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“The’ culture’ of nearly 5,000 years has been laminated on the ground floor less than 50 cm thick at the Shangshan site, among which there are not only the remains of Shangshan culture, but also the remains of Cross-Lake Bridge culture and Hemudu culture. Only when the layers are clear can we talk about discovery, otherwise it will be just a pot of porridge.” At the Zhejiang-China Forum report meeting held on June 2nd, Jiang Leping’s words showed that it was not easy to achieve the goal of “going up the mountain in ten thousand years” from 0 to 1.
Different from many well-documented and traceable archaeological discoveries, the culture of going up the mountain belongs to the archaeological discovery from scratch. The Shangshan site was first discovered in November 2000, and the first excavation was carried out in 2001. It was measured more than 10,000 years ago in 2003, and named Shangshan culture in 2006 … For more than 20 years, the persistence and exploration of archaeologists have made the unknown Shangshan culture famous all over the world. Because of the culture of going up the mountain, Zhejiang has become “Zhejiang for thousands of years”, but it belongs not only to Zhejiang, but also to China. The culture of going up the mountain has witnessed an important step towards civilization. “The origin of the world’s rice farming civilization”, “the birthplace of China village culture” and “the world’s earliest discovery place of painted pottery” are popular expressions of the cultural significance of going up the mountain.
On May 27th, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee conducted the 39th collective study on deepening the project of exploring the source of Chinese civilization, and proposed to deepen the study of China civilization history. Zhejiang, one of the birthplaces of Chinese civilization, will speed up the implementation of the Zhejiang Archaeological “Rising Star” program, actively lead or participate in the “Comprehensive Research on the Origin and Early Development of Chinese Civilization”, focusing on the major projects of “Archaeological China” in Shangshan, Liangzhu and austronesian family, and strive to make major breakthroughs in the fields of the origin of world civilization, the origin of rice farming, ceramic research, etc., show the great contribution of Zhejiang archaeology to human civilization, and promote the establishment of a view of world civilization history in the context of China. Jinhua will be highly conscious of politics and culture, speed up the work of applying for the mountain cultural sites, and better present the historical memory, cultural value and humanistic spirit of Chinese civilization to the world.
Discovery of the remains of rice cultivation
Is the understanding of the origin of world agriculture.
An important revision
Ten thousand years up the mountain, the source of rice cultivation. A grain of carbonized rice unearthed in 2005 at the mountain site in Pujiang is the “celebrity spokesperson” of the mountain culture. Jinqu area belongs to acidic soil, which is not easy to preserve organic matter. It is not easy for this grain of rice to survive for thousands of years. It is determined that it is 3.732 mm long, 1.667 mm wide and 1.723 mm thick, and belongs to the original cultivated rice in the primary stage of domestication. This is the earliest cultivated rice in the world discovered by archaeology so far.
Including cultivation evidence, archaeologists found a series of evidence of rice farming in Shangshan cultural sites, that is, harvest evidence, processing and grinding evidence and edible evidence. There are residues of Gramineae plants (including rice) on the stone tools, which are agricultural tools for cutting rice ears. Stone millstones and stone grinders are used for grinding and shelling, and the edible evidence is “hidden” in pottery, another symbolic utensil of Shangshan culture.
90% of pottery unearthed from the mountain site is mixed with rice husk, which can reduce the weight of pottery and increase the viscosity of clay to prevent it from cracking during firing. “This not only shows the craft characteristics of the ancestors who made pottery at the Shangshan site, but also provides important information for us to understand the lifestyle of the ancestors.” Jiang Leping said. First, it proved that there was a certain amount of rice used at that time, and it occupied a place in the food composition. Without a certain yield of rice, it is impossible to use rice husk as the main material in pottery making. Secondly, most of the rice hulls that can be observed in pottery pieces are broken rice hulls, which are actually the earliest chaff in the world, and the rice grains inside have been used as food. Stone millstones and rods unearthed from the mountain site can achieve this effect of grinding and shelling. Thirdly, from the morphology of broken rice hulls in pottery pieces, the processed rice should be relatively complete rice grains rather than powder at that time, and cooking should be the main method for the ancestors who went up the mountain to eat rice, indicating that they could already eat rice porridge or rice at that time.
A small amount of rice leaf remains were also found in the pottery, which also proved from the side that the rice hulls mixed into the pottery blanks may not come from the collected wild rice, but from the cultivated rice harvested by ear picking. According to the ethnological data, the harvesting methods of rice have gone through three stages in history, among which wild rice is easy to thresh naturally, so it is suitable for harvesting by beating. After being cultivated and domesticated by humans, the threshing property of rice is weakened, so it needs to be harvested by harvesting or ear picking. Generally, it is picked (cut) with flag leaves, dried, threshed and processed. When wild rice is harvested by beating, there are almost no rice leaves, while when cultivated rice is harvested by picking (cutting) ears, the rice ears and flag leaves are harvested together, which will inevitably be mixed with rice leaf fragments during threshing and processing, and then mixed with rice hulls into ceramic blanks.
