Ruins of Chengzi Cliff
The lower reaches of the Yellow River in China are dominated by the Neolithic Longshan culture in Shandong. It is located on a terrace called "ChengziYa" on the banks of the Dongwuyuan River in Longshan Town,Zhangqiu County, Shandong Province (formerly part of Licheng County). In 1928, Wu Jinding's investigation found that from 1930 to 1931, the Institute of History and Linguistics of the Academia Sinica carried out two excavations, and then Fu Sinian, Li Ji, Liang Siyong and other 7 people compiled the archaeological report collection "Chengzi Cliff" (the black pottery cultural site in Longshan Town, Licheng County, Shandong).
▲ Clay pots and cups unearthed from Chengzi Cliff
The upper layer of the site is a remnant of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The lower layer is the first discovery of a Neolithic remnant characterized by polished black pottery, originally called "Black Pottery Culture", later named longshan culture after the site, and now known as Shandong Longshan culture. The excavation of the Chengziya site is of pioneering significance in the history of Chinese archaeology, it is the first Neolithic site discovered and excavated by Chinese archaeologists; the Longshan culture revealed from this has played a major role in promoting the understanding and study of China's Neolithic culture. In 1961, the State Council announced it as a national key cultural relics protection unit.
▲ Chengziya site excavated gray pottery amphora
The pottery excavated from the Longshan cultural layer in Shandong is mainly black pottery and gray black pottery, with a multi-plain surface on the surface, a multi-string pattern, a scribble and a blind nose, and a few basket patterns and rope patterns. The main utensils are cups, bowls, beans, three-legged plates, pots, pots, urns, dings, bristles, and urns. Among them, the ding with a cup, a three-legged plate, a high-stalk bean, a bird's head foot, a white-clothed yellow pottery bag foot, and a fat bag foot are the most representative.
▲ Eggshell pottery
There is also dark and shiny eggshell pottery, the production technology is superb, the firing temperature reaches about 1000 ° C, is the best in pottery. Most of the stone tools are ground, mainly axes, hammers, shovels, sickles, half-moon perforated stone knives, chisels, hammers and so on. Bone horns include tools such as chisels, cones, needles, hammers, harpoons, and bone rods for hair bunches. Among the mussels, the perforated mussel knife and the toothed mussel sickle are more prominent. Here for the first time, neolithic bones were found, which were made of scapula such as cattle and deer, and there were drills and burns, and there were also untreated and non-drilled and burned.
Mussel knife
In addition, the remains of a rectangular rammed earth wall were found around the site, about 450 meters from north to south, about 390 meters from east to west, and the thickness of the root of the wall was about 10 meters. Excavators believe that it was the site of the city at that time, but there are currently doubts about its age. The pottery of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was mostly gray pottery. Engraved pottery pieces, bronzes, stone tools and bones have been excavated, and 6 pottery kilns, sporadic adult tombs and infant urn coffins have been found.