Gansu culture, splendid ancient Gansu culture and early Neolithic cultural sites

Gansu culture, splendid ancient Gansu culture and early Neolithic cultural sites

About 10,000 years ago, society entered the Neolithic Age, which was the prosperous period of primitive culture in China. Dadiwan Site in Qin 'an County, Gansu Province is an early Neolithic cultural relic. It has a wide range of excavations and unearthed many precious cultural relics, which is of great significance to the study of primitive culture and its development in China.

(1) Excavation of Dadiwan Site

Dadiwan Site is located in the east of Shaodian Village, Wuying Township, Qin 'an County, Gansu Province, on the second and third steps on the south bank of Qingshui River and on the gentle slope. It is divided into two parts: the lower part (riverside terrace) and the upper part, with a total area of nearly one million square meters (see Lang Shude's Archaeology of Dadiwan and the Origin of Chinese Civilization). Dadiwan site was first discovered in the first cultural relics survey in Gansu Province in 1958. 1In July, 978, the Dadiwan excavation team composed of the provincial museum cultural relics team and Qin 'an county cultural center began a large-scale excavation. By August 1984, the total exposed area reached 13700 square meters, and more than 250 houses and 40 kiln sites were found. According to the determination of carbon 14, the earliest age is 7800 years ago, and the latest is 4800 years ago. Dadiwan site contains about 3000 years of ancient cultural relics. The cultural connotation of Dadiwan site can be divided into five periods according to the characteristics of unearthed artifacts at various cultural levels, namely, Dadiwan Phase I (7300-7800 years before Yangshao), Early Yangshao (6000 years), Middle Yangshao (5600-5900 years), Late Yangshao (4900-5500 years) and Early Longshan (4900-5500 years) The pottery in the late Yangshao culture in Dadiwan has many similarities with the pottery in the late Yangshao period in Xiwang Village, the upper part of Banpo and the second phase in Hu Quan Village, but it also has local characteristics. The remains of "Changshan subculture" unearthed in Changshan Town, Zhenyuan County are found in the Dadiwan site, which has many similarities with Qijia culture found in Qiaocun Village, Lingtai County (see the main harvest of Dadiwan site in Qin 'an, Gansu Province excavated by the Cultural Relics Team of Gansu Provincial Museum 1978 to 1982). The first phase of Dadiwan culture, the pre-Yangshao culture, was overlapped by the early, middle and late Yangshao culture respectively.

The excavation scale of Dadiwan site is not only rare in China, but also provides rich and scientific data for studying ancient human activities in China, especially the formation of ancient culture. Dadiwan site is a bright pearl on the land of Long Yuan.

(2) Characteristics of Dadiwan Phase I Culture

The first phase of Dadiwan culture was earlier than Yangshao culture, and it was the first Neolithic culture discovered in Gansu. Its discovery is of great academic value. It is of great scientific value to study the monism or pluralism of cultural origin, that is, Yangshao culture centered on Guanzhong and Jingwei river basins, and the relationship between Pei Ligang and magnetic mountain culture earlier than Yangshao culture, especially the origin of Yangshao culture and its relationship with Majiayao culture centered on central and western Gansu. The carbon dating of the first phase of Dadiwan culture is about 7800 years ago, which is the earliest culture in the Neolithic age in Gansu Province. There are eleven tombs and two ash pits in the first phase of Dadiwan culture, and their relics can be divided into production tools and daily necessities.

