Beixin site

Beixin site

Beixin site is located in the South Bank of Xuegu River, the north head of Beixin village, Southeast of Guanqiao Town, Tengzhou City, covering an area of about 50000 square meters. The site dates from 7300 to 8400 years ago. It is the earliest Neolithic site found in Huanghuai area in China and named Beixin culture by the state.

Beixin site was first discovered in 1964 in Shandong Province. From the winter of 1978 to the spring of 1979, it was excavated by the Institute of archaeology, Chinese Academy of social sciences. The total area of excavation is 2583 square meters, and more than 2000 pieces of pottery, stone and other cultural relics were unearthed.

In 1980, Zaozhuang Municipal People's government announced as a municipal key cultural relics protection unit. In 1991, the people's Government of Shandong Province announced it as a key cultural relics protection unit at the provincial level. In May 2006, it was announced as the Sixth Batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council.

Excavation process

Beixin site was discovered in 1964 by Shandong team of Institute of archaeology, Chinese Academy of social sciences during a general survey of cultural relics along both sides of Xuehe river. At that time, a number of pottery pieces with different styles from Dawenkou Culture were collected. It is speculated that their ages may be earlier than Dawenkou Culture.

From the autumn of 1978 to the spring of 1979, the Shandong team of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Tengzhou Museum jointly carried out two large-scale excavations. A number of ash pits, pits and tombs were cleared, with a total area of 2583 square meters. A large number of stone tools, pottery, bone ware, clam ware and horn ware were unearthed.

Stratigraphic accumulation

The stratigraphic accumulation in the site is generally divided into four layers (some of them lack the fourth layer). Among the contents in the second, third and fourth layers, there are quite a lot of pieces of stone, gravel, etc., which are made from stone tools, grinding stone tools and making stone tools, and the quantity is more than that of pottery pieces. Dawenkou Culture and Longshan culture are inferior to each other.

The first layer: arable soil layer, 15-35 cm thick.

The second layer: reddish brown soil, containing a lot of brown clay, 45-75 cm thick. Most of the unearthed pottery pieces are yellow brown pottery with sand. The surface of the pottery has a variety of patterns composed of narrow stacking patterns

The third layer: Red burnt soil accumulation, 25-75 cm thick. The unearthed pottery pieces are mixed with sand and tawny pottery. On the surface of the vessel, there are various kinds of patterns, most of which are bowl shaped, followed by tripod shaped.

The fourth layer: grayish brown soil, 15-50cm thick. There are a small amount of heap pattern, nail pattern, thorn pattern and so on. The shape of the vessel is mainly bowl, followed by kettle, pot and tripod.

Cultural relics

overview

There are many kinds of stone tools in Beixin site, which can be divided into beating and grinding. Although the making of beating stone tools is relatively simple, they are quite complete in shape, including axes, shovels, knives, hammers and plate-shaped tools. Among them, the stone axes with flat body, slightly trapezoidal plane and flat oval cross-section are the most widely used tools for cutting trees or reclaiming farmland. Grinding stone tools are polished all over the body, and the production is relatively exquisite, including shovel, knife, sickle, axe, chisel, grinding plate, grinding rod, grinding cake, pestle and dagger. The number of spades in grinding stone tools is the largest, with different shapes. The stone shovel is large in shape, with siliceous limestone as the main stone. It is soft in texture and easy to polish. After the handle is installed, the stone shovel becomes a kind of soil turning tool. Some blades have vertical grinding marks of about 7 cm, indicating that the soil turning depth in this period is quite shallow.

Other unearthed production tools are also quite rich, such as bone, horn, tooth and clam. They are exquisitely made and have complex forms. The production process is generally cut, split, cut, scraped and other methods to make the prototype of the utensils, and finally polished the surface. In addition to arrowheads, fish darts, antler hoes, clam shovels, clam sickles and other utensils related to agriculture, fishing and hunting, there are chisels, cones, daggers, needles, hairpins, shuttle shaped utensils, etc. This shows that the productivity at that time was low, and only relying on agriculture could not meet the needs of people's life, but also relying on hunting, fishing and gathering to supplement food. These means of survival were also important sources of means of livelihood.

Vestiges

There are two pits: the pit is exposed under the ploughed soil layer, the plane is slightly oval, the raw soil bottom is quite flat, and the diameter of the pit is slightly smaller than the bottom diameter. In addition, 60 pits were found, which were mainly oval shaped with large mouth and small bottom, and a few of them were round and irregular in shape, with diameter of 2.6 meters and width of 1.8 meters. The pit is 1.2m deep with irregular wall and uneven bottom. Six lower palatal bones of pigs were stacked near the bottom and covered with rice. There are two pig heads in h51 pit.

