Plate 42
The humanoid column has three layers of green glazed pottery
Late Eastern Han Dynasty
Height 144 cm, width 43 cm, depth 47 cm
In 1954, it was collected in Jiunuzuka Village, Huaiyang County
A Preliminary Discussion on the Origin of Early Cities on the Mainland
Gao Songfan, Yang Chunyuan, Cultural Relics Quarterly, No. 3, 1993, pp. 48-54
This paper provides a preliminary discussion of the origin of early cities on the mainland. The author believes that the city is the product of social and economic development to a certain stage, and its origin process has gone through three stages: germination, embryonic formation, and formation, and the emergence of rammed earth walls cannot be regarded as a city that has been formed, nor can it be regarded as a city that has been formed and developed as the bud of a city. Specifically, to determine whether an early settlement is rural or urban, there are generally three main criteria, namely, the function of the settlement, the spatial structure, layout and functional division of the settlement, and the population size, density and occupational composition. Based on this, the author believes that yin xu and other shopping malls, with their high walls and deep trenches, magnificent architectural complexes, concentrated distribution of various handicraft workshops, longitudinal roads and other public facilities, and obvious planning layout, have formed a landscape that is completely different from the rural settlements. The discovery of shopping malls such as Yin Ruins marks that ancient cities on the mainland have been formed and have developed to a certain extent. Although the total scale and palace scope of the Erlitou site are relatively small compared to cities such as Yin Ruins, and the agricultural factors are more concentrated, it still has the political, military, and economic functions of the capital of the early slave state, and its population composition is almost the same as that of Yin Ruins. It can be said that the site of the late Xia Dynasty in Erlitou has been initially formed as a city. The Longshan cultural period is in a new stage of the transformation of the settlement form from the countryside to the city, and it is also the period when the city develops from bud to prototype in the early days of the mainland, thus producing a new settlement form ~ - the period of the city. At present, the site of Pingliangtai City has already possessed the prototype of the city, while the rest of the city sites such as Wangchenggang and Border Line Wang are still in the embryonic stage of the city. Finally, the author believes that the ancient Chinese city was from the embryonic and urban prototype stage of the late primitive society, initially formed through the Xia Dynasty (Erlitou culture), and completed its origin process and initial development in the Shang Dynasty. After the Shang Dynasty, ancient Chinese cities entered a period of continuous improvement and development.
Reflections on New Archaeological Discoveries in the Yongsan Period
Yan Wenming, Proceedings of the International Symposium to Commemorate the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Excavation of the Chengziya Site, pp. 39-45, Qilu Book Society, 1993; Agricultural Occurrence and the Origin of Civilization, pp. 107-114, Science Press, 2000
This paper mainly analyzes some important new discoveries in the archaeology of the Longshan era, and discusses the level of cultural and social development in the Longshan era and the pattern of the origin of Chinese civilization. In recent years, the important achievements of archaeology in the Longshan period have led to the discovery of a series of city sites, which are mainly distributed in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the Great Wall of Inner Mongolia. In the early city sites of Inner Mongolia, there were already large central city sites, and there were more small-scale military defensive castles. The city site in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River has been found more, and the central part of the shijiahe city site, the largest area, is the main residential area, and there are signs of large-scale religious activities and specialized production of pottery, reflecting the development level of prehistoric culture in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Not only did this area have a long history of cities, but there seems to be a network of cities of different sizes and classes. Located in Shandong in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, prehistoric culture is relatively developed, and the city site here as a regional political and cultural center in the Longshan era has gradually been discovered, and there seems to be a difference in rank. Although the Liangzhu culture in the Taihu Lake Basin in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River has not yet found the city site, some indications indicate that it has formed a number of central sites and also has a network-like structure. Artificially built tombs, altars, and large-scale pedestals and high-profile buildings that have revealed clues indicate that aristocratic groups that formed some kind of powerful institution of power have emerged, representing a social significance that is not under the site of the early city. Due to the imbalance of archaeological work, the discovery of city sites in the Central Plains is obviously insufficient, but the cultural development of the local Longshan era has reached a fairly high level. This series of important archaeological discoveries has greatly accelerated our understanding of the level of cultural development in the Longshan era, but the understanding of the stage of social development at this time is far from the time of conclusion. The origin of civilization should have a process, the Longshan era probably appeared many chief states or city-states, probably can also be regarded as a primary civilization, may be comparable to the legendary Era of the Five Emperors. New discoveries in Longshan-era archaeology are enough to prove that the origins of Chinese civilization are diverse, not limited to the Central Plains. But the centers of the origin of each civilization are not isolated from each other, not only are they geographically connected, but also the cultural connotations are also very closely related. Although they have an imbalance in the process of development, the pace is roughly the same. It can be seen that the model of the origin of Chinese civilization should be pluralistic and integrated.
The source of the text is "Research Outline of the Origin of Chinese Civilization", published by Cultural Relics Publishing House in December 2003
Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Research Center for Ancient Civilizations, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, ed
The pictures and descriptions are from "Han Dynasty Architectural Ming Ware Unearthed in Henan", edited by Henan Museum, 2002