Northern Wei Dynasty Trick Figurine Fukunuma Bamboo Photo/Guangming Picture
Yangshao faience pot Funuma bamboo photo / Guangming picture
【New Exhibition】
Snowflakes fall and spring is cold. The quaint and vicissitudes of the Taiyuan Confucian Temple ushered in a wave of "archaeological fever", and the "Temperature of Archaeology - Shanxi '13th Five-Year' Archaeological Achievements Exhibition" carried out by the Shanxi Archaeological Research Institute (Shanxi Archaeological Museum) here provided people with a rich "cultural feast".
From the 2.4 million-year-old Site of Xihoudu to the historical context of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, from silkworm reeling and grain winemaking to faience pottery and copper mining and smelting, 387 pieces (sets) of excavated cultural relics on display tell the development of human civilization.
It is understood that from 2016 to 2020, Shanxi promoted a total of 228 field excavations, revealing an area of 210,000 square meters. Over the past five years, archaeologists have completed the restoration of more than 3,000 bronzes, bone horns, jade and ceramics.
At the beginning of the new year, more than 20 project teams of the Shanxi Archaeological Research Institute ran to the fields, from the fenhe bay to the Sangan river, from the Lüliang gully to the depths of Taihang...
Extends the historical axis
In 2020, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the Xihoudu site, the 11th issue of the French journal anthropology published the latest dating data and related research results of the Xihoudu site in Ruicheng County, Shanxi, and determined that the isotopic age of the site was about 2.43 million years ago, which was more than 600,000 years earlier than the original.
"According to the scientific method of sampling, from July to September 2009, the drill alone reached a depth of 70 meters." Wang Yiren, a researcher at the Shanxi Provincial Archaeological Research Institute, said that after receiving the news of the publication of the paper, he wrote this paragraph in his diary: On the second day of the last month of 2020, the belated news arrived in anxious waiting, and a heavy stone fell to the ground! This is the best tribute and commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the Site of Xihoudu.
Since the discovery of a fossil of axial antlers dating back more than 1 million years in Xihoudu in 1959, Chinese archaeologists have been constantly leaning over this land to advance the history of ancient Chinese fire to 1.8 million years ago.
The continent has long been thought to have spread from Africa due to the lack of human fossils and archaeological data dating back 100,000 to 50,000 years. Dating data from the Datong Liwangjian site show that 100,000 to 70,000 years ago, modern humans have lived in the Datong Basin, using stone chips to hunt horses, cattle and other animals as meat, supporting the theory of "continuous evolution of modern humans in East Asia with hybridization".
The stone artifacts measured this time also make the stone tools of the Xihoudu site the earliest ancient human relics supported by isotopic dating evidence seen in Eurasia, proving that before Homo erectus went out of Africa, there was already an early human being who mastered the use of gravel to make stone tools, which greatly extended the timeline of human origin in East Asia, which was of great significance for breaking through the Western-led "out of Africa" theory and further enriching the source value of the Yellow River civilization.
Enhanced historical credibility
On the exhibition shelf, a stone sculpture shaped like a jujube core and stained with light brown marks is prominently listed. This is the 6,000-year-old stone carved silkworm chrysalis excavated in 2020 when archaeologists conducted field archaeology at the site of Shicun in Xia County.
From 2019 to 2020, the School of Archaeology of Jilin University, the Institute of Archaeology of Shanxi Province, the Yuncheng Cultural Relics Workstation and other units jointly investigated and excavated the site of Shicun in Xia County, and achieved important gains, including 4 stone carved silkworm pupae from the early Yangshao period 6000 years ago, which is the earliest stone carved silkworm pupa image found in the mainland, which can be said to be an important symbol of Chinese civilization.
Duan Tianjing, a professor at Jilin University, said that from these findings, it is likely that Xia County, located in the Yuncheng Basin, has artificial silkworm reeling behavior around 6,000 years ago. In addition, it was carved from granite on Mount Nakajō, and the granite could be carved so delicately and clearly patterned, indicating that the ancestors at that time loved and attached great importance to silkworms.
Xia County, located in the south of Shanxi, is one of the important birthplaces of ancient Chinese culture, and it is said that the Yellow Emperor's concubines taught the people to raise silkworms in Xia County. In 1926, Li Ji, the father of Chinese archaeology, and Yuan Fuli, a pioneer of archaeology, came to the Xiyin site in Xia County and presided over the first archaeological excavation independently carried out by Chinese, excavating half of the cocoon cut by hand. The cocoon dates back about 6,000 years and has become a witness to the ancient chinese silk culture. This is also the first scientific archaeological excavation in the modern sense independently presided over by Chinese, which has opened a new era of Chinese archaeology and become a "landmark in the history of modern Chinese archaeology".
"It is not only an important clue to the origin of silkworm farming and silk in the early days of Yangshao, but also provides a trustworthy space for the excavation of silkworm cocoons in Xiyin." Tian Jianwen, a researcher at the Shanxi Provincial Archaeological Institute, commented on the discovery of the stone silkworm pupae.
Archaeologists also found a large number of carbonized millet, millet seeds, stone axes, pottery knives and other agricultural tools in Linfen Taoyuan and Lishidegang, indicating that around 5500 years ago, Shanxi had formed a mature agricultural form based on millet cultivation. At the same time, the discovery of copper mining and copper casting sites such as Wenxi Qianjin Rake and Xiwubi in Daixian County has also become direct evidence of the control and utilization of copper resources in the Xia Shang Dynasty of the Central Plains.
Enriched the historical connotation
For a long time, the academic circles have said that "there is no late business in Jinnan".
