On December 9, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage held a press conference to introduce the latest achievements of the Chinese civilization exploration project and answer questions from reporters.
Li Qun, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, introduced that the "Comprehensive Research on the Origin and Early Development of Chinese Civilization" (i.e., the "Chinese Civilization Exploration Project") is a major scientific research project based on field archaeology and multidisciplinary joint research of ancient Chinese history and culture by natural sciences and humanities and social sciences. While deepening the overall understanding of the origin and early development stage of Chinese civilization, the 29 core sites in Yanshi Erli, Henan Province, have focused on key time nodes and major events, carefully designed multidisciplinary comprehensive research, and made a series of progress.
According to the press conference, about 5800 years ago, various regions on the land of China have appeared more obvious social differentiation, entering the accelerated stage of the origin of civilization, from 5800 to 3500 years ago can be divided into two eras, the ancient era and the dynastic era, of which the ancient era can be further subdivided into three stages, the first stage of the ancient era is around 5800-5200 years ago, the second stage of the ancient era is around 5200-4300 years ago, and the third stage of the ancient era is roughly equivalent to around 4300-3800 years ago。 Niuheliang site newly discovered a large platform foundation complex composed of 9 pedestals, Jiaojia site newly discovered the earliest prehistoric city site in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, nearly 20 dams were newly discovered around the Liangzhu site, Taosi site newly confirmed a Neolithic largest single rammed earth building currently found by archaeology, Shiyuan site found the corner relief of the imperial city platform and the exclusive cemetery of nobles, the central area of Erlitou site newly discovered the most important symbol of entering the dynastic state, and preliminarily figured out the distribution range and internal structure of the sacrificial area of Sanxingdui site. Compared with the understanding of the fourth stage of the source exploration project, the understanding of the connotation of civilization in the ancient era is deeper.
Since the implementation of the fifth phase of the source exploration project, multidisciplinary collaborative research has been continuously deepened. The chronological research focuses on solving the age of the spatial layout of the Shiyuan Imperial City, the inner city and the outer city, and carries out the research on the dating method of the white gray ground of the Bicun site in Xingxian County, Shanxi Province, which fills the technical gap in China. The synergistic study of zooarchaeology, plant archaeology, environmental archaeology, stable isotope analysis and paleoDNA analysis shows that the subsistence economy has reflected obvious regional differences since 7000 years ago, and the Central Plains and northern regions show a mixed agricultural production system dominated by millet and supplemented by millet, soybean and rice. The important paddy field remains found in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Basin indicate that there is a symbiotic relationship between different rice farming patterns and early complex social structures. Research on handicrafts has found that around 3,800 years ago, the handicraft production technology in the Central Plains underwent a qualitative change. At present, many tasks in the fifth phase of the Chinese civilization exploration project are still in progress, and in the future, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage will continue to promote and deepen the source exploration project with relevant departments.
Xinhua.
Jin Ruiguo, Director of the Department of Policies and Regulations of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, and the double leader of the expert group for the implementation of the Chinese Civilization Exploration Project.
1. Zhang Chi, Director of the Chinese Archaeological Research Center of Peking University, and Chang Huaiying, Secretary-General of the Expert Group for the Implementation of the Chinese Civilization Exploration Project and Director of the Xia Shangzhou Research Office of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, answered questions from reporters on the new discoveries and research of the fifth phase of the central settlement, Erlitou and Sanxingdui sites, the progress of multidisciplinary cooperation, and the strengthening of the publicity, interpretation and dissemination of research results. (Reporter Su Mo).