Mr. Zhang Hai first briefly introduced Mr. Zhao Haitao's personal experience and the academic significance of the new archaeological discoveries at the Erlitou site in recent years. Mr. Zhao Haitao is the fourth leader of the Erlitou team of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and has been participating in the archaeological work of the Erlitou site for more than 20 years since 2002. In recent years, the archaeological work of the Erlitou site has made very gratifying progress, and the research around the Erlitou site has also expanded from the discussion of the Xia and Shang boundaries in the past to the study of settlement morphology and the comprehensive exploration of early dynasties through multidisciplinary cooperation. In particular, the multi-grid layout discovered in recent years is of great academic value for us to understand the capital of such a dynasty as Erlitou.
1. Previous work
At the beginning of the lecture, Mr. Zhao Haitao first introduced the archaeological work carried out in the past at the Erlitou site. The Erlitou site was discovered by the famous archaeologist Mr. Xu Xusheng in order to investigate the "summer ruins". After conducting an in-depth study of the literature, Mr. Xu Xusheng determined that the western Henan and southern Jin regions were the most important areas for the study of Xia culture. In 1959, at the age of 72, Mr. Xu set out from Beijing to investigate all the way to Yanshi, and under the leadership of local cultural relics cadres, he found a rich accumulation at the Erlitou site. In his investigation report, Mr. Xu said: "We saw that this site was quite large, but we did not pursue the four solstice. If what the villagers said was true, it was really a metropolis at that time, and it was very likely to be the capital of Shangtang. In the autumn of that year, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences began to excavate the Erlitou site, which has been more than 60 years. The excavation and research of the Erlitou site can be roughly divided into four stages:
Xu Xusheng and the Preliminary Report on the Investigation of the "Summer Market" in Western Henan in the Summer of 1959
The first stage was from 1959 to 1979, and the focus was on the general positioning of the cultural phases and time frames of the site, and a plan for the four phases of the Erlitou culture was initially formed, which laid a reliable time frame for other studies on the Erlitou site. Palaces No. 1 and No. 2, remains related to bronze casting, and burials of bronze and jade artifacts were discovered, which were of the highest rank among the sites of the same period discovered at that time. These works confirmed that Erlitou was a capital ruin, established the important academic status of the Erlitou site in the study of Xia and Shang culture and early Chinese state, and provided excellent data for archaeological and historical research in the Xia and Shang periods.
The second stage was from 1980 to 1998, and the work in this period made many advances and breakthroughs on the basis of the previous ones. In terms of excavation, sacrificial remains, copper casting workshops, and more aristocratic tombs were found (some of them were buried with bronze vessels, and the large bronze vessels, the bowl, the tripod and the three famous inlaid turquoise bronze medallions were excavated at this stage), which enriched the cultural connotation of the Erlitou site and highlighted the status of the Erlitou site in the history of Chinese civilization. In terms of cultural staging, according to the relationship between multiple groups of continuous strata and rich remains, the staging was refined, and each period was divided into early and late periods, which laid a foundation for deepening the research on other aspects of Erlitou culture on a finer time scale.
In the third stage, from 1999 to 2018, the focus of Erlitou's work shifted to the exploration of the settlement form, overall layout and evolution process of the site. This coincides with the turn of Chinese archaeology from settlement archaeology that began in the nineties of the twentieth century. Through the exploration and excavation of the Erlitou site itself, as well as the comparative study of other settlements within the scope of Erlitou culture, the settlement form of the Erlitou site as a capital is summarized, including: the well-shaped trunk road network, the layout of the "nine-square grid", the early palace area, the late palace city, the palace complex, the official workshop area, the copper casting workshop, the turquoise processing workshop in the south of the palace area, the sacrificial area and sacrificial relics in the north of the palace area, the aristocratic residence and burial area, and the outer wall of the palace area and the workshop area.
