Today (15th) morning, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage held the progress of the major project "Archaeological China" in the first quarter of 2023 in Beijing.

The five projects released are from Hebei, Yunnan, Gansu, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia, revealing rich cultural relics from the Neolithic Age tens of thousands of years ago to the Song and Yuan Dynasties.

A New Archaeological Culture: Sitai Site in Shangyi County, Hebei Province

　　Located in Shangyi County, Hebei Province, the Sitai site is an early and middle Neolithic site.

Approved by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, from 2020 to 2022, the Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology and other units conducted systematic archaeological investigations and excavations on the Sitai site, and recently made important discoveries.

　　The area of ​​the Sitai ruins is about 150,000 square meters, more than 40 house sites were discovered by archaeology, and more than 800 pieces of pottery, stone, bone, and shellfish relics were unearthed, which can be divided into five groups of cultural relics with different ages. Among them, the first and second The remains of the group are in the transitional stage from Paleolithic to Neolithic.

The first group of cultural relics dates from 10,400 to 10,000 years ago. Six nearly square and half-crypt chamber sites were discovered. Stone tools, fine stone tools, polished stone tools, bone horn tools, and animal bones were unearthed. The pottery includes cylindrical pots, Plate-shaped utensils, etc., the surface of the utensils is stamped with circle patterns or embossed with folded lines and grid patterns.

The second group of cultural remains dates from 9,200 to 9,000 years ago. Four nearly square and half-crypt chamber sites were discovered, and pottery plates, stone grinders, and many bone needles and bone cones were unearthed, showing a continuous development with the first group. Characteristics.

　　The first and second groups of remains, represented by typical artifacts such as embossed cylinder-shaped pottery pots, pottery plate-shaped utensils, fine stone leaf stone tools, and grinders, have distinctive cultural characteristics and are preliminarily judged to be a new archaeological culture. An important breakthrough in Neolithic archaeology in the northern region.

Groups of house sites found in archaeological sites have confirmed the emergence of early settled villages in the northern region, showing the development and transformation of human survival from mobile habitats in the Paleolithic Age to gradual settlements in the Early Neolithic Age.

The microlithic industry inherited from the tradition of wedge-shaped microlithic core technology in the Nihewan Basin for more than 10,000 years, showing the continuity of culture and population, and providing typical and direct evidence for the study of the transition between the Paleolithic and Neolithic ages in northern China.

Large lakeside shell mound site: Jinning ancient city village site in Yunnan

　　Gucheng Village Site is located in Jinning District, Kunming City, Yunnan Province. It is a large lakeside shell mound site in the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

In 2020, the Yunnan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology discovered the ruins of Gucheng Village in cooperation with the archaeological work of infrastructure construction. Since 2021, it has been turned into an active archaeological excavation with the support of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

　　The Gucheng Village site covers an area of ​​about 42,000 square meters, and the existing shell mounds are as thick as 6.5 meters at the thickest point, which is formed by the alternating stacking of a large number of snail shells whose tails have been broken and lime soil layers.

The carbon-14 dating is 3600 to 2500 years ago, approximately equivalent to the Shang Dynasty to two weeks in the Central Plains.

The remains of the Shang Dynasty can be divided into two sections, the early and the late. In the early section, a well-preserved oval-shaped moat settlement was found, consisting of a central platform, a peripheral moat and slope protection. The area of ​​the central platform is about 27,000 square meters, and the circumference of the moat and slope protection is about 600 meters. , this settlement pattern lasted until the two-week period.

In the late Shang Dynasty, a batch of earth pit tombs and urn coffins were discovered.

The remains of the two-week period are mainly residential relics such as house sites, piles of snail shells, ashes, and movable surfaces. Most of the house sites are square and semi-crypt.

More than 4,000 cultural relics such as bronze wares, pottery wares, jade wares, stone wares, bone wares, and wood wares were unearthed.

　　The Gucheng Village site is the first complete Shang and Zhou period moat settlement discovered in the core area of ​​Dian culture. It has distinctive cultural characteristics and represents an archaeological culture earlier than Dian culture. The archaeological cultural system of the Shang and Zhou dynasties in the Yunnan area provides important clues to study important issues such as the settlement form, livelihood mode, ethnic group composition, and environmental changes of the ancient Dian Lake in the Dian Lake area before the emergence of the Dian culture.

A large-scale architectural site in the Qin Empire: Sijiaoping site in Lixian County, Gansu Province

　　The Sijiaoping Site is located in Li County, Longnan City, Gansu Province, and is a large architectural site of the Qin Dynasty.

From 2020 to 2022, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology and Fudan University will form a joint archaeological team to carry out systematic archaeological investigation and excavation.

　　The Sijiaoping Site is located on the top of Sigezi Mountain in the northeast of the county, with an altitude of 1,867 meters. The original mountain top was flattened to form a mountain top platform with an area of ​​about 28,000 square meters. Exploration found that the platform is surrounded by rammed earth walls and contains a large number of rammed earth building foundations. site.

The buildings at Sijiaoping site are well-structured and well-ordered, with a large rammed earth platform as the core, and the overall structure presents an obvious centrally symmetrical pattern.

The excavated part is mainly composed of a square rammed earth platform in the middle, four groups of auxiliary buildings facing the four sides of the earth platform, and a quadrangular curved ruler-shaped auxiliary building. The buildings at the corresponding positions in each direction have the same plan and column network layout.

The side length of the rammed earth platform in the middle is about 27.8 meters. In the center of the platform, there is a square semi-crypt space with a side length of 6.5 meters. The four sides of the platform are connected to two walkways.

