Caoxiaoshan site

Caoxiaoshan site

Caoxiaoshan site, located 2 kilometers northeast of Weiting Town, Wuzhong District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, is 650 meters away from Yangcheng Lake in the north. The site is divided into five areas. The cultural accumulation layer is 11 meters thick and can be divided into 10 layers. From Majiabang culture, Songze culture, Liangzhu culture to spring and autumn Wuyue culture, the whole sequence almost spans the Taihu Lake area and even the lower reaches of the Yangtze River during the Neolithic Age to the whole chronology of pre Qin history. Because of its thick accumulation and rich connotation, it is also called "the yardstick of prehistoric culture in Jiangnan" by Chinese archaeologists. The site was discovered in 1973, and the rescue excavation of the tombs began on September 1, 2009. The tombs belong to the tombs of the late Songze culture 5500 years ago. Among the more than 100 burial objects excavated, the main ones are pottery, of which the pottery tripod, pot, pot and bean are the main shapes. There are also cups, bowls, basins and plates. Some large tombs also unearthed exquisite stone tools such as tomahawks and axes. The jade huang is the only jade unearthed in the tombs.

The excavation of caojieshan site proves for the first time that Cong, Bi, CHUANSHI and other jade products are relics of Liangzhu culture, which also creates a new situation for Chinese jade research. The site is of great significance to explore the origin of Chinese civilization.

In 2013, caojiaoshan site was approved as the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council

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Brief introduction of the site

There are two original mounds in caojiaoshan site, one is caojiaoshan, 10.5 meters high, and the other is Yiling mountain, 15.23 meters high, surrounded by small rivers. The site was discovered in 1956 by the cultural relics administration committee of Jiangsu Province. Later, when the tile factory took soil, it found jade Cong, jade Bi and other cultural relics.

In September 1972, the Nanjing Museum carried out a preliminary excavation. It was found that the area of the underground ancient cultural sites is about 44000 square meters, which is three times the area of the two mounds. Two formal excavations followed. The first excavation was from October 1972 to January the next year, and the second from April 1973 to July 1973. Suzhou Museum and Nanjing University also participated in the excavation. The total excavation area is 1050 square meters.

During the scientific research in 1973, tombs belonging to Liangzhu culture period were found in caojiaoshan site. Later, a large tomb group in the late Songze culture was found, which connected Majiabang culture and Liangzhu culture completely, forming the development sequence of prehistoric culture in Taihu Lake Basin.

Cultural value

Xu Lianggao, doctoral supervisor of the Institute of archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said: "caoxiaoshan cultural site is a typical Neolithic site, which belongs to a complete sequence of cultural sites in regional archaeology. These textual research materials are of great value to the establishment of southeast archaeology.

At present, in China's ongoing project of exploring the source of Chinese civilization, the topic of southeast cultural archaeology is of great value to the work of exploring the source of Chinese civilization. Among them, caoxieshan culture has a very important reference value for the origin of the hierarchical society and the history of the cultural transition stage in Jiangnan area. "

archaeological discovery

Caojiaoshan site, with a history of more than 6000 years, is also the birthplace of many ancient cultures.

As a Neolithic site of ancient culture in Taihu Lake Basin, the Majiabang culture paddy field 6000 years ago in caojieshan site is the earliest ancient paddy field with irrigation system found in China. The carbonized rice unearthed from the site is identified as cultivated rice, which provides a material basis for the study of the origin of rice farming and cultivated rice in China, and is an important achievement in Chinese paddy field archaeology and research.

"At that time, China and Japan cooperated in the archaeology of the paddy field of Majiabang culture. When the Japanese archaeological team opened the accumulation layer and saw the ancient paddy field, they were shocked and praised that it was no less than the archaeological discovery of the terracotta warriors and horses in Xi'an." Shen Ji, the former head of Weiting cultural station who accompanied the scientific research at that time, recalled.

Main structure

Among the scientific discoveries at that time, in addition to the earliest ancient rice fields, the earliest structural houses were also found, in which there was even a piece of leather cloth woven from the tendons of wild horses. "All these show that more than 6000 years ago, ancient civilization was born on this land, and the living culture and weaving culture of the whole Jiangnan area must have been influenced by many factors at that time." Shen Ji said with emotion. Suzhou's jade manufacturing technology is superb, and the earliest Jade also comes from this land. In the m198 Tomb of Liangzhu culture at caojieshan site discovered in 1973, large-scale jade Cong and jade Bi were unearthed for the first time. The unearthed jade Cong is square outside and round inside, and is engraved with patterns symbolizing the animal's face. This is the first time that jade articles have been unearthed from prehistoric tombs in China, and the problem of dating jade Cong has been solved. Therefore, this precious object is known as "the first jade Cong in China".

Among the funerary objects unearthed from the tombs of the Songze period, a stone Yue with a blade width of 23 cm, a height of 15 cm and a thickness of only 0.02 cm is the largest stone tool of the Songze culture period found in Suzhou. Others are mainly pottery. There is a geometric flat pot, which is a new shape discovered in the period of Songze culture. There are also some dish shaped utensils and ladle shaped utensils with waist edge, which are not seen before.

Caojiaoshan site is located in the South Bank of Yangcheng Lake, Lingnan village, Weiting Town, Suzhou city. It was listed as a cultural relic protection unit of Jiangsu Province in 1995. Caojiaoshan site was discovered in 1956 by Jiangsu Cultural Relics Administration Committee. Because of the discovery of jade Cong, jade Bi and other cultural relics when taking soil from the tile factory, Nanjing Museum carried out exploration and excavation in September 1972. After drilling, it is preliminarily found that the underground ancient cultural sites are 260 meters long from east to west and 170 meters wide from south to north, with a total area of 44000 square meters, equivalent to three times the area of caoxiao mountain and Yiling mountain. Then two formal excavations were carried out. The first was from October 1972 to January 1972, and the second was from April 1973 to July 1973.

Suzhou Museum and Nanjing University also participated in the excavation, with a total excavation area of 1050 square meters. We have discovered the stratigraphic relationship between the culture characterized by geometric impression pottery and the primitive culture of different periods. We have cleaned up the residential relics, 11 ash pits (pits) and 206 tombs of the Neolithic age, and unearthed more than 1100 production tools, living utensils and decorations of pottery, stone, bone, jade and other materials.

Precious cultural relics

Among them are jade Cong, jade Bi, carved pot, quadruped animal shaped utensils and other precious cultural relics. Due to the multi-level culture, the unearthed relics are rich, which provides important material materials for the study of ancient culture in Taihu Lake Basin. The thickest part of the cultural accumulation of caoxiaoshan site is 11 meters, which can be divided into 10 strata. From the relationship of strata superimposition, we can see that the sequence of cultural layers is Majiabang culture and Songze culture. The remains of water structures, carbonized rice, carbonized textiles and exquisite jades and pottery unearthed from various cultural layers in the site show that the ancestors of Taihu Lake Basin created a relatively advanced culture as early as 6000 years ago and became an important part of China's rich and colorful ancient culture.

protective measures

In 2013, caojiaoshan site was approved as the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council

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Address: intersection of Yangcheng Ring Road and Yangchenghu Avenue in Suzhou Industrial Park

Longitude: 120.797576

Latitude: 31.37297

Chinese PinYin : Cao Xie Shan Yi Zhi