Recently, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage held a work meeting on the important progress of the "Archaeological China" major project, and announced a number of important new discoveries.
Among them, expressions such as "discovering more roads and walls on both sides" at the Erlitou site in Yanshi, Henan seem to be unremarkable, but in fact they are of great significance. These new discoveries further confirm that the earliest dynastic capitals in China have already used "net". The concept of gridding” is used to plan and manage.
"Discover more roads and walls on both sides", indicating that there may be more than "nine palaces" in the city of Erlitou
"Grid" management is a common term in recent years.
For example, there are "grids" in the community, and each "grid" also has grid members, grid lengths, and so on.
At the Erlitou site, archaeologists also discovered a similar "grid" layout and concept, and found the earliest "well"-shaped trunk road system in China in the central area of the Erlitou site.
This road network not only connects traffic, but also divides different functional areas, forming a grand pattern of "nine palaces".
At the important progress work meeting of the "Archaeological China" major project, Zhao Haitao, the leader of the Erlitou working team of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, described the new discovery with "discovering more roads and walls on both sides".
These expressions are actually closely related to the "grid" of the Erlitou site.
Zhao Haitao introduced that since 2021, they have successively excavated many urban roads and rammed earth walls on both sides of the roads, and found that the rammed earth walls on the west side of the palace city extended more than 200 meters to the north. Based on this, it is speculated that the known workshop areas and palaces There is at least one partition in the west of the area and the sacrificial area.
"This means that the Erlitou site may not only consist of 'nine palaces', but more 'grids'." Zhao Haitao said that Erlitou Metropolis is planned to be multiple square and regular functional areas with roads and walls, forming The grand pattern of "multi-grid" establishes the basic framework for the planning and layout of the city: the three most important areas, namely the sacrificial area, the palace area and the official workshop area, happen to be in the middle road, the palace area is in the center, and the important remains are guarded in the palace area. around.
This is completely in line with the characteristics of the capital city planning of "choose the world to build a country, choose a country to build a palace, and choose a palace to build a temple".
This rigorous and regular planning and layout shows that Erlitou has a distinct cultural and social structure, distinct levels, and orderly governance structure, which is the most important symbol of entering a dynasty state.
In fact, in the history of ancient Chinese capital construction, the planning and design of "grid" is not uncommon. For example, Luoyang City in the Northern Wei Dynasty has 320 lifangs neatly distributed on both sides of the central axis of the capital; while in Chang'an City in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, symmetrical distribution on both sides of the central axis The East Market, West Market and 110 Lifang, and Luoyang City in the Sui and Tang Dynasties during the same period are also basically the same layout.
At present, many experts believe that the "grid" of Lifang and Erlitou in the ancient capital of China has the same planning and design concept.
The "grid" layout of the Erlitou capital city set a precedent for the lifang system in later generations.
Discover rich relics of handicraft industry, fill the gap of Erlitou metropolitan layout and handicraft archaeology
"Determining the production location of handicraft products can not only restore the handicraft production process and technology, but also help to conduct research on industrial layout, production organization and other issues." Zhao Haitao said that at present, the Erlitou site has found copper casting workshops, bone making workshops, green Pine ware processing workshop and some pottery kilns, etc.
In recent years, the staff has discovered a large number of remains that may be related to the processing of lacquerware in the northwest of the Erlitou site. This area may be an important area for exploring lacquer workshops.
At the same time, most of the pottery pieces unearthed in the nearly 100 square meters of bone and horn ware processing workshops newly discovered at the Erlitou site belonged to the late fourth stage of the Erlitou culture, that is, the last stage of the Erlitou culture.
These remains not only provide valuable material materials for the archaeological research on the handicraft industry at the Erlitou site, but also help to discuss important issues such as the rise and fall of the regime in the last stage of the Erlitou culture.
"Handicraft is an important foundation for the functioning of society." Zhao Haitao said that Erlitou has existed for more than 200 years and has a strong economic foundation. In addition to agricultural production, handicraft also played an important role.
Research shows that some handicraft product categories may have achieved specialized and large-scale production during the Erlitou period.
For example, the copper casting workshops and turquoise tool processing workshops in the Erlitou site have complete facilities, various procedures, and high technical levels. They have been used repeatedly for a long time, indicating that bronze smelting and turquoise tool production during this period have achieved specialization. , scale.
Among them, the turquoise products of the Erlitou culture period have reached the most prosperous stage in Chinese history.
Zhao Haitao said that after the second phase of Erlitou Culture, copper-casting activities began to focus on special copper-casting workshops in the Weiyuan workshop area. As a high-end and complex handicraft technology, the copper-casting workshops are located adjacent to the Gongcheng District, obviously for the convenience of the royal family. The nobility controls and supervises, reflecting the obvious official nature.
In addition, the results of the study show that there were multiple pottery workshops with independent sources of minerals in different periods at the Erlitou site, and these may have been small workshops with families or families as the basic unit.
This shows that the Erlitou period may have differentiated into two forms of handicraft production organization: independent and dependent.
At the same time, a certain form of trade in handicraft products may have been born during the Erlitou period.
Gao Xiangping, a professor and deputy dean of the School of History of Zhengzhou University, said that the trade of handicraft products has appeared for a long time, but it is difficult to determine the scale and form of handicraft trade during the Erlitou period.
Some important production categories, such as bronze ware, jade ware, white pottery, etc., should be controlled by nobles or even the royal family, and some may be distributed in the mode of tribute and reward; while products such as pottery and stone tools may be produced and traded by private people. .
Some scholars believe that the Shang Dynasty had developed trade, and precious objects including bronze wares could be used as commodities.
Based on this, it can be inferred that there was no trade in bronze and its raw materials during the Erlitou period.
"Integration of residence and burial" reflects the leading role of Erlitou culture
At the meeting, Zhao Haitao also announced another important discovery - the Erlitou cultural aristocratic settlement with "unity of residence and burial".
Zhao Haitao introduced that in the grid west of the sacrificial area divided by the "well"-shaped road at the Erlitou site, they found high-standard tombs in the houses of Erlitou culture nobles and in the courtyards, forming a pattern of "combination of residence and burial".
Among them, the tomb owners of many tombs showed signs of amputation and beheading.
In addition, there is a co-buried tomb where many people were buried in mass, and these tombs were rarely found in previous archaeological work.
"The layout structure of 'the integration of residence and burial' is rare in the Longshan culture of the Central Plains, and it has been strengthened and improved at this time. Similar findings have been found in the Yanshi shopping mall, Zhengzhou shopping mall, especially the Yin Ruins in Anyang, including the Yin settlements in Zhouyuan. , indicating that this system was inherited by the Shang Dynasty, reflecting Erlitou's leading role in the general process of Chinese civilization." Zhao Haitao said that these findings provide a basis for understanding the distribution of remains in this area and identifying this area as a noble residence and burial area. The important support also provides an important basis for understanding the layout of the region, diachronic changes, and social relations at that time. .
(Our reporter Wang Shengxi, our correspondent Liu Jiayi and Liang Xiaoyu)