Important results of the excavation and research of the ancient city of Pingliangtai (Voice of Civilization)
Core reading
The ruins of the ancient city are regular and square, and the internal axis is symmetrical, which is a landmark in the history of urban development.
Many gate water drainage facilities found in the city gate and the city provide important clues for the study of the development of water resources management systems in early cities.
The ruins of the ancient city of Pingliangtai are an important example of Chinese prehistoric civilization 4,000 years ago. The various types of remains unearthed in the ancient city show the geographical advantages and cultural characteristics of the Central Plains Longshan culture from different levels, which is a concentrated expression of the convergence and integration of various regions in the late Neolithic era.
Huaiyang, Henan, known as Chenzhou in ancient times, has Fuxi's Taihao Mausoleum and Confucius' String Singing Stage, known as "look at Huaiyang in eight thousand years".
The site of Pingliangtai Ancient City is located in the southeast corner of Huaiyang County, which is an important example of Chinese prehistoric civilization 4,000 years ago. In the 1980s, 10 years of archaeological excavations revealed this early city site belonging to the Neolithic era, and this inspired discussions in the Chinese archaeological community on the origin of the city and early civilization. In 1988, the site of Pingliangtai was announced as the third batch of "National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units" and received key protection. After 2010, Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted systematic exploration and investigation on it. Since 2014, the Peking University School of Archaeology and Culture and Henan Province have teamed up to carry out systematic excavations on the ancient site of Pingliangtai for 6 consecutive years.
The ruins of the ancient city of Pingliangtai have become an important discovery in Neolithic archaeology in recent years. The plan of the site is regular and square, and the internal axis is symmetrical, which is a landmark in the history of urban development. Many gate water drainage facilities found in the city gate and the city provide important clues for the study of the development of water resources management systems in early cities. As the regional social center of eastern Henan, various relics unearthed in the ancient city of Pingliangtai displayed the geographical advantages and cultural characteristics of the Longshan culture of Central Plains from different levels, which is a concentrated expression of the integration and integration of civilizations in various regions at the end of the Neolithic Age.
The beginning of ancient city planning
People's impressions and standards of the ancient city are nothing less than square, square, north-south, symmetrical on the central axis, and extending in all directions. Such a "city" is not only a "rule" gradually formed in the course of China's thousands of years of history, but also affected the development planning of ancient cities in East Asia.
The ruins of the ancient city of Pingliangtai are the earliest examples of this urban layout. The results of systematic archaeological drilling and analysis of digital records show that the plane shape of Pingliangtai City is square and basically positive. The length and width of the city are 185 meters each, and the total area used in the city is about 34,000 square meters. The total area is more than 50,000 square meters; including the outer trenches, the area is about 100,000 square meters.
Unlike the city wall built in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River 4,000 years ago and the stone city in the northern grassland, Pingliangtai's city wall is made of rammed earth. This kind of construction method is based on local materials. The structure is solid and the walls are hard. Therefore, since the late Neolithic period, it has continued to be used in the Chinese loess belt. It is not only the standard technology of ancient Chinese city walls, but also became palaces and large buildings in the Bronze Age. Important architectural means of the base site.
Pingliangtai city site has a city gate on the south, north and west sides, and the city gates are located in the middle. The archaeological excavations of the Nancheng Gate in the 1980s revealed a group of Zhou Zheng's "gatehouse" bases. The south gate ruins consist of a doorway nearly 1.7 meters wide in the middle and the bases of two houses on both sides. The two houses were built with original adobe walls in accordance with the city walls. The doors are opposite. The two houses have the same specifications. They are single adobe buildings with a total area of 13-14 square meters and a rectangular plane.
There are roads connected inside and outside the Nancheng Gate. During the excavation in 2019, when excavating the residential area in the middle of the city, a section of bedding soil similar to the road surface was revealed, which was fine white fine sand soil, which was different from the ordinary house bedding soil. According to the inner and outer sections of the Nancheng Gate and the newly discovered pavement accumulation in the city, a road that runs through the north and south of the ancient city can be restored. Its two ends correspond to the north and south gates, and the center is located. According to the analysis of several layers of pavement accumulation, it can be seen that this road continues to be used from the beginning of the city to the latest stage of the ancient city ruins, indicating that the central axis symmetry layout is consistent throughout the ancient city.
The layout of the city is separated by this north-south axis, and the planning is strict. The comprehensive disclosure of the southeast part of the city confirmed the multi-row east-west layout of high-profile row houses. The original houses were planned and constructed in rows on the raw soil. Single-row houses start from about 20 meters inside the city wall and continue for more than 60 meters, close to the central axis; each row of houses is composed of 3-4 groups of multiple rooms, and the size of all single rooms is relatively similar. The originally planned row of rooms is about 15 meters apart, and the outdoor activities are basically connected in series; the doors of each group of houses are facing south, and the layout is regular.
Based on the neatly planned settlement layout, archaeologists were able to analyze in depth from the details to the whole, from the smallest social unit represented by a room, to the "big family" behind a suite, to the social organization corresponding to a row of houses. The crowd size and internal structure of Pingliangtai Ancient City, which is composed of multiple rows of houses.