A series of relatively complete evidence chains show that people who went up the mountain 10,000 years ago bred and ate rice, which is of great significance to the study of the origin of rice cultivation and attracts the attention of archaeologists at home and abroad. Rice is an important food crop in the world, the main food source in Asia, and the material basis of its civilization development. Understanding the origin of rice cultivation is of great significance to the understanding of the cultures and relationships of various regions in Asia. Therefore, the research on the origin, spread and development of rice has always been the focus of academic circles. The discovery of the remains of rice cultivation in Shangshan site dates back to 10,000 years ago, which proves that the Jinqu Basin where Shangshan culture is located is the “origin of world rice cultivation culture”, which is an important breakthrough in understanding the origin of world agriculture.
Great breakthrough in settlement archaeology
Once again confirm Zhejiang ancient times.
Not a “wild land”
According to the analysis of stratigraphy and typology, combined with the determination of carbon 14 years, Shangshan culture can be divided into early, middle and late periods. About 10,000 years ago, the representative site is the Pujiang Mountain Site; Around 9000 years in the middle period, the representative site is Qiaotou Site in Yiwu; The late period was around 8500 years ago, and the representative site was the West Site of Yongkang Lake. Jiang Leping believes that the culture of going up the mountain in the middle period has entered a prosperous period, and he specially introduced the Qiaotou site in Yiwu.
Among the Shangshan cultural sites, Qiaotou site has attracted much attention for its unique layout of “ring trench-central platform”, exquisite painted pottery, the earliest and most complete human bone burial, the earliest grain brewing and many other important archaeological discoveries. Ring trench is one of the important characteristics of settlement development. As its name implies, it is a trench around the center of the village, which can be used to resist floods, beasts and foreign attacks. At present, there are many moat ruins found in Shangshan cultural sites, which belong to the earliest moat in East Asia. This is an important witness to the initial development of agricultural settlement life and a major breakthrough in the archaeology of Shangshan cultural settlement.
The moat around the bridge head is the most special one, which surrounds a nearly square central platform with a side length of about 40 meters. There are various relics such as braised soil, house sites, tombs and utensils pits on the platform, which are different from ordinary residential sites. Experts speculate that this central platform may be a place of worship. The pit is sacrificial in nature, which is suitable for the special construction method of “ring trench-central platform”, and can be used as the development evidence that the early village structure tends to be complicated. The exquisiteness of pit pottery is higher than that of other ordinary mountain cultural sites, and the mysterious symbols on painted pottery may be compatible with the ideology of ritual activities. The discovery of tombs and wine vessels also provides evidence for the above judgment.
The earliest painted pottery in the world was unearthed at Qiaotou site, which can be divided into red color and milky white color. Red is dominated by stripes. The opal pattern is complicated, and there are patterns such as sun pattern and short-line combination pattern, and the latter is even understood as “hexagram” pattern. It is worth paying attention to that these painted pottery have the basic factors of painted pottery of Cross-Lake Bridge culture, which fully shows that the culture of going up the mountain is an important source of Cross-Lake Bridge culture and reflects a major feature of the prehistoric civilization of Qiantang River, so the culture of going up the mountain has received more attention.
The discovery and excavation of the Qiaotou site has further enhanced the value orientation of the mountain culture, and also enriched the understanding of the cultural features around 9000 years ago in the upper reaches of Qiantang River and even in the whole southeast of China. Once upon a time, the academic circles have long regarded Zhejiang and other southern areas as “wild places” in ancient times, while the relics such as ring trenches, houses, tombs and utensils pits, as well as the remains of painted pottery and wine vessels, have shown that they are beyond the cultural development level of other areas in the same period, and have also outlined the settlement life pattern with regional characteristics, which has greatly expanded and enriched the value connotation of mountain culture.
Rewrite the history of human civilization
Beyond the early stage
The Age and Historical Attributes of Cave Sites
“The first wisp of smoke from cooking in East Asia rises between the mountains and rivers of Jinqu.” When Jiang Leping, who has been traveling in the front line of field archaeology all the year round, looks out of the window by car, he always sees such a scene in his mind. “This is a new look of agricultural civilization.” China River Basin is one of the few independent agricultural origins in the world. The culture of going up the mountain provides the earliest evidence for “cultivated rice originated in China” and is an important discovery that rewrites the history of human civilization.
Agriculture origin is one of the three major archaeological topics in the world. Among many theories of agricultural origin theory, “population pressure theory” holds that population pressure is the main driving force of agricultural origin. About 10,000 years ago, the last ice age on the earth ended, the climate became warmer, the living environment of human beings expanded, the population increased by a large margin, and food was in short supply, forcing people to make use of previously unused resources to form diversified foraging forms. “When rice becomes the target of foraging, the upstream valley with richer wild rice resources, which is close to mountain caves, becomes the origin of rice farming.” Jiang Leping believes that this is an important reason for the birth of rice farming and the formation of mountain culture in Jinqu Basin.