The middle parts of the four sides of the central rammed earth platform correspond to four groups of ancillary buildings respectively. There are two existing opposite nearly square rammed earth platforms.

The four corners of the central rammed earth platform are distributed with curved ruler-shaped rammed earth foundations, which are also surrounded by scattered water. The edges of the foundations are surrounded by pillar holes and pillar foundation stones, and scattered pillar foundation stones are scattered on the foundation.

The outbuildings are connected by rammed earth walls, and several courtyards are separated to enclose the central earth platform.

The unearthed relics are mainly building materials, including cloud pattern tiles, Jomon tiles, fretwork floor tiles, hollow bricks, pottery water pipes, etc.

　　According to the unearthed building materials and manufacturing techniques, the Sijiaoping site should be a relic after the unification of the Qin Dynasty. The overall building complex has a typical central symmetrical pattern, which is different from the architectural space of daily life and reflects a strong etiquette. A group of ceremonial buildings related to sacrifice has important academic value for the study of Qin Dynasty politics, etiquette system and architectural history.

A brand-new type of kiln industry: Suyukou Porcelain Kiln Site in Helan County, Ningxia

　　The Suyukou Porcelain Kiln Site is located in Suyukou, Helan Mountain, Ningxia. It is a handicraft production site of fine white porcelain in the Western Xia Dynasty.

From 2021 to October 2022, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Ningxia Institute of Archeology and Fudan University conducted archaeological excavations.

　　The Suyukou Porcelain Kiln site covers an area of ​​about 40,000 square meters, and 13 kilns were found. On the surrounding hillsides, pits for mining porcelain clay, coal, quartz, lime and other porcelain raw materials and fuels were also found.

The archaeological work excavated two kilns No. 1 and No. 2 (Y1, Y2).

Y1 and Y2 are horseshoe-shaped semi-down-flame steamed bun kilns built with stone strips and composed of fire chamber, kiln chamber, chimney and retaining walls on both sides.

The remains of the workshop share two kilns, which use coal as fuel. There are mud storage pools, potter's wheel pits, glaze vats, storage rooms, etc.

The kiln furniture is mainly straight-shaped porcelain saggers.

When firing, the saggers are used for firing, and the gaps between the saggers are sealed with glaze.

Porcelain products are mainly fine white porcelain, mainly daily-use utensils such as bowls, plates, cups, and dishes, as well as large-scale utensils such as vases and jugs, and building materials.

The fetal white is delicate, the glaze color is warm and moist, the white is slightly bluish, and the glass texture and light transmission are strong.

Judging from the unearthed artifacts, Y1 and Y2 belong to the Xixia period, and the burning began later in the early Xixia period.

Many pieces of saggers inscribed with "official" characters were found in the site, which can be inferred to be the firing site of the Xixia court porcelain, which has the nature of Xixia "official kiln".

　　The Suyukou Porcelain Kiln Site is the earliest Xixia Porcelain Kiln site discovered so far, revealing a brand-new type of kiln industry. It is the first time that a large-scale firing technique of sealing the mouth of a sagger with glaze was discovered outside Shanglin Lake in Zhejiang Province, and it was first discovered in Northwest China. Porcelain-making techniques that use a large amount of quartz in the porcelain body, enamel and saggers have filled the gap in the production of fine white porcelain in Northwest China. The complex kiln industry also reflects the history of economic and cultural exchanges between the Song Dynasty and Xixia.

An extremely important royal building: the foundation site of the No. 1 large-scale building at the Liao Shangjing Site

　　Liao Shangjing site is located in Lindong Town, Bahrain Zuoqi, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It is one of the best-preserved ancient capital sites in my country and the first batch of key cultural relics protection units in the country.

Liao Shangjing is the earliest, longest-used and most important capital in the Liao Dynasty.

The plane of the Liao Shangjing site is slightly in the shape of a "day", and consists of two parts: the imperial city in the north and the Seoul city in the south.

　　From June to October 2022, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Institute of Archeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Inner Mongolia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology formed the Liaoshangjing archaeological team to conduct a large-scale building site (2022JZ1) in the southwest of the Liaoshangjing Imperial City. archaeological excavation.

　　The No. 1 large-scale building base (2022JZ1) is located in a courtyard on the west side of Nanmen Street in Huangcheng, facing south, and is the main hall in the center of the courtyard.

Archaeological excavations have confirmed that the building underwent three large-scale constructions during the Liao and Jin dynasties, and the axis position, orientation and courtyard size of the building remained unchanged during the three constructions.

When the building was first built in the Liao Dynasty, the hall was nine rooms wide and four rooms deep, with a platform in front.

The reconstruction in the Liao Dynasty was the largest construction. The hall is nine rooms wide and five rooms deep, and both the front and back are out of the platform.

After the reconstruction in the Jin Dynasty, the scale of the building was slightly reduced. The hall is seven rooms wide and four rooms deep. There is an altar in the center of the hall to house statues.

The unearthed relics mainly include architectural components, ceramics, clay sculptures and copper coins.

　　Building foundation site No. 1 is the largest building foundation site in the southern area of ​​the Liao Shangjing imperial city, surpassing the palace buildings in the palace city of the Liao Dynasty found so far, and it is inferred that it should be an extremely important royal building in the capital.

According to the "History of Liao Dynasty", there are Confucian temples, Guozijian, temples and Taoist temples and other important early Liao buildings in the southwest of the Liao Shangjing imperial city, which provides clues for confirming the nature of the No. 1 construction site.

　　(CCTV reporter Tian Yunhua and Wang Xiaolin)