Our reporter in Shaanxi, Qin Yi, correspondent Zhao Mingnan
Excavation site
Unearthed sand brown pottery crotch pimple
(Photo courtesy of Feng Ho Team, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
After five consecutive years of archaeological excavations, archaeologists recently discovered and excavated the largest Western Zhou pottery site in the southwest of Dayuan Village, the Fenghao site in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, and unearthed more than 400 small pottery-related artifacts such as pottery beats, pottery mats, stone knives, and mussel knives. The site specializes in the production of a kind of cooker called "sandwiched brown pottery crotch knots", which shows that its pottery specialization is very high, which provides important information for the study of the pottery process and pottery firing technology of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
"The ruins of the pottery workshop with an area of about 60,000 square meters specialize in the production of sand-filled brown pottery crotch knots, which not only shows that its level of pottery specialization is very high, but also proves that the Fengjing ruins are the ruins of the Western Zhou capital city." Fu Zhongyang, associate researcher of the Fenghao Team of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, introduced that the Fengdi site is one of the ruins of the Western Zhou Capital City, distributed in the west bank of the Feng River, such as Keshengzhuang, Mawang Village, Zhangjiapo Village, Caozhai Village, Xinwang Village, Dayuan Village and Feng Village, with a total existing area of about 8.62 square kilometers. Most of them are located in the jurisdiction of Fengxi New Town, Xixian New District, Xi'an City, and a small part is within the jurisdiction of Xi'an High-tech Zone. Among them, the pottery site of Ohara Village is located on the southwest terrace of Dayuan Village, southwest of the Fengdi Site.
In the summer of 2012, the Fenghao team of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences discovered a concentrated distribution of 29 pottery kilns during archaeological exploration in the southwest of Dayuan Village, which is a typical pottery workshop site. With the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Fenghao team of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences conducted five consecutive years of archaeological excavations on the site from March 2017 to December 2021. The excavation area is nearly 2300 square meters, and 18 pottery kilns, 126 ash pits, 29 tombs, 3 wells and 3 stoves in the Western Zhou Dynasty were found, and more than 400 small utensils related to pottery making, such as pottery beats, pottery mats, circular pottery, spinning wheels, stone knives, and mussel knives, were unearthed.
"There are two types of pottery kilns found at the site, vertical flame kilns and horizontal semi-inverted kilns, but each type of pottery kiln is not concentrated distribution, but has a variety of combinations, of which the phenomenon of vertical flame kilns and horizontal half-inverted kilns sharing the same operation pit is the first time it has been found." Experts said that the largest pottery kiln is a vertical flame-raising kiln, which is composed of five parts: fire door, fire chamber, kiln basket, kiln chamber and operation room. The kiln is circular in shape, about 2.19 meters in diameter, and has 18 fire holes on it. The smallest pottery kiln has a diameter of only 0.75 meters and has 6 fire holes on it. In addition, archaeologists also found that the kiln door is a horizontal semi-inverted flame kiln built of rammed, and the existing height is about 1.8 meters.
The pottery kilns found in the site should belong to the late Western Zhou Dynasty, but not at the same time firing pottery, but there is a relative relationship between morning and evening. In the accumulation of ash pits, blue-gray pottery blanks, a large number of small stones that may be related to the processing of sand-filled pottery mixtures, as well as pottery beats, pottery mats, circular pottery, spinning wheels, stone knives, mussel knives, pottery pills, etc. related to pottery making have been found, and garbage pits that may be dumped with burnt pottery garbage and waste products have also been found. Among them, a large number of grass and wood ash, red burnt soil blocks, red-brown sand pottery pieces, deformed pottery and so on were unearthed in an ash pit.
According to the stratigraphic relationship and the typological analysis of the excavated artifacts, the age of the pottery workshop site in Dayuan Village is in the early stage of the late Western Zhou Dynasty. Experts said that judging from the pottery system, the number of recognizable vessel types, the pottery billets and the number of pottery vessels excavated from various units of the site, the site specially fired sand-sandwiched brown pottery bristles; judging from the excavations, the two types of pottery kilns fired sandwiched sand brown pottery bristles; from the measurement data of the caliber of the excavated sand-sandwiched brown pottery lumps, its vessel types are large and small.
"Manes are cookers used to cook food, and the usage is to set firewood under three feet and burn them. Generally speaking, the cooker is mostly sand pottery, that is, the sand and stone are mixed in the mud to be fired, and sometimes some mussels are added, which may conduct heat faster. Food containers, such as pots, beans and guises, are generally clay pottery. This kind of sand-filled brown pottery crotch pimple mane is referred to as a pimple because its mane foot resembles a pimple. According to experts, this kind of sand-filled brown pottery knot is common in the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty of the Fenghao site, while it is rare in the Zhouyuan site and the Luoyi site, which indicates that the product consumption is mainly within the scope of the Fenghao site. In addition, in the southeast of the pottery-making site, there is the largest bone-making workshop site in the Fenghao site, the Fengcun North Bone-making Workshop Site, and the two form the "Hand Industrial Park" in the Fenghao Site.
"In the densely distributed areas of the eastern and western pottery kilns, relics closely related to billet making and the remains of cellar and cave life have been found, so this area may be a billet making area and a living area, and the site may be partitioned to make billets and fired pottery. For example, the remains of wells and ash pits closely related to billet making have been found in two of the exploration parties, and there are also pocket-shaped cellars nearby. Fu Zhongyang introduced that in this area, it has also been found that the tombs with the same age as the pottery sites, the burial style are all stooped straight-limb burials, the tomb orientation is east-west or north-south, and there are also sand-filled brown pottery knots unearthed in individual tombs.
These tombs are different from the burial styles and the common upright burials at the Fenghao site, and most of them are not related to ash pits, and it is speculated that the owner of the tomb may be a pottery manager or potter. In addition, in some exploration parties and ash pits, complete human skeletons have been found, and no burial tools have been seen, which were buried after simple repairs. "Whether these bones are potters needs to be further studied." The researchers said.
"With the strong support of the Fengxi New Town Cultural Relics Bureau of Xixian New District, a temporary excavation site protection hall has been set up at present, and we must also consider providing information for the future formulation of cultural relics protection plans while doing archaeological work." Relevant people told reporters.
Fu Zhongyang said that through the archaeological excavations in the past 5 years, he basically understood the distribution range, age, nature and settlement layout of the site. This discovery is an important achievement in the archaeology of the handicraft industry at the Fenghao site, which not only provides important information for the study of the pottery process and pottery firing technology of the Western Zhou Dynasty, but also helps to deeply study the organization and management of the handicraft production of the site, social form, functional partitioning and even the layout of the Fenghao site settlement. The research concept and refined excavation method of the handicraft archeological operation chain are also a new attempt and exploration of urban handicraft archaeology.
Source: China Culture Daily