Compared with the early Neolithic cave sites in Yuchanyan, Hunan, Xianrendong, Jiangxi, etc., which also revealed some information about rice, the uphill culture has three distinct characteristics: First, the uphill rice cultivation includes a series of contents such as cultivation, harvesting, threshing and eating, and a brand-new farming behavior system has been initially formed; Second, going out of the cave, occupying and settling in the wilderness of the activity center of the Neolithic Age, which marks the real beginning of an era; Thirdly, rice farming on the mountain is a cultural phenomenon that has no interruption and shows steady progress, and it spreads with the development of the culture on the mountain. A kind of business economic behavior has a real relationship with the survival and reproduction of a group. The information of this relic and its cultural significance have surpassed the times and historical attributes of the early cave sites.
In Zhejiang, Hemudu site is a representative site of primitive farming era, while Liangzhu ancient city site represents the achievements of China in the great prehistoric rice civilization more than 5,000 years ago, and is an outstanding representative of early urban civilization. Then, what is the relationship between Shangshan culture and Hemudu culture and Liangzhu culture?
Rice culture runs through the Neolithic Age. From the perspective of cultural genes or cultural traditions, Shangshan culture can be regarded as the mother of Hemudu culture and Liangzhu culture. Sun Hanlong, a librarian of Zhejiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that although the three cultures have their own characteristics in the cultural features embodied in pottery and stone tools, from the perspective of the formation of agricultural society, especially the origin, continuation and development of rice farming, the three cultures can be described as three progressive development stages, one after another. The path of social development based on rice farming finally laid the evolution model of regional civilization, that is, Shangshan culture moved from “the earliest village” to “the earliest country” of Liangzhu culture.
The application is of great significance.
Can be directly promoted.
Self-confidence of Chinese culture
From 2006, the Mountain Culture was named, and by 2021, the Mountain Site was listed as one of the “Top 100 Archaeological Discoveries in a Hundred Years” in China. The value and significance of “Mountain Climbing in a Thousand Years” have been continuously discovered and paid more and more attention. In May of this year, the first regular meeting of Zhejiang Shangshan Cultural Site Protection and Application Class was held in Jinhua. The signing ceremony of joint application cities was held in the counties and cities where six Shangshan cultural sites are located in the province, which marked the official start of the application of Shangshan cultural sites.
Chen Tongbin, an authoritative expert in applying for heritage, believes that it is of great significance to apply for heritage on the mountain-it can witness the origin of rice cultivation in agricultural origin, which is China’s great contribution to world human civilization; After the site of Liangzhu Ancient City, it is another important cultural heritage that can directly enhance the cultural confidence of the Chinese nation. It reveals the contribution of the development of civilization in Qiantang River Basin to the civilization process in East Asia. It can fill the type gap of the origin of rice cultivation in the world heritage.
From the national, provincial and municipal levels, the research and publicity of the mountain culture and the promotion of the application for world heritage have received the attention of leaders and policy support. Up to now, archaeologists have found 21 Shangshan cultural sites in 11 counties (cities, districts) in four cities, including Jinhua, Quzhou, Shaoxing and Taizhou. Among them, Jinhua has 15 sites, which are the main battlefields for the application for world heritage. Jinhua gives full play to the role of the main force, stands at the height of building the “starting star” of Chinese civilization, and accelerates the work of applying for World Heritage.
The work of applying for heritage pays attention to the authenticity and integrity of cultural heritage, and it is necessary to build a three-dimensional management mechanism. Integrity includes not only the integrity of the site and the environment, but also the integrity of heritage elements, such as stone tools, pottery, cultivated rice (paddy fields), settled settlements and basic elements related to beliefs, etc., which should be systematically and fully displayed on the site. “We found cultivated rice in the’ village’, but haven’t found the’ rice field’ yet.” Jiang Leping said that the Shangshan cultural sites are all located on the platform of 3~5 meters high, and the rice fields are probably located in the low-lying marshes around the sites. Finding the farming areas at that time is an archaeological goal that needs to be overcome. In addition, in order to promote the work of applying for World Heritage, it is necessary to construct a management mechanism, that is, to formulate special laws and regulations, cultural protection planning, management planning, and the establishment of protection and management institutions.
Cultural heritage not only vividly narrates the past, but also profoundly influences the present and the future; Not only belong to us, but also to future generations. Protecting and inheriting historical and cultural heritage is responsible for history and people. The application for heritage can’t be accomplished overnight. It took 83 years for the four generations of Liangzhu to test the ancients’ persistence and persistence, and then it ushered in the joyful moment when the ancient city site of Liangzhu was listed in the World Heritage List. The application for the mountain heritage has just started, and it requires the joint efforts, perseverance and long-term efforts of all sectors of society, so that Chinese civilization can once again establish an important symbol in the world.
(Du Xiaoping/Wen Jun Chen/photo)