Urban drainage system with complete layout
At the site of the ancient city of Pingliangtai, the earliest urban drainage system in China has been discovered.
The current excavation shows that the drainage system of Pingliangtai Ancient City covers the daily drainage of residential sites in the city, the drainage of city walls and the drainage of city gate channels. Among them, the archaeologists first discovered a set of pottery drains under the "gate guard house" passage of the Nancheng Gate. This set of pottery pipes and ditches is located under the road surface of Nanmenmen Road. First, dig a ditch under the doorway that is high in the city and low outside and wide and narrow at the bottom, and lay a series of pottery pipes at the bottom of the ditch, and then lay two pottery pipes of the same size in parallel to form an The combination of "Pin-shaped" pipes is then buried, and then paved into and out of the city gate.
Two sets of pottery drainage pipes were also newly discovered in the city wall on the east side of Nancheng Gate. These two sets of pottery pipes all pass through the city wall longitudinally, in order, and are not used at the same time. Each set of drainage pipes has a certain slope, which is higher in the city than outside. There are water ditches or depressions within the city, and the trenches are drained to the outside through trenches outside the city. From the analysis of the situation of the two sets of drainage pipes and the trenches that broke the southern city wall, the ancient city of Pingliangtai was once plagued by internal floods. How to effectively drain the water in the city out of the city has always been a concern of the ancestors of the ancient city. Especially from the situation of the second group of ceramic drainage pipes breaking the city wall, there is a possibility of waterlogging in the city during this period. The early-laid pipes are blocked or the drainage is not enough. It is forced to demolish (or wash) part of the city wall for drainage. After that, the gap in the city wall was repaired again, and drainage pipes were laid again for drainage. This dynamic process of fortification, drainage, repair and maintenance has vividly displayed the wisdom and life scene of the residents of the Pingliangtai Longshan period.
In order to solve the drainage in the city, there are drainage ditches on the high earth terrace houses and the outer edge of the road. During excavation in 2019, a long-row house site was found near the central axis. A pottery water pipe buried under the foot of the house from east to west was found. The water pipe specifications are exactly the same as those in the city gate and the city wall. This group of east-west pottery pipes connects a north-south ditch to the west, and on the other side of the ditch is the "central axis" avenue of this ancient city.
The pottery pipeline is an important invention that began in the ancient city of Pingliangtai in the Neolithic Age of China. The pottery water pipes unearthed at this site, whether used in the city or at the gates of the city walls, are all 35-45 centimeters long and straight. The thickness of the wall is similar to the pattern on the surface. It is a standardized product. It also proves that the drainage system of the entire city is a public facility with unified planning and completed by social groups.
In ancient Chinese city archaeology, the drainage system has always been one of the key contents of the research. This kind of pottery water pipeline technology first appeared in the ancient city of Pingliangtai, and it was used from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties to Qin and Han. Even in Chang'an city of Han, you can see the pottery water pipes that are interlocking. The connection between ancient and modern times, the planning of urban drainage systems and the management of water resources are the problems that human civilization has always faced for thousands of years. The ancient city ruins of Pingliangtai provide an example.
Rut marks 4200 years ago
On the early road surface inside the Nancheng Gate, rut marks were also found. The rut is 0.1-0.15 meters wide and 0.12 meters deep. The most obvious one is 3.3 meters long. One group of parallel ruts has a spacing of 0.8 meters, which is considered to be a rut footprint of a two-wheeled vehicle. This section of east-west road extends eastward and turns southward, leading directly to the south gate.
Carbon 14 dating data shows that the absolute age of these rut marks is no later than 4200 years ago. This may be the earliest "two-wheeled vehicle" rut mark in our country. Compared with the rut found at the Erlitou site, the origin of our two-wheeled vehicle was advanced by at least 500 years.
As an important regional center of the Longshan era in eastern Henan, a group of important relics with multicultural backgrounds have also been unearthed at the site of Pingliangtai.
The fragments and shapes of the jade crowns unearthed from the second-stage road bedding near the Nancheng Gate are similar in shape and processing characteristics to the similar artifacts of Hou Shijiahe culture and Haidai Longshan culture. A row of potable Longshan period pottery bowls was unearthed in the outdoor stacking of row houses. The surface is carved with symmetrical complex animal face patterns, which is quite close to the structure and expression of jade ornaments in the Yangtze River basin.
Four ruins of sacrificial oxen were also found in the city site. Yellow cattle is a new breed of livestock that entered the Central Plains in the Longshan era. A large number of discoveries on the site of Longshan in Pingliangtai are of great significance for studying how the yellow cattle originated from the wheat farming tradition in West Asia can be integrated into the traditional millet agricultural economic system in the Central Plains.
At present, the five-year active excavation project of Pingliangtai Ancient City has been successfully completed. In the future, archaeologists will further analyze all kinds of data and information extracted through scientific excavations over the years. The systematic study of the ancient city of Pingliangtai has just begun with the end of the excavation, and the protection and display of the ancient city of Pingliangtai is also underway. The Ancient City Ruins Museum (Huaiyang District Museum) and the Pingliangtai Archaeological Work Station of the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology have all been established and started construction, which will undoubtedly provide a solid platform for future research and protection of this important ancient city site.
Qin Ling Cao Yanpeng