Qujialing cultural site

Qujialing cultural site

Qujialing site was found in Qujialing village, Jingshan City, Hubei Province. It is a cultural relic dominated by black pottery and has many unique characteristics. Qujialing culture is a Neolithic culture in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in China. Its age is about 5300-4600 years ago.

Qujialing culture belongs to a new cultural system because it has unique cultural characteristics compared with other cultures, so it is named "Qujialing culture". For this reason, the Chinese Academy of Sciences published a monograph "Jingshan Qujialing".

Qujialing culture's eggshell painted pottery, painted pottery spinning wheel and pottery small animals are rare in other primitive cultures.

On the whole, the prosperous and splendid material culture in Jingchu civilization, that is, the unique Chu culture, whose artistic characteristics come down in one continuous line with the rich and colorful Qujialing culture in the original culture of Jingchu. It is indisputable that Qujialing culture is the foundation of the development of Chu culture and the source of the high development of Jingchu civilization.

Qujialing cultural site, discovered in Qujialing village, Jingshan City, Hubei Province, is the discovery and naming place of "Qujialing culture". It is the earliest and most representative Neolithic large-scale settlement site in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, 5300-4500 years ago. Qujialing site is also the first discovery site of prehistoric rice remains in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. It is one of the birthplaces of China's agricultural culture. It has rich connotation of agricultural culture. It is one of the first 100 major sites in China and one of the 100 archaeological discoveries in the 20th century. In 1988, it was announced by the State Council as a national key cultural relics protection unit. Qujialing site is of great significance for the study of the origin and development of primitive human settlements and the origin and development of Chinese civilization. The discovery of Qujialing site shows that it is the birthplace of agricultural civilization in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and its rich cultural connotation shows that the Yangtze River Basin, like the Yellow River Basin, is also an important cradle of Chinese civilization.

Historical evolution

Qujialing culture is a Neolithic culture distributed in the Jianghan Plain in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River,

It was first discovered at Qujialing site in Jingshan, Hubei Province.

The culture has a wide range of influence, ranging from Huanggang and Echeng in the east of Hubei Province to the Three Gorges Area in the west, Nanyang in Henan Province in the north, Dongting Lake in the south, and Danjiang River Basin in the south of Shaanxi Province in the northwest. About 5000 years ago.

The site was discovered in 1954. After many times of excavation and in-depth study, it has been found that this remains has many unique characteristics, so it is named "Qujialing culture"

The age of Qujialing culture is about 5300-4600 years ago.

Qujialing site was first discovered by fahori in 1955-1957. Later, more Qujialing cultural sites were discovered in fahori in Hubei Province. Many of them, such as guanmiaoshan site in Zhijiang, were found to be related to the earlier and later cultures. They were identified as the inheritors of Daxi Culture in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and then the later qinglongquan culture (also known as Hubei Longshan Culture) ）Inherited.

The site was announced as a national key cultural relics protection unit in 1988, which is the third batch of key cultural relics protection units announced by the state.

Cultural relics

Cultural Relic

The site is located on an oval mound with gentle and flat terrain and rolling hills nearby. Qingmulang and Qingmu River are surrounded by the East and west sides to the south, where they meet and merge. The land is fertile and rich in products.

Among the unearthed objects from Qujialing site, painted pottery spinning wheel, painted black pottery and eggshell pottery are the most distinctive. The pots, beans, bowls and other utensils made of pottery are of double arc-shaped folded walls, which also has a unique style. This kind of culture is widely distributed in Jianghan Plain, Northwest Mountainous Area in Hubei Province, and the south of Henan Province, which is adjacent to Hubei Province. A large number of production tools and japonica rice husks preserved in the site show that the social economy of the Qujialing people is mainly agriculture, and they are also engaged in breeding, fishing and hunting, textile and other industries; agriculture and handicraft industry have division of labor, the pottery industry is quite developed, the variety of pottery is rich, and the patterns are beautiful. The colorful pottery, pottery bird models and jade ornaments reflect people's spiritual and cultural life at that time. The progress of agriculture and the appearance of "Tao Zu", a symbol of patriarchal worship, show that the development of society has entered the stage of patriarchal clan.

