In the past, people were familiar with lime, and Yu Qian of the Ming Dynasty wrote "Song of Lime" at the age of 16 is the most famous: "Thousands of hammers hit out of the deep mountains, and the fire burns as if you are idle." Don't be afraid of broken bones, you have to leave your innocence in the world. "He really left his innocence in the world. In contrast, not many people know about the "Lime" of the Song Dynasty Zen master Shi Shaotan: "The furnace is from the exercise, and it is very hard and discouraged." Cover the empty palace of the king to bear the canal force, and combine the water and mud to do it once. These two poems describe the process of lime mining, firing and the "innocent" characteristics of the living environment.
Archaeological discoveries have proved that from 5,000 years ago, white gray floors, white gray wall skirts and walls rose in the Central Plains, but the age of the end was different. The white plaster wall gradually disappeared until the 80s of the 20th century, and the white plaster floor withdrew from the living room of the ancients before the rise of paving tiles since the Han Dynasty.
Lime blocks
In 1980, the excavation of the Dongxiafeng site in Xia County, Shanxi, archaeologists in T206, T208, T209, T210 in the third layer and F260, cleaned up the unearthed lime blocks weighing more than 20 kilograms, which were mixed with unburned limestone. The 14C determination of the laboratory of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences confirmed that it was artificially fired lime, and its main component, calcium carbonate (CaCO3), was fired from limestone. The excavators divided it into "early Longshan period" and "late Longshan period", and the original report believed that the latter "the basic nature of culture should belong to the category of Longshan culture in Henan". In the 1997 article "Analysis and Significance of the Late Longshan Relics in Dongxia Feng", the author believes that the remains of the "late Longshan period" belong to the Sanliqiao culture and are divided into two periods, the first period is slightly earlier than the Xia Dynasty, and the second section must have been embedded in the Xia period, which is earlier than the Yanshi Erlitou culture in Henan Province and the I.-IV. period of "Xia County Dongxia Feng". Therefore, more than 20 kilograms of lime blocks in the early Xia Dynasty unearthed in Dongxia Feng are precious, but until now the lime blocks have still not attracted people's attention.
Dongxia Feng Longshan Late Period and Dongxia Feng IV. Representative pottery
Mud Matcha
A clay trowel, also known as a trowel, is a tool used to smooth out plaster, consisting of a knife body and a handle. As far as I know, in the H6 of the late Yangshao period of the Shangbo site in Yuanqu, Shanxi, two complete pottery trowels were unearthed, which are the earliest pottery trowels found so far. H6:34 Pottery trowel, sand and gray pottery, the handle is a rectangular column with rounded corners, located in the middle of the knife body, the knife body is 38 cm long, 14.4 cm wide, 1.6 cm thick, and 26 cm high. H6:35 Pottery trowel, sand brown pottery, the handle is cylindrical, located in the middle of the knife body, the knife body is 38.5 cm long, 12 cm wide, 1.2 cm thick, 44 cm high. The original report called it an "inverted T-shaped device", and "this type of device may have been used to slap the floor or wall, or to be a plastering tool, because the side of the flat plate close to the ground has a grinding phenomenon", which is very accurate.
H6 Pottery trowel unearthed at Shangbo site (H6:34, H6:35)
In terms of the age of the ash pit and the utensils, the mouth of the H6:31, H6:32 and H6:33 pointed bottom bottles is still double lip, the bottom of H6:27 and H6:28 pointed bottom bottles is still at acute angles, and the H6:24 painted pottery bowl lip surface and the black color applied along the outside are all the styles of Xiyin culture, but the bottom of the H6:1 pointed bottom bottle is obtuse, and the H6:6 and H6:7 sand drum belly jars have additional piles along the edge, as well as H6:9 and H6:10 lids, etc., which are common pottery in the upper culture of Xiwang Village, while H6:15 The original report called the bean, the diameter is 12.9 cm, the bottom diameter is 5.8 cm, and the height is 10.5 cm. According to this, the age of H6 should be at the beginning of the upper class culture of Xiwang Village.
In the first appendix of the original report, "Research on Pottery at Shangbo Site", Ms. Wang Xiaojuan identified H6 as the late Yangshao period, and divided the late Yangshao period into two sections, early and late, represented by H7 and H78 respectively. The charcoal specimen collected at H78 was dated and corrected by the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory of Peking University, and it is more reliable to date from 2900 BC to 2840 BC. Well, H6 predates this era, around 3200 BC.
The reappearance of pottery trowels is in the relics of the late Longshan culture in Jinzhong and adjacent areas, and the handles are all hollow handles. The earliest is the 3 pieces unearthed from the Xinzhou Youzun site, "all disabled." From the remnants, it can be seen that the trowel should be rectangular and flat, with a long hollow handle at one end. This kind of tool is mostly seen in the late Longshan period in Jinzhong and adjacent areas, and the common phenomenon is the popularity of white gray surface, and it is estimated that it is a tool for painting white gray surface." H66:4 and H6:21 are all clay gray pottery, and T522(4):1 does not introduce pottery.
