Located in the middle reaches of the Han River, spanning the villages of Qianwang and Yanying in Longwang Town, Xiangzhou District, Xiangyang City, Hubei Province, the site of the city is square in plan, with an area of 140,000 square meters, plus peripheral auxiliary settlements, with a total area of about 500,000 square meters. According to the analysis of excavated pottery ding, pots, beans, cups, circle foot plates, cylinders, manes, urns and other cultural relics, archaeologists determined that the site dates from 5200 to 3900 years ago, and the main age belongs to the Qujialing culture, Shijiahe culture and coal mountain culture.
On March 29, a reporter from China News Network came to the Fenghuang Tsui site. The staff said that in the past, the history of Xiangyang was 2800 years, and the newly discovered ancient city wall and moat had a history of more than 5,000 years, and from the history of Xiangyang's urban development, the Fenghuangzui site pushed forward the urban development history of Xiangyang for more than 2,000 years.
At 9:25 p.m. on March 19 and 20, the "Exploration and Discovery" column of CCTV's 10 science and education channels broadcast the first and second episodes of the xiangyang Phoenix Tsui Ancient City Excavation Documentary for two consecutive nights.
Excavation Record of Xiangyang Fenghuangzui Ancient City (Part 1)
In late November 2021, a joint archaeological team with Wuhan University's 2019 archaeology students as the main body excavated the ancient city of Fenghuangzui in the Neolithic period about 5,000 years ago in Xiangyang, Hubei Province. In October 2019, it was included in the eighth batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council.
Archaeologists deduce that the site is likely to be the northernmost bridgehead in the process of northward expansion during the heyday of the Qujialing culture, and then it was eventually abandoned as the northern coal mountain culture gradually pressed south.
Excavation Record of Xiangyang Fenghuangzui Ancient City (Part 2)
On the Loess Plateau, an urn coffin with a special burial position was discovered. The secrets in the urn coffin may be revealed in a few days. In the anatomical ditch, which aims to reveal the structure of the city wall and even the defensive function, archaeologists not only found a moat that surrounded the city site and a channel running through the city, but also found a rare clay sculpture small animal - sheep in the silt.
At this time, the real question that archaeologists need to think about is: What groups of people from different ethnic origins existed in the ancient city of Fenghuangzui?
At this point, the surprise of finding turquoise was soon replaced by the confusion of several huge skeletons in the mud. What is the story of this child who has been sealed in an urn for thousands of years, the well-preserved skull, and the jawbone that is tightly clenched together?
Archaeologists have found that the continuous excavation of the ancient city of Fenghuang Tsui has greatly broadened people's understanding of the reasons and routes for the expansion of the Qujialing culture to the north. Researchers believe that the rise and fall of the ancient city of Fenghuangzui, which has a history of about thousands of years, actually shows a process of multicultural collision, exchange, and eventual unification and gradual integration into the big family of the Chinese nation.
Since December 2021, the excavation of Xiangyang Phoenix Tsui City Pool is still continuing, and archaeologists believe that there will be more valuable discoveries in the future, providing more imagination space for our study of Xiangyang history.
Source: CCTV 10 science and education channels, China News Network, Xiangyang City Museum
Editor: Gao Yuan
Proofreader: Huang Yu
Review: Yang Mingyang
Final Judge: Cai Jianwei