What cultural sites are there on the Yellow River?

Cultural sites in the Yellow River Basin

The Yellow River is the mother river of our nation, which flows through the ages and breeds the oldest and most splendid civilization in the world. According to the stone tools used by ancient humans 6.5438+0.8 million years ago found in Xihoudu site on the east bank of the Yellow River in Ruicheng County, Shanxi Province, it can be considered that there were human activities in the Yellow River basin as early as 6.5438+0.8 million years ago. More than 30 stone products have been unearthed in Xihoudu, which is the earliest representative of human cultural remains discovered in Chinese mainland.

In the western post-capital culture, tools made of animal bone horns and materials used for fire are not only the earliest representatives of the Yellow River valley, but also can only be seen in other parts of China and the world.

-reflect the ape-man culture are:

Xihoudu ape-man culture

It was discovered in Xihoudu, Ruicheng, Shanxi Province 196 1 years ago, and belongs to the early Paleolithic ape-man culture in northern China.

Lantian ape-man culture

1963 ~ 1964 was found in gongwangling and chenjiawo, Lantian, Shaanxi province, in which gongwangling ape-man was10/5 million years ago, and chenjiawo ape-man was 500,000 ~ 590,000 years ago. The ape-man culture in the late Paleolithic period.

Dali ape-man culture

1978 was discovered in Tianshuigou, Dali, Shaanxi Province, nearly 300,000 to 500,000 years ago, belonging to the late ape-man culture.

-reflect the ancient homo sapiens culture is:

Ding Cun ancient culture

1954 ~ 1976 was found in Ding Cun on the east bank of Fenhe River in Xiangfen County. It was 70,000 ~ 90,000 years ago, belonging to the middle Paleolithic culture and early Homo sapiens.

Hetao newcomer culture

1922 and 1956 ~ 1960 were found in Dagouwan, Wushen Banner, Inner Mongolia, and were late Homo sapiens about 30,000 years ago.

-Modern people evolved directly from new human beings and are divided into four stages:

microlithic culture

From 10000 to 7000 years ago, cultural sites of this era were found in many places on the Loess Plateau, such as Shayuan in Dali, Shaanxi, and Xia Chuan in Qinshui, Shanxi.

Neolithic culture

From 7000 to 3700 years ago, according to the earliest discovery site and the development stage it represents, it can be divided into three stages: Yangshao culture was discovered in Yangshao Village, Mianchi County, Henan Province, from 7000 to 5000 years ago, 192 1 year ago; In the middle stage, it was called Longshan Culture, which was discovered in Longshan Town, Zhangqiu County, Shandong Province 5000 to 4 100 years ago. The later period was called Erlitou culture, which was 4 100 ~ 3700 years ago. First discovered in Erlitou, Yanshi, Henan Province, it is a cultural site of Xia Dynasty.

Banpo site, located in banpo village on the east bank of Chanhe River in the east of Xi, Shaanxi Province, is a typical matriarchal clan commune village site in the Yellow River basin, belonging to the early type of Yangshao culture, about 6000 years ago. The site covers a total area of about 50,000 square meters and is divided into residential areas, pottery-making areas and burial areas. 1953 In the spring, when Xi 'an was building a textile city, it was found that the excavation area was 1000 square meters, and rich cultural relics were obtained.

Bronze culture

From 3700 to 2700 years ago, it can be divided into three periods: the early Erligang culture, that is, Zhengzhou mall culture, was the early Shang culture from 3620 years ago; The middle period is Yin Ruins culture, that is, Xiaotun Village culture in Anyang, Henan Province, which is roughly from14th century BC to1/century BC and belongs to the late Shang Dynasty culture. The late period is Qishan culture, which is the cultural site of the capital city of the Western Zhou Dynasty in Feng Chu Village, Qishan, Shaanxi Province.

Iron culture

It appeared in the early Spring and Autumn Period of 770 BC, such as the Spring and Autumn Cast Iron Site found in Cangcheng, Xinzheng, Henan Province, the Warring States Tomb Site found in Guwei Village, Weihui City, Henan Province, and the Sui and Tang Dynasties Capital Cultural Site found around Xi 'an.

The Mesolithic Age is a transitional stage or intermediate link between the Paleolithic Age and the Neolithic Age. 1956, in order to cooperate with the construction of Sanmenxia Reservoir of the Yellow River, the Institute of Archaeology of China Academy of Sciences found beaten stone chips and stone tools at the 15 site in Shayuan area of Dali County, Shaanxi Province, and collected more than 3,000 specimens. According to the characteristics of these stone tools, they are considered to be the remains from the Mesolithic Age to the early Neolithic Age, so they were named as the first Mesolithic Culture in China-Shayuan Culture.

