"In this world, there are two things worth looking up to for a lifetime: one is the bright starry sky overhead, and the other is the moral code in our minds. This famous quote of the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant is impressive.
When we look up at the sky again and again and count the stars, have you ever thought that in Zhengzhou, on the banks of the great river 6,000 years ago, there was already a group of industrious and wise ancestors: they looked up at the vast sky in addition to their labor, and carefully painted colorful ornaments such as sun patterns, moon patterns, sun halo patterns, and comet patterns on pottery of different shapes, and the villages they lived in were called "villages under the stars". What was the living environment of the ancestors? What are they thinking about and recording?
On March 25, the reporter came to the Dahe Village Ruins Museum in the northeast of Zhengzhou, crossed the time and space tunnel, unlocked the prehistoric cultural code, and slowly unfolded the splendid Yangshao cultural and historical civilization scroll.
Faience double pot excavated from the site of Dahe Village (replica)
The ancestors looked up at the stars here
Dating from 6800 to 3500 years ago, the ruins of Dahe Village are a large ancient settlement site containing Yangshao culture, Longshan culture and Xia and Shang cultures, where the ancestors lived for more than 3,000 years.
Nine-curved Yellow River Wanlisha. When the mighty river and the "village under the stars" are accompanied by each other, what milestone cultural imprints will be left behind?" The starry sky in Ōkawa Village is deep, and the sun, moon and stars are transformed into astrological patterns such as sun patterns, moon patterns, constellation patterns, and comet patterns in the hands of the ancestors, and brilliant faience pottery is fired. These faience patterns are the earliest astronomical materials found on the mainland, showing the ancestors' cognition and perception of the cosmic world, so the Village of Dahe is known as the 'village under the stars'. On the morning of March 25, with the vivid narration of Zhang Shengfang, senior docent of the Dahe Village Site Museum, a long-term historical memory suddenly opened.
Sunrise and rest; The sun and the moon change, rain, snow, wind and frost... The ancestors of Dahe Village not only observed the changes in the heavens, but also vividly expressed these changes in the form of patterns.
"These faience patterns are the embodiment of the observation and use of astronomical knowledge by the ancestors of Dahe Village, and the specific shape of the pattern may indicate the concept of time such as day, month, year, etc., which shows that people at that time had noticed the impact of changes in astronomical phenomena on agricultural production activities, and may have had the concept of seasons." Pointing to these patterns, Zhang Shengfang told reporters.
The people of Dahe Village cultivate fishing and hunting during the day, burn pottery, look at the stars at night, observe the sky, and pray for the future... Exquisite pottery has become a vivid witness to the wisdom and creativity of the ancestors, and the beautiful images related to astronomy contain the ancestors' questions about the universe.
"The ancestors of Dahe Village may have known that there are 12 months in a year, and a month is divided into 30 years. Some of the excavated clay bowls are painted with a circle of 12 suns, and some have a moon pattern divided into upper and lower semicircles, with a full moon in the middle. Li Changtao, the former host of the archaeological excavation at the Dahe Village site, once analyzed it. As stated in the preface to the exhibition hall of the Dahe Village Site Museum: The starry sky of the Dahe Village is brilliant, illuminating the footprints of the progress of Chinese civilization. The layers of thick soil at the site of Dahe Village are like a wordless history book, recording how the seeds of civilization were sown, sprouted, and thrived.
Faience fragments on display at the Grand River Village Ruins Museum
Colorful faience is unique
Pottery is the crystallization of water, earth and fire, condensing the great wisdom of the ancestors, and faience pottery can be called the treasure of Yangshao culture.
The faience excavated from the Dahe Village site is numerous, with different forms, brilliant colors and rich patterns, reflecting that the villagers of Dahe Village have mastered advanced pottery making techniques. Its white-clothed faience pottery, red-clad faience pottery and colorful pattern types, superb painting techniques, and a wide variety of artifact types mark an unprecedented peak of prehistoric faience culture, depicting a historical scene of prehistoric culture thriving and highly developed.
"The world-famous treasure of China's prehistoric faience pottery art, the faience double pot, was unearthed here, showing the superb skills of the ancestors of Dahe Village." In the exhibition hall on the first floor of the museum, there is a replica of a double-linked pot of faience pottery. Zhang Shengfang pointed to it and told reporters that the faience double pot was excavated in 1972 in the foundation of Room 1 of the Dahe Village Site and is now treasured in the Henan Museum. It cleverly uses the principle of the connector to connect two identical clay pots into one, with an oval mouth in the middle. The surface of the pot is decorated with red and black colors, and the two patterns are both opposite and unified, making the originally bland parallel lines rich in change and rhythm.
"It can be seen from the shape of the double pot that it is not a commonly used vessel in life, according to ethnological data, the double pot is a ceremonial item. The ancestors of the village of Dahe and the surrounding tribes helped each other in production activities, and gradually established a friendship of brotherhood and brotherhood, and the double pot is a drinking utensil for clan leaders or elders to drink when clan alliances or major celebrations are held, which is a symbol of peace and friendship. ”
"Convergence of deeds, thousands of miles from each other." The faience double pot, from the earth, has been blended by water and fire, giving birth to the sum of tribal relations. Six thousand years, as if in an instant, the village has become a country, the lines have become a painting, and the peaceful aspirations of the ancient people have never changed. "The cultural relics documentary "Central Plains Treasures" once described the double pot in this way.
In addition to the double pot, in 2014, the white-clothed faience clay pots were also unearthed during the renovation of the firefighting pool at the Dahe Village Ruins Museum. The basin is clay red pottery, the inner wall and upper abdomen are white, the mouth edge is decorated with red color straight line pattern, white color arc triangle pattern, red color dot pattern, black color arc pattern, etc. 4 groups of the same pattern, the abdomen is decorated with black color moon pattern, arc triangle pattern, black dot pattern and other 4 groups of the same pattern, indicating that the ancients have adopted symmetrical and equal methods when drawing pottery patterns.
