Shijiahe site

Shijiahe site

Shijiahe site is located in the northern suburb of Shijiahe Town, Tianmen City, Hubei Province, about 11 kilometers away from Tianmen City. The site area covers an area of more than 8 square kilometers and consists of 40 sites

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Shijiahe site is known in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. It has the largest distribution area, the most complete preservation, the longest duration and the highest level of Neolithic settlement site. Human living began 6500 years ago and reached its peak about 4300 years ago

The site and the Shijiahe Culture named after it represent the highest level of prehistoric cultural development in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and occupy a very important position in the history of the origin and development of Chinese civilization

It is an important source of Sanxingdui culture and Chu culture

. In November 1996, it was announced by the State Council as < I < / I < I national key cultural relics protection unit < / I; in March 2001, it was rated as one of the "100 archaeological discoveries in China in the 20th century"

In January 2017, it was rated as one of the "six new archaeological discoveries in China in 2016";

On April 12, 2017, it was rated as "the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China in 2016".

geographical position

Located in the northern suburb of Shijiahe Town, Tianmen City, Hubei Province, Shijiahe site is under the jurisdiction of Tucheng village, Shiling village, Tangli village and Dongqiao village,

It is located in the hilly area at the junction of the southern foot of Dahong mountain and Jianghan Plain. The site is about 11 kilometers southeast of Tianmen City (< i240 National Road < / I < I mileage < / I), covering an area of more than 8 square kilometers and composed of 40 sites.

From 1955 to 1993, the archaeological team of Shijiahe site organized by the State Administration of cultural relics has carried out 20 excavations of different scales in 9 sites of the site. The abundant relics and relics found are of typical significance for studying the chronology of prehistoric cultural development and the formation, development and decline of settlements in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

Except for the erosion of nature, the whole site has not suffered large-scale and large-area ground breaking damage and is basically well preserved. On the ground, the west wall and the south wall of Shijiahe ancient city are well preserved, the city wall of Tucheng is high on the ground, and the moat around the city is clearly visible

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The archaeological work of Shijiahe site began in the 1950s.

In the winter of 1954, the main canal of Shilong river crossing reservoir was built in Jingshan and Tianmen county. Archaeologists investigated along the canal and found many ancient sites in Qujialing of Jingshan and Shijiahe of Tianmen.

From February to August 1955, the cultural relics team of Shilong river crossing reservoir headquarters excavated luojiabailing, Yangjiawan (guanpingyan), shibanchong and Sanfangwan sites in Shijiahe river. The excavation area of luojiabailing is nearly 1400 square meters.

This is a very important archaeological excavation in Jianghan area, but due to various reasons, the above archaeological materials were not published in time, so its academic value has not been recognized for a long time. From then until the late 1970s, no new archaeological excavation was carried out in the Shijiahe site group.

In the late 1970s, the archaeological work of Shijiahe site group started again. In 1978, Hubei Jingzhou Museum excavated the dengjiawan site, and in 1982, Hubei Museum excavated the tanjialing and Tucheng sites. In the spring of 1987, the Jingzhou Museum and the Department of Archaeology of Peking University jointly excavated the dengjiawan site. Although the scale of these excavations is small, the data and information obtained are very rich.

Cultural characteristics

In order to further study the characteristics of Neolithic culture in Jianghan Plain and discuss the connotation of Shijiahe site group and its position in the Neolithic culture in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the Department of Archaeology of Peking University, Hubei Provincial Institute of Archaeology and Jingzhou Museum jointly set up the Shijiahe archaeological team in June 1987, with Mr. Yan Wenming as the team leader Planned archaeological investigation and excavation. The main sites of excavation include dengjiawan, tanjialing, xiaojiaridge and Tucheng. Among them, xiaojiaridge and dengjiawan sites have the largest excavation area and the most abundant harvest.

While organizing excavation work, archaeological investigation on the ground is also in progress, and important breakthroughs have been made. In 1992, the field archaeological work came to an end and turned to indoor arrangement. After the study of the team leader meeting, it was decided to compile three archaeological reports on the basis of five years of field work. The first one is the report on the Xiaojia ridge site, which was compiled by Zhang Xuqiu and the relevant professionals of Jingzhou Museum. The second is the excavation report of the dengjiawan site, which was compiled by Yang Quanxi, who organized relevant personnel of the Hubei Provincial Institute of archaeology. The third is an investigation report on the Shijiahe site group, which is in the charge of Zhao Hui and Zhang Chi, teachers of the Department of Archaeology of Peking University. This investigation report has been completed and published in the South National Archaeology journal

Part five.

