China News Service, Beijing, April 11 (Reporter Sun Zifa) After the local origin of prehistoric painted pottery in China was confirmed by archaeological research, the painted pottery culture in the Ganqing area, where a large number of exquisite painted pottery were unearthed, was spread from the Central Plains or developed from local origins?
This has long been controversial in academic circles and has attracted much attention.
Wang Renxiang, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has been discovering and excavating painted pottery, repairing and studying painted pottery, and depicting a large number of painted pottery decorations at many sites for more than 30 years. It is said to be the source of Yangshao culture, which has a complete sequence of origin and development and is in the same line. Research shows that the Gansu-Qingdao region has always been in a cultural highland from the former Yangshao culture, Yangshao culture to Majiayao culture and Qijia culture. source.
He emphasized that the understanding of the source of painted pottery has changed, and the road to painted pottery needs to be re-understood.
"We can completely abandon the traditional cognition. There is no transmission route for painted pottery from the Central Plains to Gansu and Qinghai, and this kind of transmission is just the reverse route, from Longyuan to Shaanxi, Henan, Jinhu and Hubei, and then eastward to Lunansu. North, north into western Liaoning, south across two lakes".
Exquisite painted pottery unearthed display.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Sun Zifa
The clues of the painted pottery of the Majiayao culture and the Yangshao culture are clear
In an interview with a reporter from China News Agency in Beijing recently, Wang Renxiang said that at the beginning of the discovery of prehistoric painted pottery, Chinese archaeology listed the origin of painted pottery and the exploration of the road to painted pottery as an important topic.
Prehistoric painted pottery in China is widely distributed, and it has been found in the north, south, east, and west. Where did the artistic tradition of painted pottery, especially the Yellow River painted pottery originate, "is a question that must be answered and a question that is not easy to answer."
In the 1950s and 1960s, the archaeological community newly discovered a large number of Majiayao cultural sites in Gansu and the adjacent eastern Qinghai area. At the same time, some excavations were also carried out to conduct in-depth research to explore the origin of Majiayao culture and painted pottery.
The Majiayao Culture, named by the archaeologist Xia Nai, was later called the Yangshao Culture in Gansu by some researchers, but it was not equivalent to the Yangshao Culture first discovered in the middle reaches of the Yellow River.
Regarding the relationship between the Majiayao culture and the Yangshao culture, the clues reflected in the painted pottery are very clear: the archaeologists Shi Xingbang and Yan Wenming both believe that the painted pottery of the Majiayao culture is influenced by the Miaodigou type of painted pottery, and its origin is related to the Central Plains area. Yangshao culture.
In the later excavations of Qin'an Dadiwan in Gansu, Tianshui Shizhao Village, Xishanping, Wushan Fujiamen and other sites, not only the stratigraphic evidence confirmed the early and late relationship between Yangshao culture and Majiayao culture, but also a large number of painted pottery was unearthed to find clues for the source of painted pottery .
Introduction to the display of exquisite painted pottery artifacts unearthed at the Miaodigou site.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Sun Zifa
Ganqing prehistoric painted pottery has a complete sequence of origin and development
Wang Renxiang pointed out that in Gansu, there are not only the distribution of the Banpo and Miaodigou cultures in the early and middle Yangshao periods, but also the cultural discoveries of the late Yangshao period.
These findings can make a basic judgment for the rise of the prosperous period of painted pottery, that is, Gansu and eastern Qinghai were the distribution areas of Yangshao culture 6,000 years ago, and the source of painted pottery of Majiayao culture should be in this local area. Miaodigou Culture in Yangshao Period.
With the deepening of field archaeology, earlier pre-Yangshao painted pottery was discovered in Longdong. These painted pottery with initial characteristics traced the origin of painted pottery in Gansu and adjacent areas to the west back to 7,000 years ago.
At the same time, it has been found that the prehistoric painted pottery in Gansu and Qinghai has a complete sequence of origin and development. Such a sequence has not been seen in other regions in China or even in the world. Therefore, the Gansu-Qingdao area is a very noteworthy place for primitive art to grow. typical area.
He said that painted pottery in Gansu and adjacent areas originated from Longdong to the western edge of Guanzhong before 7,000 years ago.
Since the late Yangshao culture, that is, the fourth phase of Dadiwan culture (type under Shiling), the prehistoric painted pottery in Gansu has shown certain regional characteristics. Entering the Majiayao culture period, the regional characteristics of painted pottery are highlighted, forming a unique development and evolution system of ornamentation.
The audience took pictures of the exquisite painted pottery pots on display.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Sun Zifa
The source of Yangshao culture is going to Ganqing area to find
At present, there are obvious doubts about the discussion about the origin of painted pottery, as well as the research on the origin of the Miaodigou culture.
