My days under the South Pacific
Wen | Huang Lotte
2019 undergraduate student in archaeology at Henan University
From harvesting corn to peanuts to sowing wheat to grow green shoots, watching the crops on the field change again and again, a semester of field archaeology is over.
This is not the first time to work at an archaeological site, but it is the first time to experience the whole process from the beginning of the layout to the finishing work. During this period, I was responsible for the entire excavation process of two 5×5 exploration parties and a 10×10 exploration party, experienced the test of various ash pits and tomb excavations, experienced the regret of making mistakes and the pain of confusion, but the deepest impression was the joy of successfully applying knowledge and accumulating experience.
The Mengzhou Sijiagou site is a site of the Main Longshan culture, located on the loess mound on the south bank of the river bend, and this internship is also the first excavation work for this site. The excavation site was in a field outside the village, and our station was located in the village committee of a neighboring village.
Students who arrived early picked up the car to run Lee
Carry out the work of the cloth
The method of archaeological excavation is strictly in accordance with the "Field Archaeological Work Regulations", and its purpose is not to "combine flat sections, from late to early". When all kinds of pottery pieces gradually appeared in the exploration party, my companions and I could not help but be afraid, and even reluctant to extract them, afraid of destroying any relics. In fact, although it is good to be careful, it should not be discouraged from continuing to excavate. As Mr. Su Bingqi said, "Archaeology, only if you think of something, you can dig something." This sentence seems to be playful, but in fact it is transparent, the analysis of the phenomenon of the ruins is a gradual process, the phenomenon of seeing at a glance rarely appears, more is the need to constantly seek clues in the excavation and the continuous thinking of the process of abandonment of the ruins, in order to solve the problem. At the archaeological site, history is no longer a point in time, but a linear time period, and thinking is the most important part of archaeological work.
The author is at work
But sometimes due to experience limitations, encountering some relics will also be confused. Exploring the spiritual world of the ancients is often the ultimate pursuit of archaeologists. Mr. He Nu once concluded in "How to Explore the Ancients and What They Think" that spiritual culture archaeology is based on social psychology, including three core views of nature, society and religion, as well as two systems of symbols and art. When excavating the ruins, I will also follow the relevant clues within the framework and try to restore the truth of the ruins. This process of thinking is joyful, it is not only a truth-seeking emphasis on the discipline, but also close to a romanticism that goes back to history.
During the break, it became my romantic hobby to search for monuments in the nearby wilderness with my colleagues, and these monuments scattered in the wilderness were mostly forgotten and lacked protection. The picture shows a special Ming and Qing Dynasty double-hole arch bridge.
The Warring States Vertical Cave Tomb excavated by the author is compared with the ancient dwellings of the Ming and Qing Dynasty cave dwellings in the village, and the shape is derived from the same origin, which is the so-called "death is like life". Visiting the elderly, they learned that the folk customs in the village to the last century tomb shape system is still in the earth cave style, and the inheritance of cultural concepts can be seen.
In the field, I will also clearly feel the continuity of history. And the core of the continuity of Chinese civilization as I understand it is agricultural society. When I found crop seeds in the ancient cultural layer, when I found that some of the excavated pottery forms are still used today, I understood that the millet and millet foods that accounted for 70% of the ancient people's diets during the Longshan culture period were also a carrier of civilization spanning thousands of years. As Mr. Zhang Guangzhi said: "After the agricultural life begins, we can tell the history of China in a rooted and well-founded way... The history of China cannot be recognized until after the beginning of agriculture. "Agriculture, as the tough economic foundation of the ancient Yellow River Basin, was born with rituals, countries and civilizations.
Farmers picking in the fields can faintly see the southern vein of Taihang not far away
It was the autumn harvest, and the yard became a barn
Coming from southern cities, I am often amazed by the ancestral temples in these wildernesses, which are scattered at the head or end of various villages. It is hard to imagine that the ancestral temple in the village is still the core force that unites or distinguishes the settlement through blood and faith. Mr. Zhang Guangzhi concisely summarized in the "Six Lectures on Archaeology" that "shamanic civilization" outside of Confucianism is the most important feature of ancient Chinese civilization. They are in line with the early Chinese cosmology of "witchcraft and heaven".
I would like to think of every time I participate in archaeological excavations as a journey, because it can change the course of the heart. When I finish my daily fieldwork and look at the excavation area, the South Taihang Mountains are clearly visible not far away, and a sense of powerlessness arises, which cannot be experienced in books. In the face of a medium-sized settlement of less than 200,000 square meters, this short period of excavation is not enough to get close to its true face - the field is too vast, the two excavation areas of hundreds of square meters are as small as a drop, and for three months I seem to have exhausted my energy, but I cannot restore the truth of history, as if I have found a lot in the strata, but very little is really understood. On the one hand, field archaeology made me further master the skills of archaeological excavation, which made me feel relaxed and simple, but on the other hand, it made me realize how difficult archaeological work aimed at revealing the face of history is so difficult.
However, perhaps it is this difficulty that brings the satisfaction and joy of seeking truth, and I am still looking forward to the next "journey".
On the day before leaving, I took a group photo with some of my classmates and workers who were still working in the field
2022.1.20 On the shores of Jiangxia Tangxun Lake
Ideals of archaeological rivers and mountains: