[Explanation] On October 9, the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology held an on-site meeting of archaeological excavation experts in Li County, Changde, where the Jijiaocheng site is located, and announced the latest archaeological excavation results of the Jijiaocheng site-a batch of Qujialing culture Among the wooden buildings of the period, the complete wooden foundation of one of the largest and best-preserved large-scale wooden buildings has been exposed as a whole.
The site of Jijiao City was discovered in 1978. It is located in Jijiaocheng Village (formerly Fuxing Village), Jiannan Town, Li County, Changde City, Hunan Province. It belongs to the northeastern part of the Liyang Plain in the Dongting Lake District. It is a Neolithic city site.
In 2020 and 2021, the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted three excavations on the inner side of the southwest city wall of the site. The excavation area was 721 square meters and a number of large-scale architectural relics were discovered.
[Concurrent] Fan Xianjun, person in charge of the archaeological excavation site of the Jijiaocheng site
This time we excavated, one of the important discoveries was to expose a group of large wooden buildings.
This wooden building can be said to be the best-preserved and most complete wooden building in prehistoric China.
Based on its opening level, unearthed artifacts, and dating data, we can basically conclude that its date is around 4700 to 4800 years ago, that is, it belongs to the middle and late Qujialing culture.
[Explanation] Fan Xianjun, the person in charge of the archaeological excavation site of the Jijiao City site, introduced that the above-mentioned large wooden structure is composed of the main building and the outer corridor.
The exposed area of the main part of the excavation area is 242 square meters, plus the total area of the corridor is 354 square meters.
According to the exploration of the ditch in the east of the excavation area, the building continues to extend east of the excavation area. The main part of the area exceeds 330 square meters, and the total area of the south corridor is not less than 500 square meters.
The main building has more than 4 bays, except for the west room, the other bays are in two fronts and backs.
In addition, the archaeologists also found a chaff layer in the west of the excavation area, with an area of about 80 square meters and an average thickness of 0.15 meters, which was determined to be pure rice husk debris.
The discovery of this bran layer is a vivid manifestation of the advanced rice farming of the ancestors.
[Concurrent] Fan Xianjun, person in charge of the archaeological excavation site of the Jijiaocheng site
According to the volume of the unearthed rice husk, a (preliminary) calculation was made on the amount of rice represented by the rice husk at that time, and the final result of the calculation is that we are within a range of about 80 square meters. At that time, it represented that the weight of hulled rice paddy might be about 22 tons.
[Explanation] Fan Xianjun said that more than 30 houses were excavated in an area of more than 700 square meters, which fully shows that the west excavation area of the Jijiaocheng site is a long-term use construction area.
These houses are basically in the same direction as the platform foundation, and are in the same direction as the surrounding trenches and city walls before the construction of the city, reflecting the stability and planning of the settlements at that time.
Except for a large ash ditch in the excavation area, typical rubbish pits, ash ditch and other relics of buried domestic garbage are rarely seen, suggesting that the buildings here may have special uses.
Column-cavity, base trough, base trough column, wooden construction and other architectural relics in different ways vividly reflect the wisdom of life of the ancestors in adapting to local conditions.
Reporting by reporter Deng Xia, Guan Ziwen, Changde, Hunan
Editor in charge: [Ji Xiang]