(1) stone tools for production. Stone tools are mainly knives, axes and shovels, as well as scrapers, knockers, grindstones and stone chips. Rough production, mainly beating, reflects the primitiveness of tool manufacturing technology in the early Neolithic age. There are also bone implements, horn implements, spinning wheel blanks polished with pottery pieces, etc. Although the production was rough, it reflected the original textile technology at that time. Judging from these unearthed stone tools, the Dadiwan clan settled down more than 7,000 years ago, engaged in agricultural-based economic life, slash and burn, and the harvest was limited, which could not meet the needs of clan life. At this time, there is also a hunting economy. Deer are the main hunting targets. With the domestication of primitive livestock, people used wild plant fibers to weave fabrics, and the unearthed pointed bone cones were used to sew animal skins or fiber clothes. This kind of economic life, as "On the Training of Huai Nan Zi Ji Zi" said: "At the beginning of making clothes in Apollo, too. Hemp rope, hanging with your fingers, becomes a trap. "

② articles for daily use. Pottery was the main tool of people's life at that time. Hand-made, with few shapes, loose texture and low temperature, shows the originality of pottery-making technology at that time. Pottery is characterized by three legs, a circle foot and a circle bottom, and the surface is printed with net horizontal rope patterns, and painted pottery is rare. In the painting part, a circle of red wide-band patterns are often drawn outside the mouth of the alms-like vessel, and a few bowls have simple patterns, but there are no complicated patterns at present, which shows that painting is still in the primary stage, which has created a precedent for Yangshao cultural painted pottery in the future. More than ten kinds of painted symbols were found on the inner wall of alm container, some of which were similar to those on Banpo pottery. Judging from the shape of pottery, there are containers for food, containers for storage and containers for drinking water. , reflecting the rich content of people's lives in Dadiwan. The thickness of ash pits and the accumulation of culture reflect people's long-term settlement life.

(3) The form of tombs and the location of houses. The tombs of the first phase of Dadiwan culture are all rectangular vertical hole earth pits with a depth of 0.2-0.4 meters. Burials are all single straight limb burials, and some have their hands crossed on their chests. This is a popular burial style in the early Neolithic sites in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River. Three circular semi-basement houses with a diameter of 2.5 to 2.7 meters and a living area of 6.7 square meters were also found on the first cultural floor of Dadiwan. Life is uneven, which is a hard surface formed by long-term trampling. The entrance is inclined and there is no pit, which reflects the temporary primitive residence.

④ Plant seeds. Dadiwan site is one of the cradles of agricultural culture in China. The seeds of carbonized plants were collected in the ash pit of Dadiwan Phase I, and identified and analyzed as two types: one is Gramineae millet, commonly known as millet, which is the oldest food crop in China; The other is cruciferous rape, which is hundreds of years earlier than the rape unearthed in Banpo, Shaanxi Province. Both crops were cultivated artificially at that time. The discovery of these plant seeds shows that "Qingshui Valley, centered on the site of Dadiwan, is the earliest planting place of grain and oil crops in China, and also the birthplace of dry millet and millet in China" (Feng's "The Origin of China Agriculture from the Site of Dadiwan"). China is famous for its agriculture, with 5,000 years of advanced agricultural culture. We can see its origin in Dadiwan. There is no doubt that Dadiwan is one of the cradles of agricultural culture in China.

⑤ The social development stage of the first phase of Dadiwan culture. The cultural relics of Dadiwan Phase I provide us with important information about the social development stage and nature of Dadiwan Phase I culture. The funerary objects of the first phase site in Dadiwan are generally unified, limited to daily necessities and tools, indicating that the social system is in the early primitive clan with equal work and equal distribution. The tools they used before their death continue to be used in another world according to the immortal religious belief after their death, which reflects that people in the clan commune still can't distinguish between labor and enjoyment, and that rights and obligations are different under the production system of primitive society. This is a reflection of low productivity, no surplus products are privately owned, distribution is strict and even before death, and there are almost no funerals after death. It is also the inevitable product of the social form of matriarchal clan commune in primitive society. The first phase of Dadiwan culture does not have the kind of multi-person two-burial tomb, which shows that the matriarchal clan has not been fully developed. In other words, the first phase of Dadiwan culture is still in the early stage of matriarchal clan system. The means of production belong to all clans. There is no difference between the rich and the poor, no class opposition, no oppression and no slavery among clan members. Everything is done according to the collective will and traditional habits. "The relationship between the public and society, discipline and labor rules are maintained by habits and traditional forces, and are maintained by the prestige or respect enjoyed by patriarchs or women (at that time, women were not only equal to men, but often occupied a higher position)" (Lenin's On the State). The first phase of Dadiwan culture shows that in ancient times, Gansu ancestors made outstanding contributions to the glorious history of the motherland.

