Text | Jiang Ran Jiang
Edit the | Jiang Ran Jiang
Despite considerable skepticism, Yanshi's erlitou is more widely considered to be the last capital of the Xia Hou, so it may be Chen Xing, where Taikang, Yi and Jie lived.
So, is Erlitou the last capital of the Xia Dynasty?
Analysis of China's earliest countries
Xinzhai is an interesting site that illustrates not only the continued occupation of a strategic location, but also the laborious filling of previous moats and ditches.
The process of enlarging a fortified town was then built with soil excavated for the new external moat.
The ruling authorities must have considerable power and a strong impetus to force the people to take actions that can only be seen as a dual process.
Instead of simply changing the course of part of the external moat, unilaterally enlarging one side or adding a second part, instead of uniformly transforming the entire encirclement in all directions.
Excluding the area of the city walls and moats, the internal area at the end of the new chai period was about 700,000 square meters, which is the largest known Longshan, the site of the late Xinzhai period, and of course a reasonable candidate for the summer capital before Erlitun.
In addition, in addition to the historically identified Xia key area north of Songshan-Wan'an Mountain, a rare site belonging to the early Xinzhai stage of the Xia culture has been discovered.
Its unique defensive technique - a square, concentric ditch, marked by rounded corners of slightly different widths but fairly evenly spaced, provides indisputable evidence that the occupants intended to project power into the hinterland and protect the road to the heart of summer.
The outermost ditch spans about 12 meters and ranges in depth from an astonishing 5 meters to 6 meters, and is characterized by a stepped shape on both sides. A defensible road crosses a series of ditches in the southwest, away from the main direction of the threat.
Despite a great deal of skepticism, not to mention strong opposition and rejection, continues to plague all previous sites with pre-summer cultural identification.
But Yanshi's erlitou is more widely regarded as the last capital of the Xia Hou, so it may be that Chen Xing, Taikang, Yi and Jie all lived here.
Many problems remain, including the apparent discontinuity between the cultural complex visible in Erlitou and the characteristics of the late Longshan culture.
and the apparent heterogeneity of the population, the mixing of clans and nationalities, which was expected by the integration of conquered groups, rather than a single Xia entity.
Despite being backed by a small area of hills, Erligou lies in the eastern part of the Luoyang Plain, between the Luo and Yi rivers that flow eastward, which provide sufficient water and form a natural defensive barrier.
The site is about 2.5 km from east to west and 1.5 km from north to south, and includes buildings ranging from palaces to ordinary and dedicated areas, such as workshops and cemeteries, all of which preserve evidence of a complex culture.
Surprisingly, the site lacks large earthen fortifications that define the representation of Yongsan and the previous erlitou, and only the royal city is protected by a limited double wall.
Erlitou geographical location
However, Erlitou is located in a strategically advantageous area consisting of towns in the late Longshan period, Yangshao, and pre-Erligang periods.
Over thousands of years, several capitals and other important defensive cities will also be built within a 25-kilometer radius, including the Han and Wei Ancient City, Chenzhou and Luoyang.
Ongoing investigations continue to force changes to the envisaged nature, role and significance of Öhlitu.
It is clear from the artifacts that have been found that the local population pursued all the highly skilled occupations suitable for the royal capital, while trade, tributes and conquests led to the acquisition of various non-native products.
Agriculture flourished on the surrounding fertile land, domestic animals including cattle, sheep, pigs and dogs were raised, and fishing increased the basic food supply.
Specialized handicrafts make complex items from a wide variety of materials, including bones, stones, clay, jade, metals, lacquerware, and plant fibers.
Weaving technology was very advanced, and wheel-throwing ceramics appeared. Ironically, the free use of wine was condemned by the Shang Dynasty before it was thought to haunt its rulers, and wine was also fermented and enjoyed, as evidenced by bronze wine vessels.
An early bronze foundry containing copper fragments and molds was discovered, and many other metalwork was found that provided evidence of significant production capacity.
Among the items made of copper and high-copper bronze alloys are fish hooks, jewelry, knives, axes, and relatively simple crucibles for everyday and ritual purposes.
Weapons are certainly highly valued, as many weapons are made of bronze, and many bronze arrows have also been found.
The use of bronze instead of stone for this single-use, irretrievably lost item was interpreted as evidence of an adequate supply of copper and extensive mining activities.
The elaborate workmanship of symbolic jade weapons, such as axes, knives and halberds, must have been intended to commemorate the military strength and authority of the owners of the mausoleums and tombs, indicating the importance that the Xia Dynasty attached to military values.
The 108,000-square-metre, well-divided royal residence was not only meticulously planned and meticulously designed, but also protected by a minimally reinforced enclosure in the shape of a slightly twisted rectangle.
From the extant remains, the eastern wall was originally 378 meters long, the western wall 359 meters, the southern wall 295 meters, and the northern wall 292 meters. The east and north walls were built on untreated ground, and the western and southern walls were built on shallow foundation pits.
The walls are 3 meters high at the base, 1.8 to 2.3 meters at the top and 0.75 meters high, more symbolic than defensive, apparently to minimize markings and thus conceptually isolate the royal domain rather than protect it from invasion.
They consist only of reddish-brown soil rammed into a thickness of 4 to 12 cm, built in the second period of Erligou and maintained continuously thereafter.
Another 2-metre-wide rammed earth wall of similar structure has recently been discovered about 18 to 19 metres on the south side.
Extending parallel to the south wall, the hitherto uncovered 200 m of construction on a slightly wider base trough is likely part of a second enclosure that is completely encircled, and there have also been recent reports of some fragments of the wall on the western side.
