Located in Lingyuan City, chaoyang city, Liaoning Province, the Niuheliang site covers an area of 58.9 square kilometers, belonging to the Hongshan culture of the late Neolithic period, which has a history of more than 5,000 years. Since its discovery in 1981, the Niuheliang site has unearthed many archaeological discoveries that shocked China and foreign countries, and has been listed as the third batch of national key cultural relics protection units.
The ruins such as the goddess temple, altar and stone tomb excavated in the Niuheliang site are of great significance to the study of the history and culture of the ancient times, and this series of discoveries proves that as early as the late Hongshan culture more than 5,000 years ago, the social form at that time had transitioned from primitive society to the primitive ancient kingdom stage. The discovery of the Niuheliang site also corresponds to the words of Li Ji, the "father of archaeology": "We should use our eyes and legs to go north of the Great Wall to find materials on ancient Chinese history, where we are older." ”
Since its discovery, the Niuheliang site has attracted the attention of archaeologists at home and abroad, and the jade pig dragon in the Hongshan culture is also known as the "first dragon in China". In addition to the archaeologists' interest in the Niuheliang site, many tomb robbers have also targeted this place of origin of Chinese civilization and taken a violent approach to excavating ancient tombs in the ruins. Moreover, because of the huge area of the Niuheliang site, the whereabouts of these tomb robbers are very secretive, and often after the tomb robbers succeed, cultural relics experts find that the ancient tombs have been stolen.
Since the excavation of the Niuheliang site began in 1983, archaeologists have excavated only 183 pieces of jade, which are the brilliant crystallization of Chinese civilization and have incomparable historical and cultural value. Because hongshan jade is very precious, it naturally aroused the covetousness of tomb robbers, and various cockroach thieves poured into the Niuheliang site, stole countless precious cultural relics from it, and then sold them for a sky-high price.
In May 2015, liaoning public security organs, together with police in Tianjin, Inner Mongolia and other places, cracked the case of excavating ancient cultural sites and ancient tombs. Successively, 10 excavation gangs were destroyed, 175 tomb robbers were arrested, and 1168 cultural relics were recovered, of which 125 were first-class cultural relics alone. According to the estimates of archaeologists, the value of these stolen cultural relics is at least 500 million yuan, and their historical and cultural value is immeasurable.
In China's traditional culture, jade culture has a pivotal position, and a piece of mutton fat jade is a priceless treasure. With the depletion of jade mineral resources, it is becoming more and more difficult to find a piece of beautiful jade, and some outlaws naturally aim at the ancient jade buried in the ancient tomb. These ancient jades, which have been precipitated over the years, seem to be rare treasures for thousands of years in the eyes of collectors.
The Niuheliang site is a representative of the Hongshan jade culture, and the jade pig dragon excavated is even more famous in the world. In addition to the grave robbers' eye for these treasures in the Niuheliang site, individual archaeologists cannot withstand the temptation of money and use the convenience of work to embezzle cultural relics. During an excavation in November 2010, a jade dragon was unearthed at the archaeological site, and experts put it in their pockets and sold it for 3.2 million yuan.
In November 2010, the Liaoning Institute of Archaeology organized experts to excavate the No. 2 site of the Niuheliang site, and deng Mao, a cultural relics expert, participated in the excavation. According to the rules of field archaeology, at least 2 or more experts must be present at the excavation site, and detailed records of the excavated cultural relics should be made. However, in this excavation operation, the original 4 experts could not be present for various reasons, and finally the on-site work fell on the head of Deng Mao.
The excavations went smoothly, and it wasn't long before a jade pig dragon was unearthed. However, because only Deng Mao was alone at the excavation site, this provided him with an opportunity to take advantage of it, so he took advantage of the two migrant workers at the scene and conveniently put this jade pig dragon into his pocket. After Deng Mao took this jade pig dragon, he did not make a sound, until 3 months later, through the introduction of Liu Haiwen, the former deputy director of the Ao Han Museum in Chifeng City, he sold it to a person named Zhang Zhiguo for a sky-high price of 3.2 million.
There is a saying that if a person does not know, he will not do anything unless he does it. Later, when the police investigated the case of excavating ancient tombs of ancient cultural sites, Shunten found out the fact that Deng Mao stole cultural relics, and he was also punished as he deserved.
Cultural relics are the most precious historical and cultural heritage of a nation, and the protection of cultural relics is equivalent to the protection of its own cultural history. As the origin of Chinese civilization, the Niuheliang site is known as "the place where the world's first flower bloomed and the place where the first bird flew". This ancient site that can see the dawn of China's five-thousand-year-old civilization is even more worthy of people's protection.