According to the distribution of residential sites and tombs found in each district, and the relationship between the Q7 wall west of the workshop area and the "well" shaped road in 2012, Mr. Zhao Haitao speculated that the "nine-square grid" formed by the "well" shaped road network may be the residential areas and burial areas of different families and groups in addition to the palace area and the workshop area. The newly discovered wall Q7 on the west side of the workshop area is likely to be the east wall of the large walled facilities on the periphery of the aristocratic residence and burial area west of the workshop area; It is further speculated that in addition to the periphery of the palace area and the workshop area, the periphery of the aristocratic residence and burial area of the other grids of the "'well' zigzag nine-square grid" should also be surrounded by walls. In addition, are there regular boundaries around the site, and defenses such as walls and moats? What about other handicraft workshops? Are there large cemeteries and more high-grade burials? What is the connotation, difference and connection between each grid of the "Nine Square Grid"? On the basis of previous understanding, in order to fully understand the complete appearance of the Erlitou site, the excavators began the next step.
Floor plan of the ruins found at the Erlitou site from 1959 to 2018
2. New discoveries and new understandings
The fourth phase of archaeological work at the Erlitou site, which began in 2019, excavated thousands of square meters at more than 20 sites. Mr. Zhao Haitao summarized the gains so far in this stage as follows:
1. Overall layout
A number of arterial roads and the walls on both sides of them were discovered, revealing the multi-grid layout of the capital city of Erlitou. The excavation work was first carried out in the southwest corner of the "well" shape. This area was chosen because it was assumed that if the speculation was true, it would be the most efficient to excavate here, and it would be possible to discover the intersection of the road and the corner of the wall of the four areas. The excavation results were satisfactory, revealing the southwest intersection of the palace area, the southwest corner of Miyagi, and the southern edge of the No. 8 foundation. In addition, the northwest corner of the wall of the workshop area found on the east side of Gongxi Road ruled out the possibility that Q7 of the wall west of Gongxi Road discovered in 2012 was the west wall of the workshop area, and verified the speculation that it was the east wall of the grid west of the workshop area. This discovery gave the excavators great confidence, and then gradually advanced according to the assumption, drilling and dissection combined, and more roads and walls were discovered, the overall situation is: the road on the north and south sides of the palace area extends to the west for at least 440 meters, which is more than the 295 meters wide from east to west of the palace area, and there are walls parallel to it on both sides of the road, so it is speculated that there is at least one partition to the west of the workshop area, the palace area, and the sacrificial area; The road on the east side of the palace area extends for at least 200 meters to the north, and a wall parallel to it is found on the west side of the road, and the road on the west side extends at least 330 meters to the north, and there are walls parallel to it on both sides of the road; At 330 meters north of the road on the north side of the palace area, there is an east-west road with a width of about 14 meters from north to south; More than 270 meters east of the east wall of Miyagi, there is a north-south road about 13 meters wide from east to west, and there are walls on both sides. From this, it can be seen that there are at least two divisions to the east of the workshop area, the palace area, and the sacrificial area.
Of the various districts, the palace district is the most important: it is centrally located; The area is the largest; The road around the palace area is the widest (about 18 meters, and the width of the outer roads in other areas is about 14 meters); The roads surrounding the palace area were formed at the earliest time (the early part of the second phase began to form and continued to be used until the late part of the fourth phase, and the other roads began to form around the third phase). These reflect the centrality of the palace district.
The grand pattern of the multi-grid style of the Erlitou site can be summarized as follows: the palace city is in the center, the dignitaries are guarded, the hierarchical planning, the partition and the residence, the wall outside the district, and the residence and burial are integrated. The rigorous, clear and regular planning and layout shows that the cultural and social structure of Erlitou is obviously hierarchical and orderly, and the ruling pattern is orderly, which reflects the mature and developed planning ideas, ruling systems and models at that time, and is the most important symbol of Erlitou's entry into the dynastic state. This is a major breakthrough in the understanding of the layout of Erlitou Duyi.
