Daxi cultural site

Daxi cultural site

Daxi cultural site is located in Daxi town at the east entrance of Qutang gorge and beside the broad valley of Daning River. It is one of the birthplaces of ancient civilization in the Yangtze River Basin of China and an important relic of matriarchal society in Neolithic age. Guo Moruo called it "Daxi Culture". Daxi town belongs to Wushan County. There is a river flowing into the Yangtze River in the west of the town. Because its water color is like Dai, it is called Daixi. Daixi is also known as Daxi because of its huge water potential during the flood season. It is one of the famous ancient cultural sites in primitive society of China, which is about 5000 or 6000 years ago and belongs to the late matriarchal clan to the embryonic stage of paternal clan.

Basic introduction

Location: on the third terrace at the confluence of the South Bank of the Yangtze River and Daxi river at the east mouth of Qutang gorge, Yichang, Hubei Province, 15 km away from Fengjie County

Area: 750 square meters

Excavation

From 1959 to 1975, the Sichuan Museum and other units formed a joint inspection team to carry out three excavations, with a total excavation area of 570 square meters, 208 tombs and more than 1250 cultural relics unearthed. There are stone axe, stone hammer, stone pestle, stone sickle, spinning wheel, bone needle, clam sickle, net pendant and other production tools.

The main pottery is red pottery, followed by black pottery and gray pottery, with few tripod pottery. The decoration and stamp of painted pottery are quite distinctive. The shapes of the utensils include beans, Qufu cups, bowls, pots, plates, bottles, basins, bowls, etc. among them, tubular bottles, high circle foot deep abdomen beans and Qufu cups are the representative utensils of Daxi Culture. Ornaments include jade, stone, bone, ivory, animal teeth and so on, mainly including earrings, necklaces and arm ornaments. There are also works of art such as hollow stone ball relief hanging decorations.

In the tombs of Daxi site, the dead were all buried in the public cemetery of the clan, with the head facing to the south. In the early period, they were mainly buried with the body raised and the limbs straight, but also with the body bent and the side body buried. Most of the tombs have funerary objects. The female tombs are generally rich in male, with more than 30 pieces at most. Some of them are stone bracelets and inlaid teeth bracelets, which were worn on the dead's arm bones when unearthed. The whole fish bone and tortoise shell were also found in several tombs. The phenomenon of burial with fish is rare in Neolithic culture of China.

In addition, there are people who sacrifice their dogs. There are great variations in the social nature reflected by the early and late tombs of Daxi site. The early stage of Daxi Culture is the prosperous stage of matriarchal clan commune, and the late stage is the embryonic stage of paternal clan commune.

Daxi Culture and Yangshao culture in the central plains are important cultural relics of different types in the Neolithic period. There are factors of mutual exchange and influence between them.

Academic circles generally believe that Daxi Culture and Qujialing culture are two different development stages of the same cultural type, and Qujialing culture is developed on the basis of Daxi Culture.

In the middle of May 2007, Daxi cultural site was first discovered in Southeast Chongqing, and some precious relics such as the typical double burial tombs in the middle period of Daxi Culture were unearthed. The Daxi cultural site is located in the reservoir area of Youjiao hydropower station project in Youyang County, Chongqing city.

According to Bai Jiujiang, head of the archaeological team of Chongqing Municipal Institute of cultural relics and archaeology, the Daxi cultural site is located in the reservoir area of Youjiao hydropower station project in Youyang County, Chongqing, with an excavation area of 1125 square meters. Nine ground cultural relics and 12 underground cultural relics were found.

Tombs, pillar holes and other architectural remains have been cleared. Among them, the tombs are oval two person tombs, the left side is lateral bending, the right side is supine bending, which is a typical Tomb of the middle Daxi Culture.

This is the first discovery of Daxi cultural sites in Southeast Chongqing, and also the first excavation of Daxi cultural sites in the upper reaches of Youshui River, which provides new materials for the study of the distribution and expansion of Daxi Culture. In addition, the understanding of the origin of Daxi cultural elements found in the east of Qutang gorge also provides a new basis for thinking: Youshui and Wujiang may be the transmission channels of Daxi Culture.

From March to May 12, 2008, the archaeological team of Huaihua, Hunan Province carried out rescue and excavation work on the remains of Daxi cultural site in Wushan. The team excavated 45 tombs of Six Dynasties, including the Han Dynasty, the Warring States period, the Six Dynasties, the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms. The total excavation area is 3000 square meters. Among them, the unearthed gualing pot of Tang Dynasty and the complete blue and white porcelain bowl of Ming Dynasty are of great research value.

At the same time, the stone chamber Tomb of Han Dynasty (also known as "Manzi cave") recently excavated by the archaeological team has a history of about 2000 years. The tomb is 5.7 meters long, 2.2 meters wide and 2.2 meters high. All of them are arched tombs made of nearly 1000 hand milled bluestone bricks, with three major structures of arch gate, corridor and tomb chamber. It is not only a good reflection of the folk customs at that time, but also of great value for the study of the thick and long Daxi Culture.