Since the Middle Stone Age, the Yellow River Basin has become the center of ancient cultural development in China. The characteristics of the Middle Stone Age are: the social and economic life is mainly fishing, hunting and gathering, which belongs to the natural economy, and agriculture has not yet appeared. In the Middle Stone Age, the extensive use of microliths promoted the development of hunting and gathering economy. Over the past decades, a large number of cultural remains dominated by microliths have been found in the Yellow River Basin, which may not only fill the gap in the Neolithic Age in China, but also show that the most developed area of microliths in the Mesolithic Age in China is the Yellow River Basin. Some archaeologists believe that it was on the basis of the late Paleolithic culture in northern China that the Mesolithic culture, represented by the arts and crafts tradition, was formed, and then it developed into the Neolithic culture with agricultural economy as the main factor in the Yellow River Basin. Therefore, since the Middle Stone Age, the Yellow River Basin has become the center of ancient cultural development in China.

The historical facts of the capitals in the Yellow River valley are as follows: the capital of xia Dynasty was Yangcheng (now Dengfeng, Henan Province), the capital of Shang Dynasty was Bo (now Shangqiu, Henan Province), and then moved to Yin (now Anyang, Henan Province). The capital of Zhou Dynasty was Haojing (now Xi 'an, Shaanxi Province), the capital of Qin Dou was Xianyang, the capital of Western Han Dynasty was Chang 'an (now Xi 'an, Shaanxi Province), the capital of Eastern Han Dynasty was Luoyang, and Wei Jin was Luoyang and Sui Tang Dynasties.

The Yellow River Basin is the birthplace of China culture. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, there were traces of humans here. Neolithic sites are all over the Yellow River. After entering the class society, the Yellow River basin has been the political, economic and cultural center of our country for a long historical period, and people affectionately call it the cradle of the Chinese nation.

The Yellow River Basin is the earliest developed area in China. When most parts of the world were still in ignorance, our hardworking and brave ancestors cut wood and grass on this vast land, working and living, and created a splendid ancient culture.

As early as the Paleolithic, there were human activities in the Yellow River basin. 1963 The skull, teeth and maxilla of "Lantian Ape Man" discovered in Lantian, Shaanxi, have a history of 800,000 years. The "Dingcun people" discovered in Xiangfen, Shanxi Province have also lived for 200,000 years. The "Hetao people" and their culture in the Hetao area of the Yellow River, and the cave sites discovered in Xiaonanhai, Anyang, Henan Province, are all more than 50,000 years ago. During this long time, our ancestors not only developed the material form of human beings, but also created the Paleolithic culture through hard work. They not only invented fire, but also made rough stone tools and bones. After continuous practice, they learned the drilling and grinding technology and were able to engage in hunting and fishing. The legendary Suiren and Youchao in China may be the representatives of this period. In the Neolithic Age, the population of the Yellow River Basin increased sharply and the production culture developed rapidly. From 65438 to 0920, many stone tools, bone implements and pottery were unearthed in Yangshao Village, Mianchi County, Henan Province, including stone axes, knives, pestles, hoes, spinning wheels, bone needles and painted pottery for sewing, which is the famous "Yangshao culture". According to archaeologists' research, Yangshao culture lasted for more than 1000 years, with an early period of about 6000 years ago. After a large number of excavations, archaeologists found that Yangshao cultural sites are distributed from Qinghai and Gansu to Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan. The site of banpo village discovered in Xi 'an from 65438 to 0953 is a typical representative of this period. At that time, Banpo people had begun to grow food, raise livestock, know how to spin, created large-scale huts with grass, soil and wood structures, and dug a cellar for storing food. A large number of ditches with a depth of 5-6 meters and a length of more than 300 meters were built around residential areas, which changed the original state of caves. Pottery-making technology has been quite developed. Among the unearthed pottery, there are all kinds of red pottery and exquisite painted pottery. The animal patterns on the surface of pottery are vivid, reflecting the artistic talent of ancient people. There are also some carved symbols on painted pottery, which are probably the original characters of our country.