The pottery of Qujialing culture is mainly clay black pottery and clay grey pottery, with well-developed circle foot pottery and more concave bottom pottery, which are not found in other places in the same period. Qujialing culture pottery chicken, pottery sheep, pottery animals and other small red pottery animals and other pottery modeling crafts are works of art originated from real life. The rich and colorful painting art and pottery crafts reflect the rich imagination and artistic creativity of Qujialing ancestors. "In particular, the patterns of painted pottery vessels and painted pottery spinning wheels of Qujialing culture show their unique artistic features in the primitive culture. The eggshell painted pottery, painted pottery spinning wheels and small red pottery animals of Qujialing culture are the only ones in the primitive culture of the whole country, which are rare in other primitive cultures.

remains

The early remains mainly include Qujialing site in Jingshan,

Zhu Jiazui, the lower layer of fangyingtai site in Wuchang, Hubei, and the middle layer of zhuanchenggang site in Anxiang, Hunan. This period is characterized by rough grinding of stone tools, and the edges of many stone tools are often chiseled. Among the ceramic tools, the large black and gray ceramic spinning wheel is quite representative. Black pottery is the main type of pottery, followed by gray pottery, and ring footed pottery is more developed, among which black pottery painted by Zhu is the most characteristic. Most of the painted pottery is thick, and some of the patterns have the style of Yangshao culture. The middle period is the heyday of Qujialing culture, with the widest distribution. The representative remains include: the first and second periods of the late Qujialing site, the middle period of qinglongquan site in Hubei, the fourth period of Honghuatao site in Yidu, xiawanggang site in Xichuan, Henan, etc. There are many houses found in this period. The tools are mainly stone tools, which are finely ground in the early period. There are few pottery tools, represented by painted pottery spinning wheel. The main pottery is grey pottery, followed by black pottery and red pottery. The type and quantity of the utensils have greatly increased. The typical utensils are short foot pot shaped tripod, high circle foot cup, three foot dish, straight mouth long neck flat belly pot, etc. The number of painted pottery is increasing, and the eggshell pottery is the representative of Qujialing culture. Some utensils, such as large pottery pots and jar shaped utensils, are similar to the second stage of Miaodigou culture in Central China. The main sites in the late period are: the lower cultural layer of Shijiahe site in Tianmen, the lower layer of guanyinping site in Junxian, etc. The late stone tools are represented by rectangular stone axes, double hole stone knives and stone arrowheads with collars. The number of painted pottery spinning wheel is more, the shape is smaller, and there are Taiji pattern and symmetrical double arc line with diagonal lines. Pottery is still mainly gray pottery, and the number of red pottery has increased. The appearance of bag foot cookers marks the transition from the culture of this period to the three periods of qinglongquan culture.

The houses of Qujialing culture are mostly square and rectangular ground buildings. Generally, the foundation trench is excavated first, the column is filled, and then the wall is built with clay or grass mixed mud mixed with burnt soil fragments. The lower part of the living surface is paved with red burnt soil or yellow sand soil to prevent moisture. The surface is covered with "white ash surface" or coated with fine mud and roasted. Fire ponds were built in the middle or a corner of the room, and pottery pots were left near some fire ponds. The interior column holes are generally arranged in order, and some of them are padded with broken pottery pieces at the bottom, playing the role of column foundation. The area of a single room is generally about 10 square meters. There are larger houses with partition walls, some of which are inside and outside rooms with one gate, and some of which are rectangular double rooms or multi room connected rooms. Each room opens to the outside, and there are no doors or doors on the partition walls, and even up to 20 or 30 rooms connected in rows. Qinglongquan is a double room house with a total length of 14 meters from north to South and a width of 5.6 meters from east to west. The total indoor area is more than 70 square meters. This kind of house with partition walls and connecting rooms is novel in form and has made obvious progress in building structure. Some people think that it may be produced in the context of paternal family life.

Governance and development

stone artifact

Most of the stone tools of Qujialing culture are made by grinding, and the level of production is quite high. The shapes of the tools include axe, shovel, chisel, sickle, arrow and so on.

economic activity

Rice farming is the main economic activity, livestock breeding and fishing and hunting collection is also a very important part.

Architecture

Most of the buildings are square or rectangular, and the ground is built from the ground. In the foundation part, large shallow pits are excavated first, accompanied by the ceremony of foundation laying and sacrifice. Then dry soil is transported from the outside to pave the shallow pits, and then red burnt soil is spread on the shallow pits to prevent moisture. Dry soil is used to pave the indoor ground on the red burnt soil. In addition, the wall foundation trench is excavated first, and then wooden columns are erected to build the wall, and finally the house frame is built. There are two kinds of wall construction methods, namely, plywood stacking method and adobe masonry method. The roof is ridged from the side, and there are two kinds of indoor layout: single room and divided room (two or more).

a burial

The main form of tombs is vertical pit and earth pit tombs. Most of the adult tombs are concentrated in the clan public cemeteries, and most of them are buried with one person on his back and straight legs, with the upper incisors pulled out. Most of the children's tombs are buried in round earth pits and urn coffins. The burial utensils are usually made of one pottery bowl or two pottery bowls.

technology

Pottery

Most of the pottery in Qujialing culture is hand-made, but fast wheel pottery has been popular. The surface is smooth and polished. The pottery is mainly made of clay, with less sand. The color of pottery is mainly gray, followed by black, and a small amount of red pottery and orange pottery. Pottery

Chinese PinYin : Qu Jia Ling Wen Hua Yi Zhi