In June 2017, archaeologists from the Shanxi Archaeological Research Institute and Yuncheng City conducted a rescue excavation of the M1 tomb of The Head of Liquor in Wenxi County, Shanxi Province, and found a surprise. This "A" glyph-shaped tomb is very large, special in shape, high in specification, with martyrdom in the waist pit, and on the side of the tomb there is a funerary car and horse pit, and a large number of inscription bronzes with the word "hidden" have been unearthed.
The high level of the tomb and the dignity of the owner of the tomb made the archaeologists at the scene extremely excited. By judging the shape of the tomb and the ornamentation and shape of the excavated bronzes, archaeologists finally determined that this tomb is a remnant of the late Shang Dynasty, and the owner of the tomb may be the leader of the Fang state second only to the Shang king.
The territory of the Shang Dynasty consisted of Wang Qi and the State of Fang, which was a colony of dependent and vassal states of the Shang Dynasty, and the State of Fang was a political stronghold distributed around the outskirts of Wang Qi. The discovery of the cemetery fills the gap in the remains of the late Shang in southern Jin, and confirms the location of a new Yin Shang Fangguo "hidden" clan. The remains of this place were also selected as "2018 National Top Ten Archaeological New Discoveries".
It is worth mentioning that under the efforts of the public security organs, 29 cultural relics (including 13 national first-class cultural relics) have been returned to this large tomb that has survived the storm of tomb robbery, providing more physical evidence for this tomb of the late Shang Dynasty.
From the western earth bridgehead of the Shang Dynasty to the fertile soil of the Jin Dynasty Central Plains, the Xiangfen Tao temple north cemetery located in the southeast of the Linfen Basin is the family burial area of the Jin nobles in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and the copper drum seats and perforated copper beans excavated from it represent the highest level of bronze casting technology in the Zhou Dynasty.
"Wild people's homes outside the Wild Goose Gate do not raise silkworms and do not plant hemp." Shuozhou, Shanxi, which was passed by Yanmen in the south, was a strategic fortress of the Han Dynasty to defend the Xiongnu southward. From October 2019 to December 2020, archaeologists rescued and excavated more than 400 tombs from the Eastern Zhou to the Qin and Han dynasties in Houzhai Village, Shuocheng District. The excavation of the Houzhai cemetery provides rich archaeological materials for studying the layout of cemeteries, burial hierarchies and funerary customs from the Eastern Zhou to the Qin and Han dynasties along the Great Wall in the north, and is of great value for exploring the history of political and military development in the Central Plains and northern regions during the Warring States period.
In November 2019, two wooden ancient wells, one large and one small, were discovered during the reconstruction of shantytowns in Yangquan City, and the upper part of the small well was destroyed, and the wooden well wall of the large well was basically preserved intact. The well is the largest wooden ancient well with the most complete structural preservation in this period found in China. The structure of the heliagon is quite peculiar, the masonry process is exquisite, and the groove mortise and mortise in the wooden components are the most complete objects of the early mortise and mortise structure in existence, reflecting the superb design concept and advanced construction technology.
Revitalized historical scenes
"Stone tool stitching is a backward research method for archaeology to study the process of stone tool manufacturing." According to Zhang Guanghui of the Institute of Chinese Civilization of the Shanxi Archaeological Research Institute, researchers restored the operation chain of stone tool making and processing of Dingcun people 100,000 years ago through stone tooling, and restored a picture of human life scenes 100,000 years ago: the ancient Dingcun people who were active on both sides of the Fenhe River produced stone shards with horned shale gravel as rough blanks; the use of three-edged large sharps, scrapers, stone balls and other hunting elephants and deer as food; the use of fire to resist cold and cooking.
With bright colors and magnificent scale, the hundred-person glass ceremonial figurines excavated from the Changzhi Shijiazhuang Cemetery are composed of door gods, samurai, trickers, zhangguans, military generals, attendants, and caravans, reproducing the ceremonial system at that time. The Ming Dynasty implemented a feudal system, and the fiefs in Shanxi included Zhu Tang (Taiyuan), the Jin king Zhu Gui (Datong), and the Shen king Zhu Mo (Changzhi), who later moved in. The glass ceremonial figurines excavated from the Changzhi Shijiazhuang cemetery were owned by the Shen Family Yun and the Junguo Fengguo general Zhu Tianyi.
The pottery figurines with themes such as three-colored camels, horses, heavenly kings, and town tomb beasts unearthed from the Tang Tomb of Xindai Kiln head are not only a symbol of the wealth and social status of the tomb owner, but also a realistic portrayal of social stability and material prosperity.
In 2016, the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology found a Song Jin porcelain kiln site in Hejin GuZhen, and the discovery of the Hejin kiln Jin Dynasty porcelain pillow not only filled the gap of no related porcelain relics in this area, found a firing kiln for related porcelain cultural relics at home and abroad, but also revealed a complete porcelain industry chain, providing rich information for the study of the porcelain making process and kiln technology of the Hejin kiln in the Song and Jin dynasties, and was selected as one of the "Top Ten Archaeological New Discoveries in China" that year.
During the Northern Dynasties to the Ming and Qing dynasties, China experienced two upsurges in ethnic integration, eventually forming a unified multi-ethnic state. The exchanges between various ethnic groups and the mutual learning of Eastern and Western cultures have promoted the great development of Chinese culture and have had a wide impact in East Asia and the world. Shanxi is the core ruling area of the Northern Dynasty, the place where the Tang Dynasty style first appeared, and it was also the economic and cultural center of gravity in the north during the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the big stage of the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the Jin Merchants, and a series of new archaeological discoveries in recent years, showing a vivid historical scene.
(Reporter Of this newspaper, Yang Jue, correspondent of this newspaper, Fukunuma Takeru)
Source: Guangming Daily