In the late Neolithic period, the Yellow River basin was in a historical era of great changes in clan society. Production tools were further improved, patriarchy replaced matriarchal system, and private ownership began to appear. The excavation of Dawenkou, Shandong Province from 65438 to 0959 initially revealed the face of this period. According to extensive investigations by archaeologists, the remains of Dawenkou culture have been found in the north and south of the Yellow River in Shandong Province, which is equivalent to the middle and late Yangshao culture and may last even later. Judging from the excavation, the production tools at this time are already perforated stone axes, flat and thin stone shovels and short-handled pickaxes made of antlers. Stone axes, shovels, shovels and chisels are all extremely hard stones, and some also use opal with hardness of 1 1 degree. In some excavated tombs, many jade ornaments, drinking vessels and exquisite ivory carvings were also found. What is particularly striking is that there is a malachite-green bone chisel in Dawenkou No.1 tomb, which lasted for one year. According to the determination, it contains a lot of copper, which is probably the copper used at that time. In addition, it can be seen from the tombs in Dawenkou that there were many tombs in which a man and a woman were buried together, and the scale of the tombs was large and small, and the number of funerary objects varied widely. This kind of situation is rare in the tombs of Yangshao period, which shows that the society has transitioned to an era centered on the paternal line, and the polarization between the rich and the poor is becoming more and more obvious.

About 4000 years ago, the primitive commune collapsed, and his son broke the old abdication system, inherited Yu's throne and established a hereditary slave country. According to ancient documents, the Xia Dynasty existed for four or five hundred years, and generally lived in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River centered on Henan, Shanxi and Shandong. Although slavery destroyed the public ownership and equality of primitive communes, it broke the clan scope in the past, expanded the scale of production and social division of labor, and opened up unprecedented broad prospects for the development of agriculture, handicrafts and the creation of science and culture. From the excavation of Erlitou in Yanshi County, Henan Province and Dacheng Mountain in Tangshan, Hebei Province in recent years, it can be seen that there were bronzes in the late Xia Dynasty at the latest, and the early Xia Dynasty was probably the Bronze Age. The appearance of copper smelting industry caused the second great division of labor in society, and handicraft industry was separated from agriculture, which marked the prosperity of ancient culture entering a new stage.

About 3,500 years ago, the Shang Dynasty, the second dynasty in China's history, was established on both sides of the Yellow River with Henan as the center. It is a highly developed country with racial slavery. The hard work of millions of slaves promoted the greater development of agriculture and handicrafts, and made great achievements in culture, art and natural science.

According to archaeological research, Erlitou site in Yanshi was the earliest capital of Shang Dynasty, so-called "Shang Tang lived in Hao Hao". In addition to discovering the ruins of the early Shang capital and magnificent palaces, a number of artifacts such as copper slag, crucible pieces, copper cymbals (arrows), copper chisels, copper knives, copper cones, copper hooks and bronze bells have also been unearthed here, all of which are identified as bronze products. This proves that bronzes in the early Shang Dynasty were widely used not only in production tools, but also in arrows with large consumption and low recovery rate, which is rare in bronze culture in other parts of the world. In Zhengzhou, Henan Province, another site in the early Shang Dynasty was discovered, including pottery workshops, bone workshops and bronze workshops, and many gold ornaments, jade articles, agates, shells and bronze products were unearthed. In addition, glazed pottery and ancient city walls of Shang Dynasty were discovered, which provided important information for studying the appearance of primitive pottery in China and the construction of ancient cities.

After King Pan Geng moved to Yin in the middle of Shang Dynasty, the prosperity of science and culture reached a new height. In the "Yin Ruins" in Anyang, Henan Province, countless cultural relics have been unearthed in recent decades. The "Simuwu" generous bronze tripod here weighs over 500 kilograms/kloc-0, is 137 cm high, 1 10 cm long and 77 cm wide, with gorgeous patterns and complicated structure. It is the only magnificent giant among the ancient bronzes in the world. Another stone chime of Shang Dynasty, with beautiful melody and melodious voice, is 84cm long and 42cm high, and is engraved with a lifelike tiger, which is the oldest artistic treasure in China. In particular, hundreds of thousands of Oracle Bone Inscriptions with a single word of more than 3,000 words were found here, which described the political, economic, religious, cultural and other activities at that time, and preserved a batch of the world's oldest astronomical and meteorological records such as solar eclipse, lunar eclipse, stars, wind, clouds, rain, snow, rainbow and chardonnay. All this fully shows the maturity of China culture 3,000 years ago.

