Dawenkou site

Dawenkou site

Dawenkou site is located in Dawenkou Town, Daiyue district, Tai'an City, Shandong Province. It was first discovered and excavated in 1959, about 6100-4600 years ago, and lasted for more than 1500 years. It fully reflects the features of Dawenkou Culture

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The plan of Dawenkou site is oval, covering an area of 825000 square meters. It contains three stages of Cultural Relics: Beixin culture, Dawenkou Culture and Longshan culture, especially Dawenkou Culture

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In 1982, Dawenkou site was announced as the second batch of national key cultural relics protection units

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Historical evolution

In June 1959, it was first excavated in the west of Baotou village, Ciyao Town, on the South Bank of the Wenhe River, covering an area of 5400 square meters. 133 tombs were cleared and more than 2100 funerary objects were unearthed, belonging to the middle and late Dawenkou Culture.

In 1974 and 1978, two excavations were carried out on the North Bank of Wenhe River, covering an area of 1800 square meters. 56 tombs, 14 house sites and more than 120 ash pits were found. The main remains are of the early and middle Dawenkou Culture.

From October 2012 to June 2013, the Dawenkou site was excavated twice, and lots of residential areas in the early stage of Dawenkou Culture were found, and seven house sites were cleared, all of which were square ground buildings. The unearthed relics are mainly pottery, stone tools and bone ware

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Architectural pattern

Dawenkou site is the name of Dawenkou Culture. Its discovery reveals the burial form of local residents in Dawenkou Culture period. It not only finds the origin of Longshan Culture in Shandong Province, but also provides important clues for the study of the primitive culture in Huanghuai River Basin, Shandong and Zhejiang coastal areas.

Dawenkou is located on both sides of the Wenhe River in Ciyao town and Dawenkou town of Nanyi, Taishan. The site covers an area of more than 800000 square meters, with 2-3 meters of cultural layer accumulation. It is the discovery and naming place of Dawenkou Culture, and is named "Dawenkou site" by archaeologists. Later, similar sites were found in Shandong Province, Jiangsu Province, Northern Anhui Province, Eastern Henan Province, Southern Hebei Province and Liaodong Peninsula, which were named "Dawenkou cultural site" by academic circles.

Dawenkou site has a history of nearly 2000 years. It is generally believed that the early stage of Dawenkou site belongs to matriarchal clan society, and the late stage of Dawenkou site belongs to paternal clan society. The middle and late stage of Dawenkou site has entered paternal clan society, and the germination of class society has appeared. In 1982, it was announced as a national key cultural relics protection unit by the State Council, and a monument was set up on the North Bank of the Wenhe River and beside the Beijing Shanghai railway.

Architectural features

In addition to tooth extraction, there is another difference in Dawenkou tomb, that is, many human bones have the characteristics of artificial deformation of the occipital part of the skull.

The formation of this feature is also the result of the deliberate oppression of the head for a long time before the tomb owner's life. In several cases, there are small stone balls or pottery balls in the deformation treatment, and the deformation is due to the long-term inclusion of small balls in the mouth. From this, we can also imagine the strange fashion of Dawenkou people taking "flat head" as beauty.

Cultural relics

Exquisite utensils

The pottery is mainly composed of sand red pottery and argillaceous red pottery, with more tripod, ring foot, flat bottom and bag foot. Stone production tools are smooth, angular and sharp.

The main types of burials are male and female burials separately, and there are also adult male and female burials. Women are in a subordinate position, which indicates the vacillation of matriarchy and the emergence of patriarchy. There is a great difference in the quantity and quality of burial objects. Some tombs are empty; some tombs have more than 180 pieces with complex varieties and exquisite production. There are precious jade shovels, jade arm rings, jade finger rings, openwork Ivory combs, Turquoise Inlaid ivory carvings, ivory combs, bone needles comparable with modern steel needles, etc.

Among the pottery, there are exquisite colored pottery and bright white pottery, as well as unique pig shaped and bird shaped pottery.

Three times of excavation found that the connotation of the site is rich, including tombs, house sites, pits and so on. The unearthed pottery, stone, jade, bone and dental utensils are different

The production tools, living utensils and decorations of materials are extremely exquisite. The daily utensils mainly include Ding, Dou, Hu, can, bowl, plate, cup and other utensils, which are divided into painted pottery, red pottery, white pottery, gray pottery and black pottery, especially the painted pottery utensils, with fine and symmetrical patterns and regular geometric patterns.

tool of production

The tools of production include finely ground stone axes, chisels, chisels and bone tools. The finely ground bone needles are almost as good as today's needles. Most of the tombs were lying on their backs and straight, with the custom of burying zhangya, and some of them buried pig heads and bones to symbolize wealth. It is generally believed that the early stage belongs to the transition stage from matriarchal clan society to paternal clan society at the end, and the middle and late stage has entered the paternal clan society.