The excavation of xiaojiawuji site has the nature of rescue. Before the excavation, the brick and tile factory in Shijiahe town had been built here to collect soil, which destroyed a considerable area of the southern end of the site. In order to partly solve the difficulties of soil for production and achieve the purpose of archaeological research, the Shijiahe archaeological team carried out eight excavations from 1987 to 1991, with a total area of 6500 square meters (including the expanded area).

On April 12, 2017, it was rated as the top ten new archaeological discoveries in 2016.

Previous excavations

The first excavation was in the autumn and winter of 1987. The purpose of excavation is to find out the cultural connotation of the site, so as to determine whether it is necessary to excavate again in the future. The participants in the excavation were mainly undergraduate students of grade 85 from the Department of Archaeology of Peking University. Tutors include Zhang Jiangkai, Zhao Chaohong, teachers of Archaeology Department of Peking University, Zhang Xuqiu and Wang Hong of Jingzhou Museum.

The excavation method is to divide the site into East and west areas a and B with the earth highway as the boundary. The excavation is located at the south end of area a, close to the soil sampling site. A total of 12 exploration sites (No. at1-12) have been opened, with an exposed area of 300 square meters. Therefore, this excavation is a trial excavation, so no unified plan has been made for the number of exploration side. The main harvest of the excavation is to have a preliminary grasp of the stratigraphic accumulation of the site, and found 15 tombs, 1 urn coffin and 39 ash pits, of which M7 has a large number of funerary objects, which is the largest tomb found in Shijiahe culture.

The second excavation was in the spring of 1988. Through the previous excavation, we learned that the cultural connotation of the site is relatively rich, and the time span is long, which is conducive to the establishment of the cultural development pedigree of the whole site group, so we decided to continue to cooperate with the soil excavation. The participants in the excavation are: Zhang Xuqiu, Liu Deyin and Wang Fuying of Jingzhou Museum, 4 graduates of the 88th session of Department of Archaeology of Peking University, and fan Xuebin of Tianmen Museum. The excavation site is mainly in the north of the first excavation area. Quadrant method is adopted for the number of exploration side, which is composed of four digits. The first two digits indicate the coordinate sequence of exploration from south to north, and the last two digits indicate the coordinate sequence of exploration from west to East. For example, at0207 (abbreviated as at207) indicates that the location of exploration is the second row from south to North and No. 7 from west to East in area A. all subsequent excavations are numbered according to this system. This time, 14 exploration squares (at204-408) were opened, in addition, 3 exploration squares (at13-15) were opened in the southern part of the last excavation area, with a total excavation area of 425 square meters.

The main harvest is to clear 12 tombs (m16-27), of which 9 belong to the Neolithic age, 3 belong to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and 12 ash pits (h40-51) were found at the same time.

Distribution of tombs

The third excavation was in the autumn of 1988. The participants were Zhang Xuqiu, Liu Deyin, Chen Guantao, Zheng Zhonghua, Wang Fuying and Xiao Yujun of Jingzhou Museum, Li Wensen and Zhu Hengfu of Hubei Provincial Institute of archaeology, fan Xuebin of Tianmen Museum and master of Archaeology of Xiangtan University. A total of 64 excavation sites (at602-1017, 1104-1117 and 1205-1217) were opened, covering an area of 1600 square meters (plate).

The main harvest was the discovery of another earthen pit cemetery at the east end of area a, the cleaning of 20 earthen pit tombs (m28-47), and the discovery of 12 urn coffins (w2-13) at the same site. A large pond was found, which spans seven exploration directions from east to west, and its north end is not clear. There are a small number of urn coffins in the southwest of the pond, and more urn coffins in the East, among which W6 has a large number of exquisite jade. In addition, 39 ash pits (h52-91), one house foundation (F1) and one earth well (J1) were found.

The fourth excavation was in the spring of 1989. The participants included Zhang Xuqiu, Liu Deyin, Chen Guantao and Xiao Yujun from Jingzhou Museum, Li Wensen and Meng Huaping from Hubei Provincial Institute of archaeology, 7 students of grade 85 from Department of Archaeology of Peking University, and Zhou Wen from Tianmen Museum. A total of 17 exploration sites have been opened, with an excavation area of 425 square meters (at1118-1120, 1218-1221, 1316-1321, 1416-1417, 1515-1516). The main purpose is to find out the scope of the urn coffin burial in the east of the pond. As a result, 16 urn coffins (w14-29) were found. According to the stratigraphic relationship, some urn coffins may have been destroyed by the reservoir. In addition, ash pit 1 was found

Chinese PinYin : Shi Jia He Yi Zhi