The newly discovered trunk road and the walls on both sides of the Erlitou site
2. Handicrafts
Handicraft archaeology is an important part of the study of ancient society, and handicraft workshops are the key to handicraft archaeology. In the past 60 years, less than 10 pottery kilns and less than 10 pottery mats have been found in different areas from multiple periods. Since 2020, a relatively rich remains of pottery have been discovered, involving multiple stages of the pottery process, including: material preparation pits and mud, mud blanks, pottery pads, dressing tools, pottery kilns, slag, and deformed pottery. It has also excavated an existing bone and horn processing workshop with an area of nearly 100 square meters, and unearthed raw materials, blanks, semi-finished products, finished products, and waste materials of bone and horn tools, some of which are distributed in groups. According to the finished product, it is mainly used to process arrowheads, cones, hairpins, these three types of slender bone horns. According to the age of the pottery shards excavated, it may have been a bone and horn ware workshop led by merchants after the change of the Xia Shang regime. In the northwest of the site, more than 800 pieces of pottery with cinnabar were found, and there are traces of cinnabar on the inner wall, outer wall, and broken stubble of the pottery shards, and it is speculated that these pottery may contain cinnabar solution, and there may be related workshops here. These relics related to handicraft workshops are an important breakthrough in the layout of Erlitou Duyi and handicraft archaeology, and provide important materials for the study of handicraft technology, process, organization and management, the relationship between handicraft production and the political culture of the Xia Dynasty, and the social situation at the time of the rise and fall of the regime in the latest stage of Erlitou culture.
The newly discovered remains of pottery at the Erlitou site, the bone and horn ware processing workshop, and the painted Zhu pottery shards
3. Palace District
The palace area covers an area of almost 110,000 square meters. Over the years, the excavation area of the palace area is nearly 20,000 square meters, and the large and medium-sized rammed earth building foundations known through exploration and excavation are concentrated in it, which are large-scale, regular and orderly, indicating a high degree of concentration of political and religious power.
The early large-scale buildings were multi-courtyard type, represented by the No. 3 and No. 5 base sites, and belonged to the second phase of the Erlitou culture. The two foundations are juxtaposed from east to west, and there is a passage between them, and there is a drainage culvert in the passage (about 50 cm wide, less than 1 m deep, with a bottom plate on the bottom side, a cover plate on top, and a vertical plate on both sides). The courtyards of both sites have the tombs of nobles from the same period.
Base Site 5
In the later period, it was a courtyard-style palace complex with a central axis layout, represented by the No. 1 base site group and the No. 2 foundation site group. The No. 1 site group includes the No. 1 site, the No. 7 site, the No. 8 site, and the rammed earth wall that connects them, with an area of 15,000 square meters. The No. 2 base site group includes the No. 2 base site and the No. 4 base site, which have a common axis, which was built in the third phase of the Erlitou culture and was used until the late fourth phase.
Base Site Group 1
To the north of the palace area is the sacrificial area. A large pit of 2,200 square meters, 4-7 meters deep, was found, and there were a variety of activity remains, including rammed hard houses, sacrificial relics, hard stepping surfaces, pottery paved pavement, etc., including the continuous accumulation from the late stage of the first phase to the fourth phase, of which the second phase of the accumulation is the most abundant. The use of young pigs for sacrifice has been found in many places.
To the south of the palace area is the government-run handicraft workshop area, where copper casting workshops and turquoise processing workshops are mainly found. The copper casting workshop was mainly excavated in the sixties and eighties, and there are many remains of copper casting: pouring yards, pottery kilns for baking pottery fans, pottery fans, crucibles, copper slag, copper blocks, tools, etc. In the northeast corner of the workshop area, about 8,000 grains of turquoise were unearthed in one of the pits, including turquoise raw materials, blanks, semi-finished products, finished products, scraps, and waste products, which may be mainly used to process turquoise tubes, beads, and inserts. The turquoise dragon and bronze medallion inlaid with turquoise unearthed at the Erlitou site in the past may have been processed here. The turquoise dragon is almost 70 centimeters long and includes both the base and the body itself, which is made of turquoise flakes of various shapes ranging from 2 mm to 9 mm in length. Each turquoise piece is large on the front and small on the back; The front is smooth and the back is slightly rough, so that the surface can be tightly sealed, the side is firmly bonded, and the processing is exquisite. The turquoise dragon has a copper bell on it, and the tongue of the bell is jade, which may be related to the sacrifice. In recent years, a high-grade tomb of the second phase has been discovered about 300 meters east of the palace area, and a turquoise dragon has also been unearthed, and there is also a copper bell next to it.