Somewhat surprisingly, the wall apparently dates back to the mid or late fourth century, so it is likely after the Shang Dynasty conquests.
Apparently, the Shang Dynasty simply occupied the ancient imperial city and reinforced the perimeter with a typical double wall, building a limited fortress for local and foreign residents.
Since the capital has traditionally been understood to consist of huge walls, divided royal residences, palace-like buildings and temples, the absence of walls in Erlitou has long raised questions about the city's role.
However, beyond the questioning of the applicability of this assumption, there can be no safe site without a wall, provided that the area benefits from natural strategic defenses and that external strongholds can be established to control access routes.
The recently discovered castle located in the Xingyang Pagoda Stone Vault, most likely intended to project Xia power within its territory, undoubtedly belongs to this forward defense.
Tuas Valley is located about 22 kilometers northwest of Zhengzhou, 13 kilometers south of the confluence of the Yellow River, and about 70 kilometers east of Erlitou.
Mang Shan is just to the north, and many small rivers and creeks have been found throughout the area, and the Lo River now runs through the western part of the wall, but the sedimentation and 30-degree inclination of the northwest corner wall suggest that it may have once flowed outside the original wall.
By the end of summer, Tashiku will be at the forefront of the historically predicted interaction zone with the Yellow and Chi Rivers, the nascent Shang culture.
However, Tashiku was too close to Erlitou to take seriously the current claim that Tashiku was the capital sought by King Tang in advance.
Excavations have uncovered a large amount of evidence that there are four Erlitou cultural layers in the Tashi Library. The second and third floors show a thriving site, but the occupation decreased thereafter, as well as the sudden invasion of the lower erligang elements.
This suggests that Shang dynasty forces may have occupied the city during the third and fourth periods of Erlitou, which coincided with the widespread decline of the Erlitou culture in other countries, as well as Tengxiafeng and Mengzhuang.
The loss of Tashiku must have been the result of a complete invasion that would allow the Shang dynasty to launch a direct attack on Erlitou by the Xia allies who passed through Ku and Kunwu, one in the southeast and the other in the northwest.
Therefore, the time interval between the conquest of the city and the final conquest of the Xia Dynasty was short. This fortified rectangular city covers an area of about 510,000 square meters, or about one-eighth of the size of Erlitou.
It is protected by a continuous wall, which is further strengthened by an external moat, which apparently makes use of part of the channel of the So.
The river flows along the lower southwest part of the south wall, then through the city and then around the outside of the urban complex.
Although there are reports of varying scales, the entire site appears to be less than 1,000 meters from east to west and north to south.
A ditch in the north currently extends about 980 meters, and the southern wall is about 950 meters. However, the last third or so of the west gradually shrinks in a trapezoidal shape, only 300 meters.
Although the walls were apparently not damaged, after the conquest, the Shang Dynasty embarked on an extensive construction program aimed at ensuring the fort's safety in enemy terrain.
Key measures included the construction of a deep trench on the inner edge of the original moat, which greatly widened the moat and added the surprise of sudden deepening.
Although these renovations obscure the exact width in many places, the original summer moat may present a water 5 to 9 meters wide with a functional depth of about 3 meters and a very uneven bottom profile, about 3.25 meters wide.
Subsequently, excavations during the Shang Dynasty extended it to new foundations of the city wall, with a width between 13 and 14.55 meters, including a clearly defined maximum depth of 1.5 meters, with a depth of 4 to 6.8 meters.
The original summer walls consisted of clear layers carefully built on level ground. Although the enlarged moats cut into their exterior, overall, the layered additions of the Shang dynasty still enhanced them.
The remnants of the walls are currently slightly less than a meter above the ground, but in ancient times they probably reached at least 3 meters. Marked by the usual trapezoidal shape.
They are about 7 meters wide at the top and 13 meters wide at the bottom. Some parts of the wall are located on alluvial sand sediments, others span the backfill area, and the entire structure conforms to the topographical features.
Usually consisting of seven fairly uniform layers of rammed earth, ranging in thickness from 4 to 10 cm, the walls used a complex mixture of soils excavated from different layers of the moat.
The interior wall is somewhat unusual in that it is formed by overlapping an upward sharp protrusion with a wider section that covers it, extending in some areas to a new inner foundation even before adding three exterior sections.
All the walls show an inclined silhouette, indicating that as the height increases, staggered small wooden planks form a stepped structure.
Despite evidence from Xishan that China's earliest states emerged directly as political entities rather than from a sudden rise in economic centers, this general view remains unchallenged.
Nevertheless, the work of archaeologists that is more sensitive to issues of resource access and control is gradually shaping the development of the otherwise cohesive Emirate of Yongsan into a well-defined economic and religious center.
The integration of the ability to exercise broad administrative control adds a new dimension to the picture of the initial state.
Both the Xia and Shang dynasties were agriculture-based economies, in which animal husbandry played a vital role, but the discovery of metals and the development of metallurgical techniques.
Coupled with the difficulty of maintaining electricity and the demands of foreign wars, the focus was soon on protecting important natural resources such as copper, tin, copper, copper, copper, and salt.
In order for the country's workers to manufacture the necessary luxuries, ceremonial and military objects in sufficient quantities, large-scale production activities must be carried out. Mines, smelters, transport corridors and manufacturing facilities must also be protected by local robbers and external robbers.
Bibliography:
Zhang Guangzhi: The Chinese Bronze Age.
Li Xueqin: "Xia Shang Zhou Chronicle Study Notes".
Xia Shang Zhou Broken Generation Project Expert Group: "Xia Shang Zhou Broken Generation Project 1996-2000 Stage Results Report".