BRM1A: 37 Jade Dragon
Length 8.4, width 1.4, thickness 0.2 cm
Turquoise jade, partially qined. The perforation is made of one-way drilling and grinding of cheng drilling. Excavated on the right side of the tomb owner's chest. This piece of jade dragon is a preserved original jade artifact left over from the late Shang Dynasty and not reprocessed. It can be seen from the production traces of "wide and deep in the middle and shallow at both ends" left at the corners of its head, eyes, etc., that it must have been made of a stone tool at that time. There are several rings of tools on the dragon body that are parallel to the arc of the body, and if you look closely, you can find that it is broken by the contour lines of the eyes, horns and feet, which shows that this is the trace left by the cutting process before making this piece of jade dragon, which is typical of the late Shang Dynasty production process. Detailed arguments can be found in the articles in this book.
"The Site of the Yellow River Valley in the Prehistoric Period"
Ma Shizhi, Prehistoric Research (Xi'an Banpo Museum 40th Anniversary Commemorative Anthology 1958-1998), pp. 151-165, Sanqin Publishing House, 1998
This paper summarizes the archaeological data of the city sites in the Yellow River Basin in the prehistoric period, and expounds the views on the types and layout of the prehistoric city sites and the historical status of the city sites.
The prehistoric city sites in the Hetao area can be divided into three groups: the first group is near Liangcheng Daihai, with Tiger Mountain, West White Jade, Bancheng and Damiaopo; The second group is at the southern foot of Baotou Daqing Mountain, with Weijun, Ashan, West Garden, Shenmujia and Black Linen Board; The third group is on the cliffs on both sides of the Yellow River between Jungar Banner and Qingshuihe County, with Zhaizi Pagoda, Zhaizishang, Road Tower and Houchengzui. The city sites in the Central Plains are all found in Henan, including the site of Yangshao Cultural City in Xishan, Zhengzhou, Dengfeng Wangchenggang, Huaiyang Pingliangtai, Haojiatai in Haocheng, Hougang in Anyang, and Mengzhuang in Huixian County. The city sites in the Haidai area are all found in Shandong, including the sites of Xikangliu Village in Tengzhou City and Dawenkou Cultural City in Wangjiazhuang, Yanggu County, Youlou in Tengzhou, Chengziya in Zhangqiu, Linzi Tianwang, Dinggong in Zouping County, Shouguang Border Line Wang, Dantu in Wulian County, Jingyanggang in Yanggu County, Huanggutun in Yanggu County, Jiaochangpu in Pingjiaochang, Lieutenant in Pingzhou, Wangji in Pingshangzhuang, and Wangji in Dong'a County.
The prehistoric city sites in the Yellow River Basin can be divided into two categories: Shicheng and Tucheng. Shicheng is mainly distributed in and around the Yellow River in Inner Mongolia in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, all of which are mountain cities made of stone masonry. Tucheng is mainly distributed in henan and Shandong in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, and is mostly rammed. In terms of planning and layout, the early city sites of the Yellow River Basin were mostly built according to the natural terrain, with complex and diverse planes, most of which were not very regular, or trapezoidal, convex, or arc-shaped, triangular and so on. In addition to its sporadic distribution in various places, its layout has a certain degree of concentration, and the site of Longshan City in the Hetao area of Inner Mongolia is concentrated near Liangcheng Daihai. The site of Longshan City in the northwest of Lu is concentrated in the counties of Pingping, Dong'a and Yanggu, and is divided into two groups of eight city sites in the south and north. The Site of Longshan City appeared in groups, and there was a large central city site in the group, indicating that there was a grading system at that time, which provided an important basis for discussing local ancient culture, ancient cities, ancient countries and other topics. The city site is generally small, indicating the original form of the city culture in the prehistoric period, and the ancient city of Yuancheng has many trenches around the city walls, which together with the city walls form the earliest dual defense system on the mainland. The handicraft workshops in the city site are mixed with the sacrificial sites, residential sites, and children's cemetery areas, but there is no special trading place, indicating that the prehistoric city sites have little or no "city" nature, so they are not real cities, and can only be called "primitive cities" or "prototype cities".
In ancient times, there were many small city-states in the Yellow River Basin of the mainland, and the ancient cities of Yangshao, Dawenkou and Longshan culture were their capitals, some of which have evolved into primitive cities, according to which a new dawn of Chinese civilization has been faintly seen. The prehistoric city sites of the Yellow River Basin have played a huge role in the origin of pluralistic and integrated Chinese civilization in the process of continental history.
The source of the text is "Research Outline of the Origin of Chinese Civilization", published by Cultural Relics Publishing House in December 2003
Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Research Center for Ancient Civilizations, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, ed
The pictures and illustrations are from the book "National Jade", edited by the Aurora Civilization Research Center of Peking University, and published in 2010