This kind of utensils in Jinzhong mentioned above refers to H130 (below) in Xinghua Village, Fenyang: 7 pottery trowels, remnants, sand-filled gray pottery, flat rectangular, with a tubular handle (handle) attached to the back, and a "×" shape on one side of the handle with additional piles and messy pokes. It is 6.9 cm wide, 11.6 cm long and 2.3 cm thick.
There are many similar artifacts in adjacent areas. 2 pieces were unearthed at H16 at the site of Qilan kiln Zipo, all of which were damaged, H16:2 pottery trowel is clay gray pottery, H16:13 is clay brown pottery, the original report determined that it was the late stage of the second phase of Miaodigou, but H16:5 bottles, H16:18 amphorae, etc. are Xi in the Xinghua culture, and there is also H23:4 waist in the late period, so the "late phase of Miaodigou" at the Yaozipo site is actually the late Longshan period.
Qinshui Baliping Site TG5G3(1): 8 pottery trowel knife, the remaining knife body plane is square, the front wall is smooth, and the back has a shallow hidden "×" pattern, which is similar to that of Xinghua Village. The residual length is 8.2 cm, the width is 7.4 cm, and the thickness is 1 cm.
The excavation report of the Laohushan site in Liangcheng County, Inner Mongolia introduces 3 pieces, all of which are hollow handles. One of them was unearthed, T509 (4): 14 pottery trowel clay knife, remnant, fine sand in gray pottery, residual length 9 cm, width 8.4 cm. Collect 2 pieces, both of which are sandwiched fine sand gray pottery, and the back of the knife body is first composed of a cross-shaped pattern composed of acupressure additional piles, and then the edge is pressed with additional piles. C: 3 pottery trowel, the length of the knife body is 15 cm, the width is 7 cm, C: 5 The residual length of the knife body is 10.2 cm, the maximum width is 8 cm.
Shaanxi Yan'an Lushan Pass site unearthed a piece of knife handle remnants, argillaceous gray pottery, the middle of the additional columnar fasting knife handle, and reinforced with mud strips. With a length of 18.4 cm, a width of 8.5 cm, and a residual height of 5.2 cm, this piece is relatively well preserved.
Trowel (top) and iron trowel (bottom)
Two pieces were also found in the Longshan cultural layer of the Mazhuang site in Zhengzhou, Henan, and the H14:2 pottery trowel was a clay brown gray pottery, which was rectangular plate-shaped, slightly warped at both ends, and the knife handle was a ribbon-like semicircle, but no line drawings or photos were published.
In addition, a stone trowel was also unearthed at the Dongxiafeng site, H205:7, gravel, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, the upper end is dome-shaped, and the lower is a smooth plane, slightly like a horseshoe-shaped, which should be a trowel for smearing white ash or grass mud. The residual length is 6.8 cm, the width is 6 cm, and no line drawings or photographs have been published.
It can be seen from the above introduction that the pottery trowel is sandwiched with fine sand or mud is sometimes difficult to distinguish, the hollow handle is broken, but it has reached 5.2 cm, the knife body is 15-18.4 cm long, 6-8.5 cm wide, this width is similar to a piece of iron trowel knife investigated in Lulou Village, Hebi, Henan Province in July 1960, "forging." The plastering surface is a thin iron plate with a square head and a square tail, and a handle made of flat iron strips is forged on the back. 25 cm long and 7 cm wide".
Observe the modern iron trowel in Su Ma Nian, Qiaozigou Village, Xiangfen, the iron handle of wood, the knife body is 29.5 cm long, 11 cm wide, the handle is 12 cm long, the diameter is 3 cm, and the height is 7 cm, which has become a knife for plastering cement. However, we can clearly see the trajectory of the past 5,000 years, the knife body has not changed much, the same plane, the front end or arc-shaped, and the handle of the knife has changed from cylindrical to horizontal with the development of the times, which should be more conducive to plastering.
White ash surface
There are two kinds of white plaster surfaces made of pottery trowel plasters: white plaster floor and white plaster wall skirt.
White ash floors give three examples. Among the 10 sites of the four types of "convex" shape, square, rounded square (or rectangular) and earthen kiln type in the Longshan period of the Dongxiafeng site, 9 are plastered with white plaster. Among them, F203 is a semi-crypt type rounded square, on the central white ash surface, there is a circular cooktop with embossed Jomon as the perimeter (the Jomon perimeter has two inner and outer lines, 10 cm apart), with a diameter of 1.1 meters, and the Jomon boundary has been burned into a blue-brown hard surface. The thickness of the white ash surface is 0.5-1 cm, smooth and flat. The white ash surface extends upwards with rounded corners to form a white ash wall, with a residual height of 30 cm and a thickness of 1 cm. F260 is a semi-crypt type with a doorway rounded trapezoidal white ash surface foundation, the plane is "convex" shaped, the practice of the house foundation is to pad a layer of light loess with a thickness of 24 cm on the 4th layer of ash soil, and then wipe a layer of grass soil with a thickness of 4 cm, and finally wipe a layer of 0.5-1 cm hard and flat white ash surface, there are pottery such as mustache, jar, retort, and spy, etc., which are accumulated in the late Longshan period.
