On January 12, the press conference on important archaeological discoveries in Shaanxi in 2022 was held in Xi'an, announcing the latest progress of archaeology at the Taiping site. Archaeological confirmation shows that the Taiping site is the largest and most well-preserved Longshan period ring trench settlement site found in the Guanzhong area of Shaanxi Province so far, filling the gap. As one of the core areas for the origin and development of Chinese civilization, the development process of civilization from trickling streams to the confluence of rivers has never been broken.
Archaeological excavations confirmed that the Taiping site is a large-scale Hakka Zhuang II cultural settlement site, composed of two ring moats juxtaposed in the east and west, with a site area of not less than 1 million square meters and an age of about 4150-3700 years ago.
Various forms of residential buildings have been found at the site, including cave-style buildings using adobe, semi-crypt buildings with two bedrooms and a courtyard, and an artificial rammed earth platform that may be related to the building. More than 20 tombs from the second period of the Hakka Zhuang culture period were found in the site.
Various relics such as pottery, stone tools, bone horn tools, mussels and jade objects with distinctive age characteristics have been unearthed in various relics. A large number of animal and plant remains have also been found in various ruins. The skeletal remains of unearthed animals mainly include domestic animals such as pigs, sheep and cattle, as well as wild animals such as deer, Chinese round field snails, and river mussels; Float plant remains include millet, millet, rice, wheat, barley, etc. This shows that the ancestors of the Taiping site adopted a variety of livelihood modes such as planting, gathering, livestock raising, fishing and hunting, which provided an important basis for understanding the ancestors' understanding of natural resource development, ecological environment changes and human-land relations, especially the discovery of wheat provided clear evidence for understanding the eastward transmission route of wheat.
Wang Xiaoqing, leader of the archaeological team at the Taiping site and researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the systematic excavation of the trinity of the Taiping site raffinity-residence-tomb shows that the Taiping site is the largest and most complete preserved Longshan era ring moat settlement site found in the Guanzhong area so far, filling the gap and providing more comprehensive information for understanding the origin and early development of civilization in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. The Guanzhong area is one of the core areas for the origin and development of Chinese civilization, and the data of the Taiping site make up for the weak link in the exploration of the civilization process in this core area, and confirm that in the main root area of China's excellent traditional culture, the development process of civilization from trickling streams to the confluence of rivers has never been broken. (Main station reporter Lei Kai, Yang Yutong, Zhao Liang)
(Source: CCTV News Client)