Turquoise dragon
There are two forms of handicraft production in Erlitou Duyi: large-scale workshops and small-scale processing sites. Although there were large-scale workshops and walled workshop areas, handicraft production was not strictly limited to workshop areas and workshops, but was relatively scattered, and even small workshops and processing sites were distributed in the palace area; Multiple production locations produce a variety of textures at the same time. In the late second period, with the emergence of walled facilities in the workshop area, the smelting and casting points tended to be concentrated, and the smelting and casting activities began to converge in the southern part of the workshop area, and the copper casting workshop was gradually formed until the early stage of the fourth period. In the late fourth phase, the smelting and casting point was not limited to one copper casting workshop, and some artifacts were cast or repaired outside the workshop area. In addition to the large turquoise workshops, turquoise materials can be found at many excavation sites within the site, and there may be multiple small-scale processing sites and workshops. Turquoise materials have also been found in copper casting workshops, and turquoise artifacts may also be being processed.
4. Diachronic changes in the layout of Erlitou Duyi
After a detailed introduction to the previous work and recent discoveries of the Erlitou site, Mr. Zhao Haitao summarized the diachronic changes in the layout of the Erlitou site.
The remains of the first phase of Erli cover an area of about 1 million square meters, mainly in the central area of the site. The high-grade remains of this period mainly include burial pottery vessels, turquoise bead tombs, and some small bronze objects, which are at least a central settlement.
The second phase of the relics covers an area of about 3 million square meters. During this period, part of the main road around the perimeter of the palace area has appeared, and the palace area has been formed, but there is no wall on the outer side. The remains in the palace area are mainly the No. 3 and No. 5 foundation sites. Copper casting workshops began to process more complex bronze ware, and turquoise workshops also began to process turquoise products. The tombs of the nobles of this period were buried with turquoise dragons, inlaid turquoise bronze medallions, etc., and the level of craftsmanship was very high. The main elements of the capital city have appeared, indicating that the Erlitou site was the political, economic, cultural and ceremonial center of Erlitou culture at this time, and it was the capital.
In the third phase, the Erlitou site continued to prosper, and the pattern changed greatly. Walls appear on the periphery of the palace and workshop areas, which, according to recent discoveries, appear in a multi-grid pattern, with each grid probably having a wall. The No. 1 and No. 2 sites are both courtyard-style buildings with the main hall within the wall, and the architectural pattern is more complex. Many tombs were buried with bronze jukes, and large jade ritual vessels appeared. Handicraft manufacturing activities are generally more developed.
The fourth phase can be divided into two stages: morning and evening, and the early stage is still in a prosperous state. At the beginning of the late period, it should still be the capital of the Erlitou culture, and the pottery assemblage in the tombs is still the Erlitou culture, and there is no pottery from other cultures. More complex and larger bronze vessels appeared, and larger jade objects, such as jade knives nearly 70 centimeters long, were also seen in bronze medallions inlaid with turquoise. However, changes have since occurred, and most of the main elements of the capital have been destroyed, such as the main road network, the Miyagi city wall, and the No. 1 foundation site group, etc., and the overall distribution area has been greatly reduced to less than 1 million square meters. More Zhanghe-type pottery from the Yueshi culture and the Xiaqiyuan culture appeared in groups in the Erlitou settlement, and the people they represented participated in and even led the destruction of the Erlitou capital. There are also some large-scale rammed earth projects that were built, used and abandoned in the late stage of the fourth phase, such as the No. 6 foundation site, the No. 11 foundation site, and the No. 10 foundation site. Copper casting workshops and turquoise workshops continued to be used, and even new turquoise tool processing sites appeared until the entire site was abandoned.
