Where is Chaohu? (It's a lake)

The Chaohu Lake is close to the city of Hefei and is one of the five largest freshwater lakes in China. A few days ago, archaeologists confirmed that there is an ancient site underwater in Chaohu Lake after extensive field investigations. The news spread and immediately caused a sensation. Some experts and scholars can not help but put it with the history of the ancient nesting country that had a brilliant moment after the mysterious disappearance of the connection ......

Accidental discovery led to the ancient ruins under the lake

Last December, Chaohu City, Juzhao District, the ring of urban and rural farmers in the transformation of dike fields, moving a ridge, suddenly found a large number of ridge under the The broken pieces of pottery, kiln equipment. Chaohu city cultural relics management department immediately sent to the scene, and the organization of experts for identification, and finally confirmed for the Sui dynasty relics. After the site excavation, and found a large number of intact pottery and kiln equipment. It is understood that China has been found in the Sui dynasty kiln site is not much, together less than 50. Chaohu these Sui Dynasty kilns found, signaling the next kiln site, but in what location?

Soon, there are people to the Chaohu City Cultural Relics Management Institute to provide clues, said the north shore of Lake Chaohu in the winter when the water level drops on the riverbed exposed a large number of pieces of pottery, may be related to the Sui Dynasty kiln site. Archaeologists heard the news, immediately rushed to the village of Tangzui, Jiuzhao District, more than ten kilometers from the Chaohu city, immediately attracted by the scene in front of them. Under the berm of Lakeshore Avenue, about two to three hundred meters long riverbed scattered all over the various pieces of pottery. These pieces of pottery, clay gray pottery and sand gray pottery, while there are clay red pottery, brown pottery, sand black pottery, and some slightly higher firing temperature of hard pottery and so on.

Because it was winter, the riverbed was drier, and the archaeologists lingered on it, searching every piece of land. Soon, several more abandoned water wells with ceramic well bars were found, and next to one of them were the roots of an ancient tree that two people couldn't even hug. Next, the archaeologists found some artifacts. These wares are mainly rim-footed wares, with urns, basins, jars, tanks, altars, kettles and other household items, with curved mouth rims and bases, which are generally larger. A few pottery wares have imprints on them, mainly chevron, mat, Hong, rope and incised water-wave patterns. Some of the clay gray pottery is finer, with a thin body and a plastered surface.

Witnessing everything in front of him, Qian Yu, deputy director of the Chaohu Municipal Cultural Relics Management Institute, with his rich archaeological experience accumulated over the years, combined with the archaeological discoveries in Chaohu in recent years and literature, he deduced that this is an ancient site. The local people said, the distribution of ceramic pieces of more than exposed the riverbed of that small piece, but also to the lake extends four or five kilometers, ceramic pieces of more places have a thick layer. Some of the old people over seventy years old that Chaohu Lake underwater there is an ancient city ruins, and can roughly point out the city site of the location of the four city gates. The old people said they had seen the ruins of the ancient city when they were young and saw many bricks, tiles, stones, wall corners, thresholds, well fences, flagstaff drums and so on.

In the survey, cultural relics management personnel found that many of the old people's homes hide cultural relics picked up from the lakeside ruins. After patient, meticulous publicity and education work, the vast majority of people took the initiative to hand over the cultural relics, a few recovered through administrative means. This batch of cultural relics *** counted more than 260 pieces, there are jade axe, stone axe, jade seals, silver seals, copper seals, ceramic pots, ceramic beat, spinning wheel, net pendant, coins, iron spade, copper belt hooks, copper arrowheads, copper mirrors, copper ornaments, etc., the earliest for the neolithic jade axe, the latest is the wangmang period coins. Among them, there are more varieties of copper coins, ranging from ant-nosed coins of Chu during the Warring States period, to Qin half-two and Han half-two, Han five baht, as well as Dabu Huangqian and Daquan fifty of Wang Mang period, and the largest number of ant-nosed coins have been found. In addition, pottery, jade, silver and other relics are also very complete, which are not found on some sites characterized by ruins and have a relatively high economic value.

Two, underwater ancient ruins and the ancient nesting state

The discovery of the underwater ancient ruins has aroused the great interest of many experts and scholars, and can not help but link it with the history of that mysterious ancient nesting state. The Chao State was one of the important square states in the Yin, Shang and Zhou periods. Due to the very few documentary records, and only a few words, so that later generations in the search for this ancient country, there are always some difficult to solve the mystery, these mysteries seem to be related to its mysterious disappearance. First of all, its geographical location is very inexact. Some say in Chaohu, some say in Tongcheng, others say in Shouxian, there is no conclusive evidence to show its exact location. But one thing is certain, the present Chaocheng is not the seat of the ancient Chaocheng Kingdom in history, the present Chaocheng was built in Chaocheng County set up in the Tang Dynasty. Secondly, the oracle bones of the Western Zhou Dynasty and many historical books before the Han Dynasty, such as Shangshu and Zuozhuan, have mentioned the vassal state of "Chao Bo", "Nan Chao" and "Ju Chao", but after the Han Dynasty, the vassal state of "Chao" was not mentioned. However, after the Han Dynasty, there are very few records of people and events related to the city of "Chao". This phenomenon suggests that the ancient nesting state either disappeared or its social status has been greatly reduced.