Two urn coffins: from the second floor of t705. M702 is located in the east of tanfang. The distance between the two tombs is 1.7 meters. Both tombs are exposed under the arable soil. In the east-west direction of the cemetery, the burial utensils are two deep abdomen round bottom pots with 1:1 opposite utensils, in which there is a baby skeleton with head east and foot West. There is a baby skeleton in m703 tomb, which is covered with a pottery tripod, and a bone arrowhead is placed on both sides of the tripod.

Architecture

Cultural relics

Stone tools: the stone used to make stone tools has been identified by Li Chunyang and Liu Xixin of Shandong coalfield geological team as mineral limestone, argillaceous limestone, granite schist, gneiss, yunhuangyan, etc. These rocks are available locally and can be obtained locally. It can be made by beating and grinding.

Horny teeth: a large number of teeth were found, and the types of teeth were more complex. The production method is roughly through cutting and cutting aggregate, and then splitting, cutting, scraping into the prototype, and then grinding into the shape of: arrowhead, fish dart, antler hoe, chisel, dagger, scraper, prism, needle, cone, round button antler, etc. There are four types of earth objects, including 40 arrowheads, 12 fish darts, 1 antler spear, 10 antler hoes, 2 chisels, 10 daggers, 5 antler hooks, 2 tooth scrapers, 3 prisms, 2 cones, 36 needles with holes at one end, 25 cones, 55 hairpins, 1 flat bone ornament, 1 bone tube, and 5 tooth ornaments Type: 2 round button antlers; 5 sickles, serrated blade, with a hole in the handle; 4 shovels.

Pottery: there are two kinds of pottery: sand pottery and argillaceous pottery. Except for a few pieces, most of the sand grains are fine. The color of pottery is mainly yellow brown, and the clay is mainly red pottery. There are also grey pottery and grey black pottery, which are usually pure in color. The clay of the bowl is relatively fine, some of which are red on the outside of the mouth, and the bottom is bluish gray, which is the so-called "red top bowl".

Natural relics: animal bones, fish bones, shells. It was identified by Zhou benxiong of the Institute of archaeology. There are pigs, cattle, deer, deer, four not like, raccoon dog, badger, chicken, turtle, turtle, Chinese garden snail, herring, mussel and so on. It is found that there are a lot of bone debris in animal feces. According to Li Youheng of Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, it belongs to carnivore, which may be the feces of dog or raccoon dog. According to ye Xiangkui's identification, there are abdominal carapace and rib plate of turtle.

Site significance

The site of Beixin culture, the tribe in Xuehe River Basin, is one of the earliest regions of human life in China.

First, from the unearthed stone shovels, stone axes, millstones, grinding sticks, antler hoes, clam sickles and grains stored in the cellar, the agricultural production at that time had a relatively complete set of tools from farming, sowing to harvesting and processing, and the primitive agriculture had begun to take shape. Agricultural production was an important source of living materials for them, and also an important guarantee for the consolidation of their settlement life.

Second, according to the unearthed pig like animal skeletons and chicken and dog remains, the domestication of domestic animals at that time had begun, and the animal husbandry industry was in its infancy.

Third, from the unearthed pottery net pendant and fish dart, we can see that the fishing techniques at that time were quite superb.

Fourth, from the unearthed bone needles and stone spinning wheels, we can see that at that time, they began to spin and weave with wild fibers and animal hair, and the ancestors of northern Xin Dynasty transited from wearing animal skin to dressing.

Fifthly, judging from the unearthed bone, tooth and clam wares, the cutting, cutting, splitting and scraping utensils of the production tools at that time had initially taken shape, and the handicraft industry was relatively developed.

Sixth, from the unearthed gaiding, hongdingbo, nail impression bowl and red pottery pot, the pottery making technology at that time was relatively advanced. These utensils not only paid attention to the practicality of life, but also paid attention to the aesthetic artistry, especially the hongdingbo. According to archaeologists, they found the origin of Oriental painted pottery.

Seventh, a pair of bird foot like symbols were found at the bottom of one pottery, which was praised as "the origin of writing" and "the dawn of civilization" by philologists and historians.

Eighth, from the unearthed pillar bases of residential areas, the house structure at that time was more reasonable. Judging from the stratigraphic accumulation of the Beixin site, the ancestors of Beixin lived here for more than 1000 years in three stages. The reason why they chose this piedmont plain, three sides of the river, and fertile land to settle down shows that this place is rich in natural resources and superior geographical environment, which is the most suitable place for human beings to live.

The connotation of Beixin culture is very rich, which has high archaeological value and academic value. Further development and research can make the traditional and excellent historical culture inherit and carry forward.

The accumulation layer of Beixin site is more than 1.5 meters thick, which reflects that the residents lived here for a long time. They used stone shovels, antler hoes and other tools to loosen the land and engage in agricultural production. Pottery making is in a relatively primitive stage, with simple utensils and obvious handmade marks,

Chinese PinYin : Bei Xin Yi Zhi