In 2011, the Xinzhou River Arch site cleaned up a total of 6 house sites, all of which are rounded square semi-crypt type, sitting northeast and facing southwest, of which F1, F2, F3 are white ash surfaces, the center of F1 room is nearly square fire pond, and the periphery of the fire pond is stamped with a week; F4, F5, F6 are trampling hard surfaces.
Xinzhou River Arch Site F1 White Ash Ground
The excavation of Taosi site from 1978 to 1985 found a total of 17 house sites, 13 of which are relatively complete, which can be divided into three categories: cave type, semi-crypt type, and flat ground living room, all of which have white ash ground. F401 is a flat floor to build a living room, rounded corners, the doorway faces southwest, the construction area is nearly 25 square meters, the indoor area is nearly 10 square meters, the grass mud layer is 0.5 cm thick white ash floor and 1-3 cm white ash wall skirt.
Taosi H330 excavated white plaster wall skirt
White plaster wall skirts and wall coverings are two examples. Taosi H330 unearthed a piece of geometric pattern white gray wall skin, judged to be used on the wall of a large building, indicating that the Taosi ancestors also had decoration on the wall, but it was not found in the site.
From 2012 to 2013, nearly 200 fragments of murals were found on the ground at the bottom of the stone wall that was added and repaired during the Erlitou culture period on the east, west and south walls of the east gate site of the outer city, and some of the murals were still attached to the wall. The mural is based on a white and gray surface, and various geometric patterns are painted in four colors: red, yellow, black and green, among which the largest mural fragment is about 30 centimeters square". In 2015, a mural painted on the inner wall of the doorway of the east gate of the outer city was discovered, with an area of nearly 40 square centimeters.
The white plaster wall skirt unearthed from the Shiyuan site
Aftermath
The white ash surface plastered with lime can refer to Mr. Pei Xuesong's "Preliminary Research on Prehistoric White Ash Surface", which will not be repeated. The discovery of pottery trowels is mainly concentrated in the late Longshan cultural relics in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and Henan, while the H6 of Shangbo site around 3200 BC is still an isolated case, and the connection between them depends on the careful observation of archaeologists in the future. For example, Gansu Qin'an Dadiwan F411, the interior is rectangular with rounded corners, the living surface is 0.2-0.4 cm thick white ash surface, the surrounding wall residual height is 3-5 cm, and the inner wall also has a white ash surface with a thickness of 0.2 cm. On the living surface in the middle of the back wall of the interior, there is a ground painting painted with black pigment, and the ground painting content is 2 figures, and there are animal ornaments in 1 rectangular box, which requires a pottery trowel such as H6 of Shangbo ruins to wipe the mud before it can be drawn.
Gansu Qin'an Dadiwan F411 ground painting
Since the coexistence pottery of Taosi H330 has not been published, the white gray wall skirt and wall surface of Shiyuan are located on the ground at the bottom of the stone wall that was added and repaired during the Erlitou culture period, and it is not clear what is the relationship between the geometric pattern of the wall skirt and the two ancient cities of Taosi and Shiyuan. But that rugged style already reveals the message of an ancient civilization. Within these cultures or sites, there are three distinct categories:
A natural tread surface that does not use white ash;
The second type uses white gray floors and wall skirts, the former such as Dongxia Feng F203, river arch F1 and other white gray floors, and the outside of the cooktop (fire pit) also has decorative patterns;
Regarding the Dadiwan F411, where the ground painting is located, Mr. Zhang Zhongpei pointed out: "The painting on the ground of this religious building allows people to see the fragment scene of people practicing witchcraft in the fourth phase of the Banpo site. Religion, like anything else, has both content and form. The content is ideological, believing, and teaching, and the behavior can generally include techniques and rituals. The appearance of witchcraft scenes and religious buildings depicted in F411 shows that witchcraft has developed to a fairly complete point and has gained widespread belief. The wall skirts are also painted with geometric patterns in different colors, such as the Tao Temple H330 and the so-called "murals" of the stone ridge.
There is a difference between the three categories in the use of the population level or the use of functions, and the age is consistent with the origin and development of early civilization, the emergence and progress of the country, in this sense, the white ash floor and white gray wall skirt, wall is also one of the signs of entering civilization.
The author is a research librarian at the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology
Source: Popular Archaeology, November 2023