In the Shang dynasty, it was always thought that there were only bronzes and no ironware. However, in recent years, the discovery of iron-edged copper cymbals in Gaocheng, Hebei Province broke this conclusion. According to preliminary research, this weapon was unearthed in a tomb from14th century BC to13rd century BC, and the blade of the brass cymbal was wrought iron. At that time, the Yellow River entered the sea from near Tianjin through the east of Gaocheng. The discovery of this weapon shows that the commercial slaves living in the Yellow River valley not only mastered the technology of copper smelting, but also knew how to use iron.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period after the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Yellow River basin began to transition from a slave society to a feudal society. The new relations of production promoted the development of productive forces, iron smelting became an important emerging handicraft industry, and various vassal States used iron production tools one after another, which greatly promoted agriculture. With the development of production, the new feudal relations of production replaced the old ones of slavery, and the urban economy flourished. Xianyang of Qin, the girder of Wei, Handan of Zhao and Linzi of Qi all became famous cities at that time, and Linzi even reached a huge scale of more than 200,000 people. At this time, ideological and cultural life is more active than ever before, and various schools reflecting the interests of various classes and strata have launched fierce debates with each other. They competed to run schools and write books, which formed the so-called "a hundred schools of thought contend" situation in the history of ancient academic thought and left a wealth of cultural classics for later generations.

From the establishment of the unified empire in Qin and Han Dynasties to the Northern Song Dynasty, the Yellow River Basin remained the capital of our country and the center of politics, economy and culture. People of all ethnic groups living on the river have created more colorful cultures with their hard work and outstanding talents. According to historical records, in the Han Dynasty, people had invented papermaking and made "armillary sphere" and "seismograph for waiting for the wind", which were used to measure astronomical phenomena and test the direction of earthquakes. Printing was invented in Sui Dynasty, and movable type printing was invented in Song Dynasty. Compasses and gunpowder, which have a great influence on world civilization, were also widely spread as early as 1 1 century ago. The "Baqiao Paper" unearthed in 1957 in Shaanxi Province is a relic from the 2nd century BC to 1 century BC, which is more than 200 years earlier than the paper-making technique recorded by Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

At the same time, the scale of urban architecture is even more spectacular: Chang 'an, the imperial capital of several generations, is the starting point of the Silk Road in the Western Han Dynasty and the hub of Nantong Bashu to the west. The scope of the city is more than three times larger than the famous Roman city in the west at the same time. In the Tang Dynasty, Chang 'an had a population of1960,000 from east to west 18, and from north to south 15. Its streets and squares are orderly, and its scale is particularly praised at home and abroad. In Tokyo (now Kaifeng) in the Northern Song Dynasty, Bianhe River, Caihe River, Guangji River and Jinshui River passed through the city for more than ten miles on Friday. In the Middle Ages, it was a very prosperous metropolis. Today, we can also see the magnificent architecture, beautiful scenery, boats and horse racing in Tokyo from the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival painted by Zhang Zeduan, a painter in the Song Dynasty.

During the 1000 years from the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Northern Song Dynasty, the working people on both sides of the Yellow River not only engaged in productive labor, but also built the Great Wall, opened canals, repaired canals, built palaces, monasteries and tombs, and carried out huge engineering construction. Up to now, many ancient buildings and artistic treasures have been preserved on the ground and underground in the Yellow River Basin. Qin Qu, Han Qu and Tang Lai Qu in Ningxia, Big Wild Goose Pagoda in Tang Dynasty in Xi 'an, Song Yue Temple Pagoda in Northern Wei Dynasty in Dengfeng, Henan, Song Pagoda in Kaifeng, White Horse Temple in Eastern Han Dynasty in Luoyang, nanzenji and Beijujitang in Tang Dynasty in Shanxi, Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang and Han Tang Mausoleum in Shaanxi, Stone Buddha in Longmen Grottoes in Henan and clay sculpture in Maijishan, Gansu, all fully demonstrated the superb technical level and outstanding artistic achievements of ancient craftsmen.

Recently, archaeologists discovered Qin figurines near the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in Lintong, Shaanxi Province, and unearthed 580 large warrior figurines, about 65,438 0.8 meters high and similar in size to real horses, as well as 24 pottery horses with chariots. The pit has a total area of about1.2000 square meters, about 6000 pieces of various pottery figurines are buried, and there are a large number of practical weapons. The horse figures in the pit are neatly arranged and magnificent. The warriors in armor are full of energy. This magnificent military array scene reproduces the magnificent picture of Qin Shihuang's army strengthening Ma Zhuang and sweeping the six countries, which is a very precious artistic heritage. The sculptures of these terracotta warriors and horses once again show us the great wisdom and creativity of the ancient working people.