The stone chamber tomb has been moved to the Kangbei (kangmaocai stone tablet) compound near Daxi Township, where it has been restored as it is, to serve as a specimen for educational research.

cultural relics and historic sites

General's tomb

This tomb is very large, but it was destroyed as early as the great leap forward and the cultural revolution. Many exquisite carvings and tombstones have been built in the Shikan of xuedazhai village. Now it's just a pile of stones. The only well preserved one is a tombstone with the inscription "Tomb of general Kuangming Ding of Shizhou Wei in charge of both the army and the people of Mingwei", which was erected in the 48th year of Qianlong. The next tomb is Kuang Xiangyuan's tomb, which was established in the 31st year of Guangxu and is the descendant of general Kuang Mingding. This tomb is well preserved.

Looking through Kuang's genealogy, Kuang Mingding, with the word "Ai ru", was a general of Ming Dynasty. He was the highest military officer in Shizhou (now Enshi area of Hubei Province). He was the ancestor of the Kuang family, Ruchuan. After the Qing Dynasty unified the whole country, Kuang Mingding lived in seclusion in shaluoping. Later, Wu Sangui rebelled against the Qing Dynasty and sent many people to ask him out of the mountain. He "declined" and died here.

Now the local people are more and more aware of the protection of cultural relics and historic sites. They have built walls for the ancient tombs and will vigorously renovate them in the future.

Chastity archway

Many cultural relic experts say that the archway is the largest and best preserved ancient archway in Eastern Chongqing.

The memorial archway was built in the third year of Jiaqing. It covers an area of about half an mu. The tomb has been destroyed. Only in a piece of farmland, the memorial archway of chastity in front of the tomb is left alone. It is 6 meters high and 4.5 meters wide, with a total of three layers. It is made of more than 60 pieces of sand and stone. The dragon and Phoenix decorations are quite exquisite. There are a pair of stone lions on both sides, which are lifelike. It has four pillars and three doors, big in the middle and small at both ends. It has carved lintels on which there are exquisite designs such as dragon and Phoenix, unicorn, crane, jade rabbit, and auspicious cloud. In particular, there is a group of dragon stone with two big characters "imperial edict" under it, which is undoubtedly the order of the Qing emperor.

In the middle book, it is said that "Xiang Shi Xiao Fang, the wife of Kuang Shi Jue, was established in the 36th year of Qianlong reign". The couplets on both sides are "to spread the filial piety through the ages, and to pass on the nine springs with the help of grace". The whole archway is exquisite, simple and elegant.

Kuang Shijue is the grandson of Kuang Mingding, the general of Mingwei, and Xiang's is the granddaughter-in-law of Kuang Mingding. Unfortunately, this archway is seriously weathered and many characters are difficult to read. In the past, it was set off by a base. It was quite tall and could walk through all three doors. Later, when the land was deserted and planted, it gradually piled up and became small.

Cao's old house

This house is built in the Qing Dynasty, which is of Hui style. The main gate is a 30 meter wide wind and fire wall, and the upper five stone steps are the gate. There are all kinds of colored drawings, patterns and handwriting on the gate, but it is not clear. The courtyard is 8 meters long and 5 meters wide. There is also an ancient fish tank in the corner, which is decorated with simple style. In particular, there is a footprint on the sand and stone slab of the patio, which is the same size as ordinary people. It is said that this house is a through frame house. Outside the wind and fire walls of the gate, it is full of wooden buildings, which is very famous. When Luban heard about it, he came to see it and praised it. He stamped his foot and left it. There are three main rooms, six side rooms and 12 kitchens and toilets in this house. One of them has collapsed, and the rest is basically in good condition.

This house was given the surname Yan during the land reform, so it was later called the old house of Yan family. The old man surnamed Yan died, and most of his descendants were outside, which made him look empty and desolate.

If a little repair, will be a typical Qing Dynasty residential, do a farmhouse, I believe it is very popular.

Daxi culture

Daxi Culture is a Neolithic Culture (Reference: Neolithic Age) discovered in the Three Gorges Area in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. It dates from 4400 BC to 3300 BC, including Daxi site in the south of Qutang gorge, Wushan County, Chongqing, and more than 10 sites in Hunan and Hubei. The pottery of Daxi Culture is mainly made of red pottery, which is generally coated with red clothes. The popular patterns are round, rectangular, crescent and so on. The patterns are mostly black, such as mouth rope pattern, horizontal herringbone pattern, stripe pattern and whirlpool pattern. The main shapes are cauldron, pot, inclined edge pot, small mouth straight neck pot, basin, bean, bowl, round foot bowl, cylindrical bottle, curved belly cup and so on.

In the stone tools, there is a GUI shaped stone chisel with symmetrical grinding edges on both sides, which is very special. There are also stone axes, stone axes, stone knives, etc. The houses of Daxi Culture are mostly made of burnt earth and bamboo.

The agriculture of Daxi residents is mainly rice planting, and a large number of rice husk specimens were found in the site.

Longitude: 109.62089538574

Latitude: 31.001010894775

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