(3) Yangshao culture in Dadiwan site

Yangshao culture in Dadiwan includes three different development stages: early stage, middle stage and late stage. Its cultural remains are extremely rich and have distinct cultural characteristics of Dadiwan site.

(1) house location. The well-preserved early house sites belong to small and medium-sized buildings, and the living areas are mostly rectangular or square. The living area is generally around 12 to 20 square meters, mainly single-room buildings, mostly crypts. Pits are mostly ladle-shaped shallow pits with fire holes at the door. In the medium term, there are a large number of houses, about 100, which are rectangular or square semi-crypt buildings, and their area has been expanded, some of them are more than 60 square meters wide, and the pits are round and straight, and the pits become deeper. Individual housing sites have also added a solid moisture-proof surface to the living surface, indicating that people have taken another big step forward in moisture-proof and cold-proof. The later architectural sites were mainly built on the flat ground, and the semi-crypt type was rare. Most of them are rectangular in shape. Generally, the living surface is mostly white ash or fossi surface. The building numbered F90 1 is rare in Yangshao cultural sites because of its large building area and complex structure. The total construction area is 420 square meters. The whole building is divided into four parts: the main room, the east-west room, the back room and the annex building in front of the door. The main hall is a rectangular hall, with a length of16m from east to west and a width of 8m from north to south, and an indoor living area of 13 1 m2. There are three doors on the front, eight columns and nine rooms, with the door facing south and the fifth room in the middle. There are side doors on the east and west sides leading to the side room, and there is a back room in the north. A circular stove with a diameter of 2.6 meters is set at the entrance of the main house, and a broken wall built by loess is reserved around the main house. The appearance of the whole hall floor is very similar to that of modern cement floor fabric. Smooth and bright, the sound is as crisp as hitting the surface of modern concrete with iron. This big building is no longer the ordinary living room of the original residents, but the place where clans or tribal alliances conduct public activities. This large-scale building has odd bay, front door, rectangular building, one side is front, left and right are symmetrical, and the wooden frame is load-bearing, and the wall only serves as a partition, which shows the traditional characteristics of China wooden architecture that has lasted for thousands of years (see "Dadiwan Site and Ancient Culture of China"). It fully shows that the primitive society has produced architectural art, which is the embryonic form and pioneer of palace-style architecture in China, and provides important clues for exploring the origin of ancient architecture in China and understanding the formation of Chinese civilization for 5,000 years.

2 painted pottery. The painted pottery of Dadiwan site is one of the oldest painted pottery in China and even in the world. The invention of pottery is the main content of Neolithic culture, and its appearance greatly improved the production and life of primitive people. There are many kinds of pottery with different shapes, including the first discovery of Yangshao cultural utensils, such as bottom basin, small mouth bottle, mouth bowl, three-legged bowl, three-legged jar, pointed bottom bottle, long plate, deep belly jar and so on. There are also a large number of painted pottery products with many painted patterns, which are brown or purple-brown. In the early stage, it was dominated by variant fish lines and oblique triangular parallel lines; In the middle stage, semicircle pattern and variant fish-bird combination pattern are the main patterns; In the later stage, the variation frog pattern and two-way continuous spiral pattern are the main patterns; These formed the characteristics of painted pottery in Dadiwan site. Among these pottery, there are several painted pottery rare in China. The first one is a painted pottery basin, with fish patterns on the bottom, regular production, exquisite patterns and smooth brushwork. The second type is a painted pottery bottle with a head-shaped mouth, which has a unique shape, a mouth like a human head, exquisite facial features, duck egg-shaped face, perforated ears and short hair; The third is a four-tiger fish pot. Draw two eyes on one side of the abdomen, and draw two tiger jumps on the other side to play, which is vivid, interesting and dynamic. This is not only a masterpiece of pottery, but also a fine painting art. There are only three or two original paintings of this kind in China, and as a tiger painting, it is the earliest discovery so far.