In general, there is a relatively big change in the urban layout between the second and third phases of the Erlitou culture, the road system has expanded from only the part that surrounds the palace area to a larger area, each area has changed from no wall to walled, and the large rammed earth buildings have also changed from open to closed pattern with walls, but the pottery lineage is in the same vein as before, the city is still in the grid layout and construction of the main road planning, the direction of the main rammed earth construction projects is the same, and the great change in the urban layout can be regarded as a change in the planning thinking and ruling concept of the ruling class. In the late fourth period, there were devastating changes between the first and second phases, and most of the elements of the capital city were destroyed, which may be related to the change of Xia Shang regime. With the abandonment and loss of the main elements of the Erlitou capital city in the second stage of the fourth phase, the Erlitou cultural city sites in Zhengzhou, such as Dagonggu, Dongzhao and Wangjinglou, were also abandoned one after another, indicating that the Erlitou culture and political power represented by them declined at the same time and as a whole due to emergencies. As for the continued use of copper casting workshops and turquoise workshops in the latest stage, and the emergence of some new rammed earth buildings, it may be related to the fact that at the beginning of the establishment of the Erligang regime, the bronze casting technology had not yet been mastered and its own bronze casting workshop was built, and the casting workshops and craftsmen at the Erlitou site were still needed. To the second phase of the lower layer of Erligang and the second section of Yanshi Mall, after establishing their own copper casting workshop outside Nanguan and Yanshi Mall in Zhengzhou, the copper casting workshop of Erlitou site lost its meaning of existence, and the Erlitou site was completely reduced to a general settlement, and there were no high-level large-scale relics on the Erlitou site since then. This is also similar to the situation of the Yinxu site in its latest stage.
3. Communication
Teacher Zhao Haitao was at the lecture site
In the exchange session, Mr. Sun Hua pointed out that Mr. Zhao Haitao has been engaged in and presided over the field archaeological work of the Erlitou site for a long time, and is not only the most familiar with the archaeological materials of the Erlitou site, but also has a deep understanding of the Erlitou site. The Erlitou site is a large site of the scale of the capital, and the archaeological work of this kind of large-scale site is relatively easy to solve the problem of vertical chronology, but it is quite difficult to solve the problem of horizontal spatial layout, which must be gradually solved through long-term field archaeological work, and it requires the vision, method and technology of the overall archaeology of large ruins and archaeology of the capital. Although the ruins of Erlitou have not yet discovered and confirmed the outer walls and moats, the internal layout of the multi-grid layout has been discovered, which basically ascertains the distribution and chronological relationship of large buildings in the palace, and there are many discoveries of residential sites, tombs, and handicraft remains, which can be called one of the most information-rich ruins in the ancient capital city known at present.
At the same time, Mr. Sun Hua also raised three questions to discuss with Mr. Zhao Haitao. The first is the issue of the boundary of the capital of the Erlitou site. Now it looks like the perimeter of the Erlitou site is irregular, but at the beginning, Erlitou should have a relatively regular boundary as a capital, and there are no new clues. Second, there are relics of rammed earth buildings, aristocratic tombs and handicraft workshops in many grid areas in Erlitou, whether it is possible that there are different ethnic distributions around it like Yin Ruins and Zhou Yuan; How to understand this internal protection if each area has a fence. Third, the formation of absolute royal power in Erlitou from the layout of Erlitou Duyi may be an important topic that can be further discussed.
In addition, the audience also raised some questions, such as the analysis of the origin of Qiyuan culture and Yueshi culture pottery unearthed at the Erlitou site, the data of carbon-14 age, the age and process of the bronze medallion, and the basis for the detailed staging of the late fourth phase of Erlitou. Teacher Zhao Haitao responded and answered one by one.