The press conference on important archaeological discoveries in Shaanxi in 2022 held on the 12th revealed that the archaeological excavations of the large ring moat and adult cemetery at the Jiangliu site in Shaanxi are major discoveries in Yangshao archaeology in recent years, especially in the late Yangshao period, and are important archaeological gains in Shaanxi to explore the origin of Chinese civilization.
The Jiang Liu site is located northeast of Jiang Liu Village in Jingyang County, Shaanxi Province. In 2022, the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology discovered a late Yangshao ring moat and cemetery in order to cooperate with the land reserve work of Qinhan New City. The discovery should be the southwest section of the ring moat, which was manually excavated, and the accumulation in the ring trench was mainly yellow-brown, gray-black silt, and there were few pottery pieces unearthed, and the type of vessel was common typical of the late Yangshao period, such as pointed bottom bottles, mouth bowls, sand jars, etc.
The Jiang Liu Yangshao cemetery was found outside the southwest section of the ring moat, and 58 adult tombs were found in a concentrated distribution. The cemetery seems to have been planned, there is no broken relationship between the tombs, and no traces of burial tools have been clearly found, but some of the bones may be wrapped in woven materials and buried. The phenomenon of "body cutting" is more common, and it is more common for the palm or fingers to be cut. In addition, the "hood burial" of the tomb owner's head in a clay pot and the fetal bone fragmentation in the pelvis of the tomb owner were also found.
The burial objects unearthed in the 30 tombs, including bone tools, jade tools, stone tools, stone charms, turquoise charms, pottery, etc., are relatively numerous, but the deviation is serious, and the vast majority of bone tools are in shape. The excavation location of these bone tools is relatively fixed, mostly located on the outside of the left arm of the tomb owner, the number varies from a few pieces to thirty or forty pieces, placed in bundles, different lengths and types. These bone-shaped artifacts are the first discovery of Yangshao archaeology, and archaeologists have analyzed that their function may be related to early textile handicrafts, which may be weft knives and early bone shuttles, and one end of the bone shuttles is carved with grooves to facilitate the winding of weft threads on the shuttle. Judging from the traces, there are no traces of use, it may be unused, and this group of people in the cemetery may be specialized in making bone tools.
The large ring moat and adult cemetery of Jiang-Liu site are major discoveries in Yangshao archaeology, especially in the late Yangshao period, which provide important data for the in-depth analysis of the settlement morphology and social structure of the late Yangshao settlement in the Guanzhong area of Shaanxi. The excavation and research of the Jiangliu site is an important archaeological harvest in Shaanxi to explore the origin of Chinese civilization. Compared with the middle Yangshao period, the scale of Jiang Liu Huan Trench is larger and the burial classification is more obvious, suggesting that the further development and deep differentiation of Jiang Liu Yangshao society is an important material embodiment of the late Yangshao society moving towards a civilized society.
Text/Reporter: Lei Kai, Yang Yutong, Zhao Liang
Editor/Zhu Wei