More than ten newly discovered ancient wooden stakes. Photo by Shen Xiaoyan
Jade is an important feature of Liangzhu civilization. According to statistics, the number of jade families in Liangzhu has exceeded 15,000.
Many people are curious, there were so many jade in Liangzhu period, and the amount of jade materials was also very large, but where were the jade mines, where were these jade made, and how did they circulate? Until 2017, archaeologists found the answer in Yangdun Village, Leidian Town, Deqing County, Huzhou City, 18 kilometers away from the site of Liangzhu Ancient City.
The site of Zhongchuming, discovered in Yangdun Village, is the largest jade workshop site group found in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in Liangzhu culture period. At present, more than 3,000 pieces of jade articles and pottery and other cultural relics of Liangzhu period have been unearthed, which is a new content of field archaeology of Liangzhu culture, fills the gap in jade making and discovery of Liangzhu civilization, and is the embodiment of the special value of Liangzhu civilization.
Zhu Yefei, the person in charge of the site of Zhongchuming Site of Zhejiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, told the reporter that in the 1990s, a large number of jade materials were unearthed in the local fish pond in Leidian, and there were occasional poaching phenomena, which caused great concern of the cultural relics department. It was inferred that there may be a large-scale jade workshop site in this area.
In September, 2017, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, Zhejiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted a trial excavation of some areas of the Zhongchuming site and found a large number of jade materials. Since October 2017, Zhejiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Deqing County Museum have continued to carry out large-scale systematic investigation and exploration, and found and confirmed 24 artificially built earth platforms in Liangzhu culture period, with a total area of 1 million square meters. It is clear that there is a large-scale jade workshop site group in Liangzhu culture period in this area.
According to the analysis of unearthed pottery pieces, the age of the site is concentrated, it is the late Liangzhu culture, and the carbon fourteen date is 4800 to 4500 years ago. At the same time, archaeologists have excavated Muyuqiao, Baoan Bridge and Wangjiali sites in the site of the early Ming Dynasty, all of which found artificial earth platforms, unearthed a large number of discarded jade materials, semi-finished jade products, whetstones, drilling tools and scoring tools as tools. According to observation, the unearthed jade materials are single in variety and low in quality, and the jade products are relatively single. “This shows that the site of Zhongchuming was a jade-making workshop specialized in producing jade cones and jade tubes mainly composed of serpentine jade during the Liangzhu culture period.” Zhu Fei said.
It is reported that the archaeological project of Zhongchuming Site won the “Important Archaeological Discovery in Zhejiang in 2018” and was shortlisted for the final evaluation meeting of “Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries in China in 2018”. Experts believe that the jade workshop site group in the middle and early Ming Dynasty is an important academic growth point of Liangzhu culture after the successful application of Liangzhu ancient city site, which enriches the archaeological contents of the periphery of Liangzhu ancient city, and together with Liangzhu ancient city site, witnessed the history of Chinese civilization for 5,000 years.
Text: Reporter Shen Xiaoyan Correspondent Bian Lusheng Pan Jiangwei