The custom of tooth extraction and artificial deformation of occipital bone during adolescence prevails among the residents of Dawenkou Culture. In the tombs of Dawenkou Culture, it is found that a large proportion of human bones have no incisors or lateral incisors. Archaeologists speculate that the incisors of Dawenkou people were removed when they were adults, not after death. For today's people, it's very ugly to have no front teeth. However, Dawenkou people have totally different views. The custom driven by them even lasted for a long time. In the biography of eminent monks, it has been recorded that there was a man named "Xi chisel teeth" in the Northern Dynasty, who had a wonderful response with the famous monk dao'an, which shows how popular the wind of "chisel teeth" was.

Cultural types

There are different views on the types of Dawenkou Culture in the current archaeological circles. Some people suggest that it can be divided into three types: "qingliangang", "Liulin" and "Huating". Some people think that it can be divided into three types: "Dawenkou", "dadunzi" and "Sanlihe". Three types of the latter classification are briefly introduced as follows:

Dawenkou type

It includes Dawenkou cultural sites in Taian, Jining and other areas in central and southern Shandong Province. After excavation there are Tengxian Gangshang, Qufu West Xiahou, Zouxian YEDIAN, Yanzhou Wangyin and other sites. The characteristics of this type are shown in the shape of pottery, which are represented by cauldron shaped tripod, big hole woven high handle bean, back pot, barrel shaped cup, jar, Zun shaped ware, round foot bottle, bag foot jar, ear cup, etc. Most of the tombs were single and straight with head facing east, and there were a small number of burials with body bending and body bending. Most of the dead people hold the Swertia in their hands. There are a certain number of same-sex tombs in Wang Yin's early tombs.

Dadunzi type: named after dadunzi, which was first found in Pixian County, Northern Jiangsu Province. It is mainly distributed in Northern Jiangsu to the north of Huaihe River. The excavated sites include Liulin in Pixian, Huating in Xinyi, Erjian village in Lianyungang, etc. The pottery is representative of tripod, cudgel, bean, back pot, tripod pot with handle, cudgel shaped pot, bowl, Gu shaped cup, high round foot cup and pot. Most of the dead also hold the zhangya ware in their hands. In some tombs, stone rings were placed at the eyes of the dead.

Sanlihe type: it is named after the representative Sanlihe site in Jiaoxian County, Shandong Province. It is mainly distributed in Shandong Weifang Area and Rizhao county. The excavated sites include donghaiyu in Rizhao, Jingzhi town in Anqiu and Chengzi in Zhucheng. The pottery is represented by cauldron, pot shaped tripod, tripod, one ear long neck pot, two ear long neck pot, long and thin bottle, big mouth folding shoulder Zun, one ear cup, high handle cup, folding belly bowl, etc., while back pot, bean cup and tube cup are few. The main burial style is the one with head to the West and northwest. In the Chengzi site, there are many joint burials and overlapping burials, and most of the dead hold zhangya ware or Beng ware. Some of the dead had stone Yue, clam ware, black pottery cup and conch on their arms. Some of the dead also contain Yuyu. It is common to bury pigs with their mandibles.

Regional distribution

Dawenkou Culture is a Neolithic culture in the lower reaches of the Yellow River in China. It got its name from Dawenkou site in Tai'an, Shandong Province. It is mainly distributed in Shandong Province and Huaibei area of Jiangsu Province. Including Beixin culture and Longshan culture. It is mainly distributed in the lower reaches of Wenhe River, Sihe River, Yihe River, Zihe River and Huaihe River in Shandong, Northern Jiangsu, Northern Anhui and Eastern Henan. It is a representative culture of the middle Neolithic Age in this area. Typical sites excavated include Dawenkou, Tengxian Gangshang, Xiahou, YEDIAN, Wangyin, Liulin, dadunzi, Chengzi, donghaiyu and Sanlihe.

Dawenkou Culture dates from 4040 BC to 2240 BC, lasting about 2000 years. According to the stratigraphic overpressure relationship and relic characteristics, it can be divided into early, middle and late stages. There are argillaceous and sandy pottery, mainly red pottery in the early stage, gray and black pottery in the late stage, white pottery and eggshell pottery.

In the late stage, it developed into rotary pottery with firing temperature of 900-1000 ℃. The utensils are tripod, Cuan, Cuan, Dou, Zun, single ear cup, Gu shaped cup, high collar pot, back kettle, etc. Many ceramic surfaces are light, decorative, with stripes, chords, baskets, circles, triangular marks, and hollows. There are few painted pottery, but they are full of characteristics. There are three kinds of colors: red, black and white, and the patterns include circles, geometry, flowers and leaves.

Dawenkou Culture was first discovered and excavated in 1959. It is considered to be the remains of the late Neolithic age. The archaeological community will name Dawenkou site and its similar cultural relics Dawenkou Culture. Later, in 1974, 1977 and 1978, several excavations were carried out. The site is rich in connotation, including tombs and houses

Chinese PinYin : Da Wen Kou Yi Zhi