"This problem has not really been solved yet. Some say that the Miaodigou culture originated from Guanzhong, and some say that it originated from the southern part of Shanxi and the western part of Henan. Where did the Miaodigou culture come from? Is it from the Banpo culture as traditionally said, or something else?”
Wang Renxiang said that in 2003, when he published "Research and Review on the Origin of Yangshao Culture", he pointed out that the tradition of Banpo people obviously came from the arid Loess Plateau. This tradition makes people suspect that it may have grown in the Qinghai area of Gansu. The true source of Yangshao culture seems to be. To find from the area west of Guanzhong.
The subsequent publication "Research on Painted Pottery at the Dadiwan Site in Qin'an" discussed the sequence of painted pottery in Ganqing and Qing Dynasties, and expressed similar views, clearly proposing to go to Ganqing to find the true source of Yangshao culture.
Geographically, the Qin'an Dadiwan site is located on the boundary between the northwest and the Central Plains cultural belt. It is located in the northwest, but is closer to the Central Plains.
In such a special location, Dadiwan and its neighboring sites show a kind of link, which not only connects the Central Plains culture, but also develops the characteristics of the region.
It is certain that, at least since the pre-Yangshao culture period, the archaeological culture of the northwestern region adjacent to the Central Plains and the Central Plains, especially the Guanzhong region, have belonged to the same system.
In the period of Banpo and Miaodigou cultures, this integration situation continued, and it was only after the Miaodigou culture that the situation began to change, and the northwest region ushered in its own more prosperous era of painted pottery.
Exquisite painted pottery unearthed display.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Sun Zifa
Wang Renxiang emphasized, "In the past, we all believed that Majiayao painted pottery developed from Yangshao painted pottery. There is no problem with this understanding, but the inference of the path of development and evolution is not very accurate. When it comes to the source of Majiayao, we all think it is The Yangshao culture spread here from Henan, Shaanxi and Jin is not like this, there is a Yangshao distribution here.”
The painted pottery tradition in Gansu and Qinghai areas has been developed in the same vein. There is a complete chain from the appearance of painted pottery in Dadiwan to Yangshao and Majiayao. Its main body does not need to be obtained by other means of communication. The local painted pottery has the most prosperous development and the longest tradition. , is an important central area of prehistoric painted pottery in China.
He pointed out that the painted pottery culture in the Central Plains declined and disappeared after Yangshao, and the study of painted pottery should pay more attention to the study of the Gansu-Qingdao region and pay attention to its status and influence in the formation of Chinese culture.
Studies have shown that the cultural highland in Longyuan in the Gansu-Qingdao region is the source of the painted pottery culture in the Yellow River Basin of China.
During the lecture, the archaeologists introduced the exquisite painted pottery artifacts unearthed from the Dadiwan site in Gansu.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Sun Zifa
Longyuan area may be the "base camp" of Yangshao culture
Wang Renxiang said that recently, because of the new discovery of the Geliachuan site in Zhangjiachuan, Gansu, which mainly revealed a settlement in the late Banpo type of the Yangshao Culture, the academic circles re-examined the origin of painted pottery in the Gansu-Qingdao area.
He agrees with the researcher Li Xinwei's research, "The first phase of the Dadiwan culture in the Yangshao period before the Tianshui Dadiwan site shows that Longyuan, like the Guanzhong Basin, is the core area that gave birth to the Yangshao culture. It proves once again that Longyuan area is the source of the transformation from Banpo type to Miaodigou type and the wide dissemination of Miaodigou style painted pottery.”
He also pointed out in particular that nearly a thousand sites have been discovered in the Yangshao site, which is co-located with Geliachuan, in a small area, and nearly half of the sites in the early Yangshao culture accounted for, "What is this concept? 'Base Camp'".
Wang Renxiang said that these old and new discoveries in the field of archaeology have completely overturned the traditional understanding of the origin and spread of the Yangshao Culture and the painted pottery in the Yellow River Basin. The painted pottery culture in the upper reaches of the Wei River spread to the east, north and south, and had a profound impact on the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, most of northern China, including parts of the Yangtze River basin.
After the painted pottery culture in the Yellow River Basin gradually withdrew from the historical stage, the painted pottery culture spread to the west of the Hexi Corridor, and then spread westward into the Tianshan area and lasted for nearly two thousand years.
After the Han Dynasty, the east of the Balkhash River in the western Tianshan area in the lower reaches of the Ili River, the Qihe area in Central Asia and the Fergana Basin were known as the so-called Sai-Wusun culture. Remnant.
He said that the painted pottery in northwest China started from the Baijiacun culture in the Weishui Longshan Mountains and ended in the lower reaches of the Ili River in the West Tianshan Mountains, spanning more than 5,000 years of history. The painted pottery culture that stretches in such a large space and time has a profound impact on Chinese prehistory and the origin of Chinese civilization. research is important.
(Finish)