Chao News reporter Ye Yilin correspondent Liang Xinyun Jiang Sheng.
There are new discoveries in the archaeology of Liangzhu. A few days ago, the major archaeological discoveries in Zhejiang in 2023 were announced, and the Shenjiajia site in Tonglu, Hangzhou was among them.
The site of Shenjia is located in Shenjia Village, Fenshui Town, Tonglu County, after more than a year of archaeological excavations by the Hangzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Tonglu County Museum, a site with the accumulation of Liangzhu culture period as the main body was found here, with a distribution area of about 40,000 square meters and 3 relics unearthedMore than 70,000 pieces, mainly Neolithic stone products.
According to the research and demonstration of archaeologists and relevant experts, the handicraft workshop of the nature of stone tool processing plant exists at the Shenjiajia site, which is an important discovery of prehistoric stone tool production and processing, and fills the gap in the prehistoric stone tool production and manufacturing chain in the Yangtze River Basin.
How was this site discovered? Through it, what secrets can we get a glimpse of the ancient kingdom of Liangzhu 5,000 years ago?
What was a guess 13 years ago has become a reality.
How was the site of Shenjiajia discovered?
Lang Xufeng, director of the Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology Division of the Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Parks and Cultural Heritage, said that from 2021, Hangzhou will fully implement the "archaeological pre-positioning" system, that is, underground cultural relics exploration will be carried out before land transfer to better protect historical relics and relics. The site of Shenjiajia was discovered during a "pre-archaeological" survey.
The site of Shenjiajia is located in Shenjiajia Village, Fenshui Town, Tonglu County, on the shore of a U-shaped bay of the Fenshui River from the map. Guan Xinyu, the on-site executive leader of the Shenjiajia project of the Hangzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, told reporters that when she arrived at Shenjiajia for the first time, she was pleasantly surprised by the situation at the scene. "We have collected stone tools and pottery shards from the Liangzhu period on the surface, such as stone arrowheads, stone adze blanks, etc., and there are a lot of them, so there must be excavation value here. Guan Xinyu said that these inconspicuous-looking ordinary small stones actually have traces of human processing, and archaeologists can quickly judge them with experience.
The decision to focus on the excavation of the Shenjiajia site was due to another consideration: not far from here, there is another historical site of great significance.
In 2010, the first archaeological excavation of the Neolithic jade processing plant in the Yangtze River basin, the Fangjiazhou site, was also discovered on the bank of a large U-shaped bend in the Fenshui River.
At that time, some experts speculated whether there would be similar sites in the Fenshui River Basin. After the excavation of the Fangjiazhou site, relevant archaeologists have also searched for it, but unfortunately they have not been found.
Thirteen years later, what was once a conjecture has become a reality. After nearly a year of excavation work, in the upper reaches of the Fangjiazhou site, another stone tool processing site from the Liangzhu culture period has begun to show its true face. The distribution area of the Shenjiajia site is about 40,000 square meters, through the excavation and cleaning of 1,500 square meters, a total of more than 200 relics such as ash pits, tombs, pillar pits, stone tool piles and other relics in the Liangzhu culture period, 10 relics such as tombs, ash pits, ash ditches and other relics in the historical period, and 3 relics were unearthedMore than 70,000 pieces, mainly Neolithic stone products, including stone shovels, stone adzes, stone knives and so on.
Why was the stone tool processing plant located next to the watershed river?
Don't look at these stones that look ordinary, but they may have been ground out little by little by the ancestors of Liangzhu. Guan Xinyu pointed to a stone shovel and told reporters that the more square part above is tied with a wooden stick, and the blade below is sharpened very thin, which can be used to turn over the soil and cultivate.
Stone axes are used for hunting, and stone adzes are used to chisel wooden ......To put it simply, it's for work. Guan Xinyu said that the jade in the ancient city of Liangzhu was a symbol of social status at that time, while stone tools were indispensable production tools for the daily life of the ancestors of Liangzhu.
However, there are also some "special" places in these common production and living utensils: in the process of anti-excavation of the Shenjiajia site, archaeologists have found the same "X" carved symbol on many stone tools. "This symbol has also appeared on Liangzhu period pottery found elsewhere, so it is no coincidence. Guan Xinyu said that it is not yet known what this carved symbol represents, and it still needs to be further studied and demonstrated.
There are many stone tools unearthed, can we determine that the Shenjiajia site is a stone tool processing plant? Not really.
After combing the site, the archaeological staff found that the stone tools unearthed at the Shenjiajia site not only have complete stone axes, stone knives and other "factory standard parts", but also unfinished semi-finished products, blanks, peeling pieces, etc. In addition, many tools for making stone tools have been found, such as grinding stones, stone hammers, etc. In other words, the tools and assembly lines are there, and it is likely that this is a "prehistoric factory".
Why was this "prehistoric factory" located on the waterfront river?
Wang Zhengyu, deputy director of the Hangzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that on the one hand, local materials can be used here. The river brings a large number of rocks downstream, stranded on the banks of the U-shaped bay, and most of them are solid stones that have been tested by erosion and impact, which is very suitable for making stone tools. On the other hand, the riverside transportation is also very convenient. Water transportation was the main mode of transportation for the ancestors of Liangzhu, and it was also convenient to open a factory by the river and transport the made stone tools to other places. In this way, there is no need to dig rocks in the mountains, and there is no need to carry them laboriously, so it is not the best place to "open a factory".
There are still many unsolved mysteries about the "strings" of stone tool processing plants.
In addition to the study of stone tool making itself, the Shenjiajia site may also help us unravel more secrets of the ancestors of Liangzhu.
In May last year, Hangzhou organized more than 30 experts and scholars to hold a discussion meeting on the archaeological excavation of the Shenjiajia site.
Experts at the meeting agreed that the Shenjiajia site is an exciting new archaeological discovery, filling the gap in the prehistoric stone tool production and manufacturing chain in the Yangtze River basin. In particular, the successive discoveries of the Shenjiajia site and the Fangjiazhou site show that there may be more stone tool processing plants in the Fenshui River Basin, and the concept of "prehistoric stone tool industrial site group in the Fenshui River Basin" can be considered.
From the Fangjiazhou site to the Shenjiajia site, the age and spatial location are different, like a string of sugar gourds," said Wang Ningyuan, a research librarian at the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.
For example, the two ruins of Shenjiajia and Fangjiazhou are very large, and this large "industrial park" produces so many stone tools, for whom to use? Could there have been an earliest exchange**? How many workers are working here at the same time? What does their day look like?
Professor Luan Fengshi of the School of History and Culture of Shandong University elaborated on the deeper significance of studying these two sites: the period in which the Fangjiazhou site and the Shenjiajia site are located is about 6000 to 4000 years ago, spanning 2,000 years before and after, these two millennium is the most critical moment of the origin and formation of Chinese civilization.
Wang Zhengyu, deputy director of the Hangzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, gave an example, for example, in the tombs of the Shenjiajia site, only 3 tombs each unearthed 1 pottery spinning wheel, and the rest of the tombs did not find burial goods, and the tombs of the Liangzhu period that have been excavated before will basically have burial goods, can it be guessed that the hierarchical differences in Liangzhu society are actually more disparity? This provides some evidence for our study of the social organization structure and social division of labor in the Liangzhu period.
Of the 40,000 square meters of the Shenjiajia site, only about 1,500 square meters have been excavated and cleaned so far, including the burial area and some production activity areas, and there are more important areas waiting for further discovery by archaeologists.
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