Longqiuzhuang site

Longqiuzhuang site

Longqiuzhuang site is now a national key cultural relics protection unit.

Longqiuzhuang site is 7000-5000 years ago. Located in Longqiu Town, Gaoyou City, Jiangsu Province, it is the largest early Neolithic site in the east of Jianghuai region, and the most cultural relics found and unearthed. In 1993, the discovery of longqiuzhuang site was rated as one of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China, and in 2011, it was rated as the largest archaeological site in Jiangsu Province. Gaoyou longqiuzhuang pottery

Known as the dawn of Chinese civilization, the discovery of longqiuzhuang site fills the gap of the early Neolithic ancient cultural sites in the east of Jianghuai.

Longqiu culture is known as the flower of Jianghuai civilization

. It is the culture of the early Neolithic Age in China. The connotation of Longqiu culture is considered as a typical culture of the eastern part of Jianghuai region in the same period. Longqiu culture has a long history. There is a primitive culture with unique cultural features and complete cultural series in the Yangtze Huaihe River Basin. The site was discovered in the 1970s. From 1993 to 1995, an archaeological team composed of members from Nanjing Museum, Yangzhou Museum and Gaoyou Museum conducted four large-scale archaeological excavations, including more than 2000 cultural relics, 7 male and female joint tombs and 4 tombs 02, 1 house site, 4 residential sites and 34 ash pits can be identified as Neolithic sites, belonging to a type of ancient culture distributed in Jianghuai area east of the Grand Canal. Especially remarkable is the discovery of more than 4000 carbonized rice grains between 7000 and 5000 years old. The history of rice cultivation in China was advanced to 5500 years ago. At the same time, the unearthed pottery pieces and antlers with characters and symbols are also very rare (the pottery unearthed from longqiuzhuang site is thousands of years older than the oracle bone inscriptions, which may be the origin of the oracle bone inscriptions)

）It is the first time that the inscriptions were found in China, and its importance is self-evident.

historical origin

The earliest culture in China, unearthed from the longqiuzhuang site in Gaoyou, Jiangsu Province, is more than 1000 years old than the oracle bone inscriptions. The earliest chopsticks in China, in the spring and autumn of chopsticks and the history of Chinese chopsticks culture, both clearly record that the bone chopsticks unearthed from longqiuzhuang site are the earliest chopsticks in China, and both trace the history of using chopsticks to longqiuzhuang culture, that is, longqiuzhuang site is the source of Chinese chopsticks culture.

Longqiuzhuang site is 2.4 meters high, low-lying, rectangular, surrounded by water, 240 meters long from east to west, 180 meters wide from north to south, with a total area of 43000 square meters. The discovery of longqiuzhuang site fills the gap of the early Neolithic ancient cultural sites in the east of Jianghuai.

The longqiuzhuang site, which represents the prehistoric culture in the eastern part of Jianghuai region, shows that there was a brilliant civilization of man lamp in Gaoyou 7000 years ago.

archaeological discovery

The pottery inscriptions unearthed from longqiuzhuang site have challenged the saying that "oracle bone inscriptions are the earliest Chinese characters".

In the exhibition of the 50th anniversary of Chinese Archaeology and the monographs published after it, there are such words: the pottery pieces unearthed from the longqiuzhuang site in Gaoyou, together with other objects, reflect that the dawn of Chinese civilization is coming. According to experts' research, the pottery inscriptions unearthed at longqiuzhuang site are about 1000 years earlier than the oracle bone inscriptions.

The most precious is the large amount of carbonized rice and ancient characters pottery unearthed in the site stratum, which is of great significance to the study of the origin of rice farming and the emergence of Chinese characters.

7000-5000 years ago, the Jianghuai plain of longqiuzhuang was a part of Jiangsu depression zone, connected by rivers and lakes. It was a marsh with developed water network, luxuriant forests and rich products. At that time, the ancestors of Longqiu not only gathered, hunted and fished, but also knew how to cultivate rice.

Main relics

In the exhibition room of cultural relics at longqiuzhuang site, the rice seeds unearthed from the excavation are well preserved. In the ruins, the work, food and living conditions of Longqiu's ancestors are all restored, which makes them feel very fresh and strange.

Only one tenth of the village has been excavated, covering an area of 43000 square meters. There are four Neolithic residential sites, 34 ash pits, 402 tombs, and more than 2000 pieces of exquisite pottery, jade, bone horn and other cultural relics.

History

In the 1960s, villagers excavated a large number of pottery fragments and a small number of complete pottery, stone tools and animal bones.

In the 1970s, after investigation by Mr. Zhang Zhengxiang and Ji Zhongqing of Nanjing Museum, it was confirmed that it was a Neolithic site.

From the spring of 1993 to the winter of 1995, four large-scale scientific excavations were carried out.

