Jade making and selling jade, drinking and eating meat, exquisite dress
Can you have such a happy daily life 5,000 years ago, dare you think?
Xinhua News Agency
Photo courtesy of the interviewee of the Qujialing Culture Jade Huang unearthed from the Neolithic Site of Huangshan, Nanyang City, Henan Province
The Huangshan site reflects the social complexity and civilization process of the integration and development of cultural exchanges between the North and the South at that time, and is a key site for exploring the origin of civilization and cultural development in the Nanyang Basin and Jianghan Plain.
Li Boqian, chief scientist of China's Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties Project, once commented that the Huangshan site is "a treasure of China, once in a thousand years".
Recently, the Huangshan site in Nanyang, Henan was selected as one of the "Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries in China in 2021".
This is another archaeological "Annual Award" won by the site after being selected into the six major projects of "Five New Archaeological Discoveries in Henan in 2021" and "New Archaeological Discoveries in China in 2021".
According to the results of archaeological discoveries, it can be determined that the Huangshan site is a large central site of the Neolithic Yangshao Culture, Qujialing Culture and Shijiahe Culture involving the nature of jade tool making, reflecting the social complexity of the integration and development of cultural exchanges between the North and the South at that time. It is a key site for exploring the origin and cultural development of civilization in the Nanyang Basin and Jianghan Plain.
Li Boqian, chief scientist of China's Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties Project, once commented that the Huangshan site is "a treasure of China, once in a thousand years".
The Huangshan site not only unearthed a large number of important remains, but also has outstanding scientific and technological archaeological achievements. Important achievements have been made in dating, plants, human bone DNA, and lithological analysis of jade tools.
Through modern technology, we may be able to glimpse the life of local people in Yangshao period.
A prehistoric large jade production base
Nanyang has been famous for Dushan jade since ancient times.
The Huangshan ruins, located on the bank of Dushan Mountain in Nanyang, amaze the world with jade, and can be called a "large-scale prehistoric jade production base".
According to incomplete statistics, among the jade materials unearthed from the Huangshan site, there are more than 23,000 sandstone jade-making tools, 116 jade articles, more than 500 semi-finished or scrap Dushan jade pieces, 3,518 pieces of jade pieces, and more than 4,500 pieces of jade materials. There are also a large number of jade materials, stone tools, pottery and a small amount of jade objects preserved in situ.
According to the identification, these jade materials are mainly Dushan jade. There are various types of jade articles, such as scorpion, axe, shovel, adze, chisel, Huang, and beads.
"There was a saying in the academic community that it was called 'the collapse of the Central Plains jade culture'. The excavation of the Huangshan site overturned this concept, refreshed people's understanding of the Central Plains jade culture, and filled the gap in the Neolithic jade handicraft system in the Central Plains and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. ” Ma Juncai, the archaeological excavation team leader of the Huangshan site and director of the Public Archaeology and External Exchange Office of the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, told the Science and Technology Daily reporter.
Excavation research shows that a considerable part of the people who lived in the Huangshan site at that time belonged to "professional jade craftsmen", who were not only highly skilled, but also made a living from it.
At the excavation site, archaeologist Cheng Yonggang pointed to a site and said, "This is the most important Yangshao period house site numbered F1, F2 and workshop site that we discovered in 2018. They are all rectangular multi-unit house foundations, in the form of front and back houses. The layout of the house." He pointed to the house site on the other side to introduce: "In addition to the living and living functions, the main grinding and production of jade and stone tools are here, and there are many sand and gravel residues on the ground. After composition analysis, most of them are Dushan jade and sandstone mills. The mixture of stone powder provides key evidence for the characterization of the jade workshop."
Among the newly excavated houses of the Yangshao period numbered F16, F30 and F37, sliding doorways, wooden bone mud walls, and braised earth are typical architectural features of this period.
The hearth, workbench, and scattered stone drills, grindstones, grindstone piers, and stone tomahawks vividly reproduce the production process of jade tools.
Ma Juncai told reporters that during the excavation, they found that the tomb of a jade artisan group had a very high level of funerary craftsmanship.
5,000 years ago, "Huangshan Jade" was widely sold
Jade artifacts can not only be produced, but also sold.
On the west side of the Huangshan site, archaeologists discovered a Yangshao and Qujialing cultural artificial canal and a wharf.
This artificial canal is 27 meters wide, 7 meters deep, and about 500 meters long. It connects the natural river leading to Dushan, and together with other rivers, it forms a waterway transportation system, which completes the jade stone of Dushan and Pushan. resource supply system.