Combined with the results of archaeological excavations in recent years, it is obvious that the development of civilization in this area has been interrupted. According to Qian Yuchun, deputy director of the study has been dedicated to the ancient Nestorian aspects of the introduction of the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties, the emperor's tomb are located near the capital city, becoming a landscape on the outskirts of the capital city, is an important part of the area of the gui fu. In Chaocheng Fangwanggang, Beishantou and other places, large-scale tombs of extremely high scale and specifications before the Han Dynasty have been found. In the process of investigation and excavation, no architectural remains related to the city were found, and through the examination and identification of inscriptions on the unearthed artifacts, it can be said with certainty that this area was an imperial burial area. Both the specification and scale? In the national scope has been unearthed in the contemporaneous tomb are only a few, but after the Han Dynasty, but can not see the continuity of this social development, high-specification tombs and sites are almost not found.

Is the ancient underwater site of Chaohu Lake the historical one of the ancient Chaoguo? Relying on the current cultural relics collected at the site information, archaeologists have not dared to jump to conclusions. But with the deepening of the exploration and investigation of underwater sites, this relationship will certainly be clarified.

Three, the bottom of the lake ancient ruins of the mystery

The Chaohu Lake underwater ancient city ruins were found after the news was disclosed, immediately caused a stir in the community. Some experts and scholars have rushed to Chaohu, fieldwork and research. At the same time, a bigger question mark appeared in people's minds, that is, how the ancient ruins sunk to the bottom of the lake?

This issue, there are different opinions. There are three main: one is the folklore, the book is also recorded in the "trapped Chaozhou" legend, that the waters of Chaohu Lake is a city in ancient times, after sinking to the bottom of the lake; another is the view of geologists, that the Chaohu Lake is in the process of crustal movement by the land subsidence and the formation of the lake belongs to the trapped lake, the time in the Qin and Han Dynasty, and folklore Another is the view of history scholars, they literally repeat the historical data, find out some loopholes, and concluded that the history books about the "trapped Chaozhou" legend is just a myth, not a factual basis.

Geologists and archaeologists, after careful study of the underwater sites, found that people in the previous study and explore the natural disaster "trapped Chaozhou", into a misunderstanding, that the Chaohu Lake is by the Chaohu fell into. In fact, Chaohu Lake was formed as early as 1.5 million years ago. And "trapped Chaozhou" to be far behind, at most 2,000 years ago. Most experts believe that the folk legend about "trapped Chaozhou" may be true, but should be discarded inside some of the superstitious part. The underwater ruins of Chaohu Lake were probably sunk to the bottom of the lake in a sudden disaster.

Ancient mankind has a "waterfront high living" characteristics, choose such a geographic location to build the city can look at the atmosphere of the country, to detect the enemy, there is a boat to drain the benefits of less flooding disaster disaster. Bordering the lake, the water is wide, for the diversion into the city, through the canal, stationing boats and ships to provide favorable conditions. Archaeologists and geologists speculate that the Chaohu Lake underwater ancient sites should be located in the Chaohu Lake shore and higher than the surface of the water, so that human beings can live and survive for a long time. Ancient sites later plunged into the bottom of the lake, there may be two reasons, one is caused by earthquakes and triggered by subsidence, the other is due to rising floodwaters, or the mouth of the lake silted up by poor water flow. From the current geography of Chaohu Lake and its surroundings, an earthquake is more likely. Because of the suddenness of the disaster, people had no time to take away or transfer the items of high economic value and the necessities of life, and the city had been swallowed by the water.

Four, Chaohu underwater sites of high archaeological value

The world's recorded or discovered underwater civilization sites in a number of places, such as: Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, Toluma City, the city walls, the palace walls are still intact standing underwater; Ancient Greece's Helicity, the Ripley coast of the city of the Potteries, the Mediterranean Sea, the north coast of the city of Tiree, the city of Sidon, the Port of Rome, the south shore of the Apollonia, the Schell Scheerer, now all lie silently underwater. Because the relics and remains on the underwater sites are located underwater, relatively speaking, can reduce or avoid the destruction of human activities, than the ground on the site of the preservation of the situation is closer to the historical original, so that the underwater sites in the archaeological work has a very important position and role.

China's current underwater sites found relatively few, in addition to 2000 at the bottom of Fuxian Lake in Yunnan Province, found in ancient Yunnan settlement group site, almost nowhere else has not been found underwater sites, Chaohu Tangzui underwater sites are likely to become China's history of the most complete preservation of information, the most archaeological value of the ancient ruins. It is understood that Fuxian Lake is located in a remote area, the civilization of the time is relatively low, and is China's second largest deep-water lake, the site from the surface of the water is 70 to 90 meters deep, although the use of a large number of social resources for archaeological investigations, but the cultural relics and archaeological information is very limited. And Chaohu Lake Tangzui underwater ancient sites, in the winter time there are some exposed to the water, investigation and exploration and even excavation are very easy. The large number of intact ceramic pots found on the site, as well as finely carved Hetian jade seals and silver seals of high economic value, indicate that the site was in a highly developed social state at the time of its fall. The relics preserved on the site are much richer in both quantity and variety than those on the site formed by a non-sudden natural disaster.

It is understood that the underwater ruins of Chaohu Lake Tang Tsui exposed to the surface of the water during the winter, due to the lake waves of the scouring, many cultural relics were washed to the surface of the riverbed, every year a large number of cultural relics lost to the protection of a great deal of difficulty, the cultural relics department is working hard to strive for an early date of the site for a comprehensive exploration and survey, can be confident that with the underwater ruins of the mystery of the unveiling of the veil, by then, the 800 miles of the vastness of the lake Under an extraordinary history will be truly displayed in front of people.