“The archaeological achievements in Henan Province have demonstrated the important time and space nodes in the process of the origin of Chinese civilization.” Tian Kai, director of the Cultural Relics Bureau of Henan Province, said at the special press conference of “Henan Ten Years” held by the Propaganda Department of Henan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China on the 15th that in the past ten years, Henan has continuously carried out research on the archaeological cultures such as Peiligang culture, Yangshao culture and Erlitou culture, and has gradually established the chronological sequence of each archaeological culture, clarifying the cultural orientation of each archaeological culture in the process of the origin of Chinese civilization.
The “Chinese Civilization Sourcing Project” is the largest comprehensive research project in the world to study the origin and formation of ancient civilizations. Henan is the birthplace of modern archaeology in China.
Tian Kai introduced that Henan is the core area of the origin of Chinese civilization, and the “Chinese Civilization Sourcing Project” has included important sites such as Lingbao Xipo Site, Dengfeng Wangchenggang Site and Yanshi Erlitou Site in the research focus.
Tian Kai said that the archaeological achievements in Henan Province demonstrated the important time and space nodes in the process of the origin of Chinese civilization. Through comprehensive research, we can basically conclude that around 5800 years ago, Miaodigou culture, the middle Yangshao culture represented by Beiyangping site group on the western slope of Lingbao, was the core culture in the origin stage of Chinese civilization, and was called “the embryonic form of early China in culture” by many experts.
Around 5300 years ago, the late Yangshao culture, represented by the site group of Huaiyu trees in Gongyi, can basically be regarded as a preliminary form of civilization. The settlement levels in the surrounding area of Shuanghuaishu site are distinct, and many city sites in the late Yangshao culture have been found, which indicates that the social differentiation is intensifying, and it is likely that there has been a country in the sense of kingship and ancient country.
Around 4000 years ago, all parts of the Central Plains entered the late Longshan period one after another, and there appeared the concentrated distribution of Central Plains city sites such as Dengfeng Wangchenggang, Yuzhou Wadian and Xinmixinzhai. Around 3800 years ago, Erlitou site in Yanshi was basically identified as the capital site in the late Xia Dynasty. Since this period, the Central Plains has formed a more mature form of civilization and has become the core and leader of the overall process of Chinese civilization.
Tian Kai introduced that in the next step, Henan will extend the time and space scope of the research on the origin of civilization to the earlier stage of Peiligang culture and Yangshao culture, increase archaeological excavations of key sites such as Gongyishuang Sophora japonica, Nanyang Huangshan, Dengfeng Wangchenggang and Yanshi Erlitou, and strive to form a number of breakthrough and landmark achievements, thus pushing the project of the origin of Chinese civilization further. (Reporter Liu Peng)