In 1993, the excavation of the site was rated as one of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China (among the top ten new archaeological discoveries in 1993, two Yangzhou archaeological projects were selected, namely, the longqiuzhuang site in Gaoyou, Jiangsu Province and the Tangcheng site in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province)

)。

In 1995, it was listed as a cultural relic protection unit in Jiangsu Province

In 2001, it was announced as a national key cultural relics protection unit.

In 2003, the first phase of longqiuzhuang Site Museum (tribal village) project was implemented and officially opened to the public in 2004.

On May 18, 2007, the author accompanied the famous historian Mr. Li Xueqin to inspect the site of Longqiu village. Mr. Li happily inscribed: "Gaoyou Longqiu, glowing with color.". This investigation further strengthened his confidence in the two identifications of Gaoyou: "Gaoyou is an important place in ancient history about the legend of Emperor Yao, and Gaoyou is an important place to study and explore the origin of ancient Chinese civilization."

In 2011, it was named "the great site of Jiangsu Province".

In 2016, longqiuzhuang site was selected into the list of national preferred tourism projects.

In 2016, it was listed as a key project for the protection of national large-scale sites, and was successfully selected into the 13th five year plan for the special protection of national large-scale sites

Unearthed pottery inscriptions

It's thousands of years earlier than oracle bone inscriptions, and it's probably the origin of oracle bone inscriptions!

This piece of polished mud black pottery excavated from the longqiuzhuang site in Gaoyou is carved with eight characters similar to characters, four characters on the left, mainly straight lines, horizontal and vertical, orderly structure, similar to oracle bone inscriptions; four characters on the right, similar to animal side view, the first is like an animal, the second is like a fish or turtle, the third is like a snake, and the fourth is like a bird. It is the first time that such a picture and text engraved pottery was found in China, and its importance is self-evident. The two lines of characters and symbols carved on the inner wall have delicate strokes and skillful techniques.

Professor Li Pengfei believes that from the perspective of form, Gaoyou longqiuzhuang Taowen is a character system earlier than oracle bone inscriptions; from the perspective of character combination, it is more mature and seems to be words, and it is closer to the mature oracle bone inscriptions than the single byte of Yangshao, Liangzhu and other relics found in the early days. Therefore, these characters are called "the exploration of Chinese characters" by experts on ancient characters It's very important that we understand the origin of the world.

According to Zhang Min, a researcher of Nanjing Museum, the site of longqiuzhuang is classified as "Longshan culture of wangyoufang type" and dated "no earlier than 2200 B.C." this is exactly a relic of the period of Emperor Yao.

In 2003, the CCTV website published an article entitled "new archaeological discoveries in Jiangsu Province: Gaoyou pottery inscriptions are 1000 years earlier than oracle bone inscriptions", which said: "the pottery inscriptions unearthed at longqiuzhuang site in Gaoyou, Jiangsu Province are thousands of years older than oracle bone inscriptions, which is likely to be the origin of oracle bone inscriptions."

It is generally believed that oracle bone inscriptions are the earliest writing in China. However, the pottery inscriptions of longqiuzhuang site, a national treasure in Nanjing Museum, make people think about it. Zhuang Tianming, deputy director of the Nanjing Museum, said that the pottery unearthed from the longqiuzhuang site in Gaoyou, Jiangsu Province, is thousands of years older than the oracle bone inscriptions, which is likely to be the origin of the oracle bone inscriptions.

Research value

From April 1993 to April 1996, the Institute of Archaeology of Nanjing Museum excavated the longqiuzhuang site in Gaoyou between the Yangtze River and Huaihe River for four times. During the first excavation, a piece of polished muddy black pottery along the mouth of the basin was collected by the river. There are eight characters on it, with two lines of inscriptions, four similar oracle bone inscriptions on the left and four similar animal figures on the right. The strokes of the inscriptions are delicate and the techniques are skillful. The whole text contains a complete meaning.

This is another very important archaeological discovery after the discovery of carved pottery pieces in the late Longshan culture between 4200 and 4100 years ago at Dinggong site in Zouping County, Shandong Province. The excavation was reported in China cultural relic daily on September 5, 1993, which attracted extensive attention and was rated as "China's top ten new archaeological discoveries in 1993".

On February 6, 1994, when the "China Heritage daily" announced the results of the selection, it made the following introduction to the carved pottery inscriptions of longqiuzhuang site: "on the fragments of pottery pots collected from the site, there are carved symbols similar to characters, which is also very important to explore the origin of Chinese characters." After that, Mr. matsumaru Daoxiong, Honorary Professor of Tokyo University, made an introduction on Asahi Shimbun on March 1, 1996 with the title of "Chinese characters 4000 years ago", calling it the undisclosed treasure of China. Zhou Xiaolu, a Chinese ancient philologist, wrote an article and said, "it's OK

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