More than 4,000 years ago, what did the ancestors of ancient Shu in the Chengdu Plain eat? There is an answer to this question. The Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology recently announced the latest annual field archaeological excavation results of the Baodun site, and the remains of rice fields more than 4,000 years ago were found in the site, which is the earliest rice field found so far in the Chengdu Plain and the earliest rice field found in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, which is of great significance to understanding the prehistoric rice planting history of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the Chengdu Plain.
At the same time, this archaeological excavation also found for the first time carbonized bamboo pieces used as building components during the Baodun period. This is the earliest organic matter housing component found in the Chengdu Plain, which further confirms the long history of bamboo bone mud wall construction in the Chengdu Plain.
Previously, through botanical archaeology, 4,500-year-old remains of carbonized rice, millet, millet and other plants were found at the Baodun site. According to the archaeological excavation of the ancient city of Baodun, it was confirmed that Chengdu was the birthplace of rice cultivation civilization in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the Chengdu Plain, laying the economic foundation of the ancient Shu civilization.
The earliest rice fields were hidden in formations below two meters
How was the Tianfu pastoral picture of “Minjiang River Hydrating, Maolin Cultivating Bamboo, Meitian Miwang, and Shu Feng Yayun” painted? The ruins of the ancient city of Baodun in Xinjin, Chengdu, are solving mysteries.
Tang Miao, deputy director of the Baodun Workstation of the Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the field archaeological excavation work of the Baodun site this year was from October last year to April this year. Within the excavation area of 1,000 square meters, a total of 68 ash pits, 8 ash ditches, 5 tombs, 1 cushion surface ruin and 1 slope protection ruin were cleaned, tens of thousands of pottery pieces and dozens of stone tools from the Baodun period were unearthed, carbonized bamboo pieces used as building components during the Baodun period were discovered, and suspected rice field remains from the Baodun period were found.
During the excavations, the archaeologists found a horizontal formation 2 meters below the ground, which extended from the northwest to the southeast outside the excavation area. To the surprise of archaeologists, compared with the common human living strata, this formation is extremely pure, and there are almost no relics such as pottery pieces left by humans, and the soil is basically silt.
“This information shows that this formation is not a simple lake and marsh accumulation, but has a certain relationship with rice cultivation. In this regard, the archaeologists will send the two soil samples collected in the formation to the formation for inspection in time. Tang Miao introduced that the results of phytolithic detection of two soil samples showed that there were rice phytoliths distributed in this formation, which was the main crop type, and rice phytoliths included three types: fan type, bimodal type and side-by-side dumbbell type. Among them, the bimodal phytolithite content is the highest, the concentration of phytoliths is higher than 100,000 grains/g, and the concentration of fan-type phytoliths is higher than 80,000 grains/g, it can be said that from the perspective of biological indicators, the formation has basically been judged as a rice field.
“In order to further verify the preliminary judgment, systematic sampling and testing of the strata soil were also carried out. Through the comprehensive detection and study of rice, weed colonies associated with rice, and soil micromorphology, the identification of this area as a rice field has been strengthened. Tang Miao said that this will be the earliest rice field found in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
In order to protect the precious cultural heritage to the greatest extent, archaeologists have adopted the excavation method of large-scale preservation and small-area dissection of the rice field area. In this area, one ditch remains connected to the area, one suspected field mound, and many suspected rice root fossa ruins were found. Due to the limited area of excavation, this rice field has not yet reached its boundary.
After systematic testing of samples from archaeologists, in addition to the discovery of carbonized rice 4,000 years ago, the archaeology of the Baodun site also found the remains of millet, millet and other plants, and through the analysis of the excavation ratio of rice, millet and millet in different ruins, it was confirmed that the agricultural economic structure of the ancestors in the Baodun period was mainly rice, planting millet and millet at the same time, and collecting vetch, coix and other plants as food supplements.
The earliest bamboo components of houses in the Chengdu Plain were discovered for the first time
A large number of residential architectural remains have been found in the prehistoric city site group of Chengdu. However, due to the acidic soil environment of the Chengdu Plain, no remaining organic matter building construction has been clearly found until last year. Therefore, the search for organic matter of architectural remains has become a major focus of archaeological excavations.
In recent years, the Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology has been exploring the relationship between people and land during the Baodun period of the Chengdu Plain, and through continuous searching, it has finally made breakthroughs in the exploration of human settlement patterns. During the archaeological excavation of the Baodun site, 6 carbonized bamboo pieces were found in the red-fired soil foundation site that collapsed on the edge of the terrace. This confirms that the construction of bamboo (wood) bone and mud wall foundation trough residential buildings began in Sichuan since prehistory, and this tradition continued until the end of the 20th century.
“The moment the bamboo piece was unearthed, my heart was extremely excited. It turned out to be only a trace speculation on the bamboo (wood) bone and mud wall foundation trough building, and after waiting for 8 years, I finally saw the carbonized bamboo building components 4,500 years ago. Tang Miao said that physical evidence directly proves the existence of bamboo bone mud walls.
What kind of bamboo do these pieces of bamboo correspond to? How to protect them properly? After the excitement, questions followed. In this regard, the relevant personnel of the Science and Technology Archaeology Center and the Cultural Relics Protection Center of the Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology quickly followed up on the identification and protection methods of bamboo pieces.
The discovery of rice fields and bamboo buildings gave Tang Miao a new judgment on the geographical space where the ancient Shu people lived during the Baodun period. He believes that the ancestors of Baodun chose the loess terraces with a higher geographical location to build their settlements, while the tombs were usually distributed in low-lying areas in front of houses or behind the terraces. Low-lying areas, which had dried up during the Baodun period, were also used to make stone tools or other handicraft activities. More low-lying wetlands are used for rice cultivation. The rice fields recently discovered in Baodun are located in this area.
The spatial pattern of the ancestors of Baodun living and producing life is quite similar to the living mode of today’s Linpan in western Sichuan. Tang Miao believes that “the linpan-style living space model in western Sichuan is an adaptive use of the micro-landforms of alluvial plains by people. Through the exploration of the micro-geomorphology of the ancient city of Baodun in recent years, we can get a glimpse of the survival wisdom of the ancestors of Baodun ‘Tao Law Nature’. ”
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Ruins of the ancient city of Baodun
Since the end of the 90s of the 20th century, eight prehistoric ancient city ruins have been discovered in the Chengdu Plain, including the ruins of Baodun Ancient City, the ruins of Pixian Ancient City, the ruins of Wenjiang Yujin City, the ruins of Dujiangyan Mangcheng, the ruins of Chongzhou Shuanghe Ancient City, the ruins of Chongzhou Zizhu Ancient City, the ruins of Dayi Yandian Ancient City, and the ruins of Dayi Gaoshan Ancient City. Among them, the ruins of Baodun Ancient City, located in Xinjin District, Chengdu, are the most. The site of Baodun Ancient City is the earliest and largest prehistoric city site in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in China. The eight ancient cities have similar cultural appearances and continue back and forth, and the academic community has named the culture “Baodun culture”.
There is an obvious continuation relationship between Baodun culture and Sanxingdui culture in pottery, stone tool crafts, city wall construction technology, architectural form, and livelihood economy, and Sanxingdui has a cultural inheritance relationship with Baodun. From the earlier Guiyuanqiao culture, to the Baodun culture, Sanxingdui culture, and the Twelve Bridges culture represented by the Jinsha site, the development of the ancient Shu civilization for more than 2,000 years has been outlined.
(Our reporter Li Xiaodong)