic meters.
It should be known that the maximum water storage capacity of the Three Gorges Dam is 39.3 billion cubic meters.
According to the net flow of the river, it is estimated that this dammed lake completely blocked the Yellow River for 6-9 months before the lake overflowed, storing a large amount of potential energy.
By the time the barrage lake burst its banks, the river flow reached 300,000-500,000 cubic meters per second, releasing about 11.3 billion to 16 billion cubic meters of lake water downstream, which is a once-in-a-million-year flood and a completely catastrophic impact on the downstream.
The Lajia ruins are located in 25 places downstream of the dammed lake, and when the catastrophic flood flooded here, the people who suffered from the earthquake were once again wrapped up in the flood, so that a large amount of red clay appeared in the Lajia ruins.
After the mystery of the disaster at the Lajia ruins was revealed, mainland scientists found the figure of Dayu Zhishui from this disaster, and provided a basis for the existence of the Xia Dynasty.
Science published a paper: "The 1920 B.C. Raging Flood Supports the Existence of the Chinese Legendary Great Flood and the Xia Dynasty."
This article affirms that the Great Yu Zhishui and the Lajia ruins were flooded.
Dayu Zhishui is an ancient myth that no cultural relics can prove it. But the great flood that flooded the ruins of lajia was very large.
When a large amount of flood water is wrapped in sediment and flows into the downstream plain area, because the plain is flat, the river flow rate is slow, the sediment is slowly deposited, and the riverbed will become higher, which will lead to a major diversion of the lower reaches of the Yellow River.
River diversion can cause repeated flooding until the new channel stabilizes, a process that can last for decades. People in the lower reaches of the Yellow River will face the problem of repeated flooding, and repeated flooding is bound to affect people's survival and need someone to treat the water.
In this process, Dayu's father and Dayu are the ones who lead people to cure water together.
Controlling water is not a small project, and it must be able to concentrate all forces and deploy them, so the person who controls water must have strong dominance and prestige.
Therefore, after The success of The Great Yu in controlling the water, he gained the respect of the surrounding clans, and Dayu also concentrated his power and established the Xia Dynasty, and the first hereditary dynasty on the mainland was born.
Of course, there are also many scientists who question the connection between the floods suffered by the Lajia site and the Dayu Zhi water. Some people believe that the place where Dayu Zhishui is mostly Yanzhou, so the frequent flooding in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River can be related to DayuZhi water.
However, there is no direct evidence in the paper that the collapse of the dammed lake caused flooding in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, especially in southern Shanxi and western Henan.
Therefore, there are still many scientists who question the connection between the Lajia site and the Dayu Zhishui, arguing that the existing evidence can neither prove that the Lajia site is related to the Dayu Zhishui, nor can it be proved that the two are unrelated, and more evidence is needed to fill the chain.
The important value of the Lajia site is not actually related to the Dayu Zhishui, but directly proves that noodles originated in the mainland.
In the Ruins of Lajia, there is a bowl of noodles from 4,000 years ago, made from Xiaomi at that time. Before this bowl of noodles was discovered, Western countries believed that noodles originated in their own countries.
But this bowl of noodles at the Lajia site directly quelled the controversy, and unless an earlier artifact was discovered, the mainland was the original origin of the noodles.