(3) painting. A floor painting painted with carbon black was found in a house site with Yangshao culture number F4 1 1 in Dadiwan, Qin 'an. The length of the map is about 1.2m, and the width is about1.1m. There are three upright portraits in the middle of the ground painting. One of them is tall, probably male, and the one on the left is low. The head is nearly round, the waist is thin, and the chest protrudes like a nipple. It is obviously female, but the right picture is not obvious. Homo erectus has legs crossed and looks like walking. There is a rectangular frame in front of the portrait, such as coffin style. In the coffin, there are two people lying prone. In front of the coffin, there is an inverted "D" pattern. There are different opinions about the meaning of landscape painting. One is the idol that the clan family worships the ancestor god; On the other hand, it is considered to be a true record of people's witchcraft rituals at that time. Primitive people generally have witchcraft, which is called white painting and white witchcraft. Generally, it is to pray for a bumper harvest and personal safety, also known as goodwill witchcraft; "Black witchcraft" painted black is generally killing and exorcism, also known as malicious witchcraft. This land painting in Dadiwan is painted with black charcoal, which should be interpreted as "black witchcraft". It reflects people's living customs and religious beliefs at that time. According to estimates, the history of ground painting was about 5,000 years ago, which was rare in the Neolithic Age. This landscape painting is the earliest and most intact painting in China so far, which is of great academic value for studying the origin of China painting and the painting art in primitive society.

④ ash pit. The ash pit of Yangshao culture in Dadiwan site is shallow and small in the early stage and wide in the late stage, which looks like a round pot bottom or a big bag, and some of it can be used as storage caves. The pit is rich in content, besides the unearthed charcoal and braised clods, there are also broken and complete pottery, stone chips and some pottery, stone knives and bone cones. In the later period, a large number of pig bones, deer, antelope, small-toothed animal bones and shell fragments of mussels were piled up in the ash pit. The shape changes of ash pits and caves from small to large, and the appearance of large containers such as pottery pots and jars reflect the development of settled agriculture and the increase of products in the late Yangshao culture. The common discovery of pig bones reflects the rise of aquaculture, and other animal bones show that hunting economy was still an auxiliary economy at that time.

⑤ Tombs. Most of the tombs in Dadiwan site are vertical rectangular pit tombs. There are several kinds of funerals, such as single upright limb burial, double upright limb burial, single secondary burial, urn coffin burial and so on. Generally, there are funerary objects, and a few tombs have no funerary objects. The combination of sacrificial objects is basically a round bottom bowl, painted pottery basin, pottery jar, pot, bottle and so on. The number of pottery is generally six to eight. According to the identification of archaeologists, the deceased was buried jointly by men and women, and the second burial was with bent limbs and straight limbs. The urn coffin burial is similar to the child burial found in Banpo, and the joint burial is basically a mother-child burial and an adult same-sex double burial. No adult male and female tombs were found.

From the analysis of the relics unearthed from the Dadiwan site, we can see that the status and role of women in clan life is very important. They are an important link to maintain the survival and reproduction of clans and are respected by people. Yangshao culture in Dadiwan site reflects that the society at that time was matriarchal.

From the first phase of Qin 'an Dadiwan and the early, middle and late Yangshao culture, it can be proved that the origin of Neolithic culture in China is not single, and there are different cultural types in the Yellow River basin and the Yangtze River basin. This kind of different remains shows that they have different sources and development processes, and their differences are caused by different geographical environments and times. Although the origin and development of culture are different, they are not isolated from each other, but interrelated and influenced each other, so they have both individuality and individuality. As Mr. Xia Nai pointed out in the article "Determination of Carbon 14 and Prehistoric Archaeology in China": "At that time, various cultures competed for each other in the land of the motherland, often interacting with each other, infiltrating each other and interweaving into a magnificent scene, laying a unique and splendid foundation for Chinese culture."