Special mineral pigments make faience pottery that has not faded for thousands of years, and broken pottery can also be repaired by the "curium repair" process... Many careful viewers found that there were two round holes in the white-clothed faience pots, which fully reflected that the ancestors of Dahe Village not only knew pottery, but also had a superb curium repair technique. Looking around at the various types of excavated pottery such as ding, kettle, pot, pot, bowl, pointed bottom bottle and so on displayed in the exhibition hall, you will find that these pottery not only pays attention to practical innovation, but also pursues the perfection of modeling and decoration.
Village exhibition hall under the stars of the Dahe Village Ruins Museum
The ancestors of Dahe Village lived in "three bedrooms and one hall"
As a landmark site of the origin of Chinese civilization, the Dahe Village site participated in and witnessed the whole process of the origin, formation and development of Chinese civilization until the establishment of the Xia and Shang slave dynasties.
Look up at the stars and keep your feet on the ground. Here, you can not only find the symbols of the ancestors looking up at the stars, but also see the ruins of the houses in the village of Dahe. The most striking of the ruins is the Yangshao cultural housing foundation. Amazingly, despite more than 5,000 years, the foundation of the house still retains a complete floor plan and walls of more than 1 meter high, known as the "first house in the world", and its excavation has laid the basic shape of traditional residential architecture in northern China. Among them, there is also a "suite" pattern in the foundation of room 1.
"You see, the ancestors of thousands of years ago already lived in 50 square meters, with a suite of three bedrooms and a living room." In the exhibition hall of the Yangshao Cultural House Foundation Site, several spectators are seriously studying the structure of the house.
"With wood as the bone, grass as the tendon, and after the mud masonry is completed, the whole house is calcined with fire inside and outside, like firing pottery, and the house built with the construction process of 'wood bone plastic pottery house' is very strong." Zhang Shengfang explained that the Yangshao cultural house foundation (main part F1-F9) of the Dahe Village site is a group of multi-connected rectangular houses with a total area of about 200 square meters, which is a typical "wood bone plastic" pottery house architectural form. In particular, the house foundation F1-F4 is the best preserved place in the prehistoric house foundation excavated on the mainland so far.
"When the north wall of the house was excavated, it was a meter high, which allows us to clearly see the architectural structure and construction process of the house at that time. This kind of house wall is hollow, forming a mezzanine, and the house is warm in winter and cool in summer. Its pattern laid the basic shape of traditional residential architecture in northern China, is a milestone in the history of ancient Chinese architecture, and is of great significance for studying the history of ancient Chinese architecture, exploring the organizational structure of society at that time, and the development of marriage and family. ”
Let the flowers of Yangshao bloom brilliantly
"Yangshao culture is the main root of the Yellow River culture and the most important representative of the early period." Wei Xingtao, vice president of the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that the basic qualities of many ancient Central Plains civilizations, such as simplicity and pragmatism, supremacy of kingship, emphasis on ethnic groups, reverence for ancestors, and tolerance, which have been accumulated for a long time, have established the characteristics and style of ancient Chinese civilization.
Discovered in 1964, the ruins of Dahe Village have a complete development context of Yangshao culture, a key period for the Chinese nation to enter the stage of civilization, and are the most wonderful part of the Yellow River culture, known as the "yardstick of Yangshao culture". The site is one of the most important archaeological discoveries in China in the 20th century and was included in the list of national archaeological sites and parks in 2017.
In the spring rain, the dahecun National Archaeological Site Park project site first appeared: the willows in the distance spit green, peach blossoms bloomed, and the herbs were green, conveying the rich breath of spring. Gravel paths wind along the wetland water system, and the breeze blows, the water surface is microwaved, and the antique thatched houses are reflected in the water.
Standing on a high place and looking out, the main building of the park, the Yangshao Culture Museum of China, has achieved a partial capping of the main body. "At present, the project ecological wetland restoration area and the original farming planting area have been basically completed, and the Yangshao Culture Museum of China is undergoing the main structure construction, and it is expected that the installation and decoration works can be completed by the end of September this year." The relevant person in charge of the project told reporters.
"Since its discovery in 1964 and its first excavation in 1972, the site of Dahe Village has been excavated 30 times. The site is large in scale and complete in development sequence, containing almost all types of Yangshao culture in the Central Plains, and the cultural accumulation layers of various periods in the site are stacked in turn, with the thickest point reaching 12.5 meters, and this layer of culture layers records the distant and clear development trajectory of the Chinese nation for us. Hu Jizhong, director of the Dahecun Ruins Museum, said that the Dahecun ruins are a regional central settlement site that completely records the whole process of the development and evolution of yangshao culture in the Central Plains, witnesses the prehistoric ecological landscape and human-land relationship in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, and has high cultural and technological achievements. Its thick cultural layers, rich cultural connotations, and long duration can be called the best among thousands of ancient sites in the Yellow River Basin.
With the theme of "Village Under the Stars", Dahecun National Archaeological Site Park is being built in accordance with the planning of "one core (dahecun site core protection and display area)", "two nodes (China Yangshao Culture Museum, Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute)", "three areas (ecological wetland restoration area, primitive farming planting area and interactive leisure experience area)", and it is expected that the entire park will be completed by the end of 2022 and initially have the conditions for opening to the outside world.
The flowers of Yangshao have been in full bloom for a thousand years; The long river of history is star-studded. Let us continue to forge ahead with the dawn of hope on the eve of Chinese civilization! (Reporter Cheng Yan)
The pictures in this group are all taken by Xu Zongfu, a reporter from Zheng Bao