"This is the first relic of a prehistoric wharf discovered in the Central Plains. It forms a waterway transportation system together with natural rivers, artificial rivers, and ring trenches, reflecting the ancients' attention to and ability to utilize water resources." Ma Juncai said.
Not only that, the cultural relics unearthed in many places also seem to confirm that about 5,000 years ago, "Huangshan jade" has been widely sold.
"Dushan jade has strong uniqueness and identification. Lingbao Xipo Cemetery, Gongyi Shuanghuaishu Site, Hubei Baokang Mulintou Site, Shayangchenghe Site, Huaibin Sand Tomb Site, Nanyang Basin and other Many pieces of Dushan jade similar to the Huangshan site unearthed from the surrounding Xixia Laofengang site, Zhechuan Xiazhai site, Zhenping Guocheng site and other sites are suspected to be 'made in Huangshan'." Ma Juncai said, It reflects that the jade tools produced at the site have left the Nanyang Basin and reached the vast areas of western Henan, southeastern Henan, and the north bank of the Yangtze River in Hubei.
"The Huangshan site is a cradle of jade civilization in the Central Plains." He Yujian, deputy director of the Nanyang Culture, Broadcasting and Tourism Bureau, said that combined with the Huangshan site's characteristics of surrounded by two mountains of Dushan and Pushan and the intercommunication of Baihe artificial river, it proves that it has been a period of time. This is the place where the production and trade of jade wares converge.
Some people from Qujialing or outsiders
Hundreds of tombs from the Qujialing period unearthed from the Huangshan site are the highest-level tombs of this period in southwestern Henan and even in the upper reaches of the Han River.
The remains of human bones in the tombs are almost all well preserved and very rare.
Ma Juncai said that this benefited from the soil environment around Mount Huangshan.
These remains also provide first-hand information for multidisciplinary research.
Human bone DNA sampling tests conducted in collaboration with Peking University have shown that individuals in tomb number M44 are significantly related to ancient peoples in the Yellow River Basin.
"Whether the individuals in the M44 tomb came from the north because of migration, trade or war, it still needs further research." Ma Juncai said that the successful analysis of human bone DNA in the tomb of the Huangshan site is a major breakthrough in the study of the origin of civilization.
Currently, human bone DNA collection is still in progress.
Drinking and eating meat keeps their average life expectancy above 55
In the large tomb M77, double jade tombs, ivory combs, jade huang, bows and arrows, bone arrowheads and more than 400 pieces of pig mandibles were unearthed.
These mandibles are arranged from small to large and placed in layers.
"These things should be standard for chief-level tombs. They are directly in charge of the production and processing of jade in this area." Ma Juncai said that among the funerary objects in the tomb area of the Huangshan site, the pig mandible, which is a symbol of wealth, is the most distinctive. The total number is more than 1,600, making it the largest Neolithic site, and it is still being unearthed.
"A pig's jawbone means eating a pig. This shows that people's living conditions were relatively superior at that time. In the large tomb, we also found a suspected wine glass. After composition analysis, it is likely that there are remains of alcohol. Drinking and eating meat is very pompous." Ma Juncai said.
According to reports, the archaeological team found that the average life expectancy of people at that time was more than 55 years old through bone pathological analysis of the unearthed remains, which is another evidence that the nutritional status of this group is relatively good.
Exquisite life, love to dress up, and artistic cells
In the female tomb of M171 at the Huangshan site, there is a row of small bone fragments on the skull of the remains, each bone fragment is about 1 cm long, and the ends are polished and smooth. Cheng Yonggang speculates that these are strung crown ornaments.
An exquisite talc earring also appeared in the tomb, which shows that the owner of the tomb was a woman who lived a delicate life and loved to dress up.
Some exquisite small pottery pots were also unearthed in the tomb.
"We suspect that it may be containers for cosmetics, spices and the like, and we are relying on scientific and technological means to analyze." Ma Juncai said.
A knitting needle suspected of ivory was unearthed from the M172 tomb, which is also a female tomb, which should have the function of knitting.
Archaeologists will further clean up the tombs, and may be able to find weaving materials, providing important materials for my country's prehistoric textile archaeology.
Sophistication isn't just for women.
The three gravels unearthed from the Huangshan site are painted with maroon figures of labor, lying pigs, and bluegrass sketches, which are even more impressive.
"We dug it out and thought it was an ordinary stone at first, but after cleaning it, we found that "this is a colorful painting, the trinity of people, animals, and plants, and the artistic level was very high at that time.
"Ma Juncai said.