Dahe village site

Dahe village site is a national key cultural relics protection unit, located 12 kilometers north of Zhengzhou, covering an area of about 300000 square meters. According to a large number of tombs, house foundations and other relics excavated, this site contains three different historical periods of Yangshao culture, Longshan culture and Shang culture, with a cultural layer of 4-7 meters. According to the excavated materials, it contains three different historical periods of Yangshao culture, Longshan culture and Shang Dynasty culture, with a depth of 4-7 meters. The most striking is the retention of residential housing. At present, more than 30 building foundations have been excavated, with different architectural styles and obvious progressive features. Among them, the wall of No.1 building foundation is as high as 1 meter, which is the only building foundation in China at that time. According to carbon isotope measurement, it is about 5000 years ago, belonging to the late Neolithic Yangshao culture. The unearthed cultural relics mainly include red pottery, black colored pottery and white colored pottery. There are various astronomical patterns on the painted pottery, such as sun pattern, moon pattern, constellation pattern, prominence pattern and so on. This discovery is of great significance to the study of the relationship between agriculture of Yangshao culture and ancient astronomy.

Dahe village site

Dahecun site, located in the north of Jinshui District, Zhengzhou, and the southeast corner of the intersection of Lianhuo Expressway and Zhongzhou Avenue, was discovered in 1964. It is a large-scale ancient settlement site containing Yangshao culture, Longshan culture and Xia and Shang culture.

Dahecun site was announced by the State Council as the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units in 2001.

geographical position

Dahe village site, located in the southwest of Henan Province, is located in the shallow mountains and hills, bordering on the eastern Henan Plain. It is located on the manpo mound about 1km southwest of Dahe village, Guoji road sub district office, Jinshui District, Zhengzhou city. Because of the abundant cotton, the local people call it "granite". The mound has a Southwest northeast trend with a large slope on the north and south sides. There is an ancient river channel flowing southwest northeast through the middle of the site, which divides the site into East and west parts. The site is 6 km from Zhengzhou City in the south, 2.5 km from Jialu River in the north and 7.5 km from the Yellow River in the north.

archaeological excavation

From 1972 to 2015, 25 archaeological excavations were carried out on the dahecun site, covering an area of more than 6000 square meters. More than 50 house foundations, nearly 500 pits, more than 400 tombs and 2 trenches were excavated. More than 3600 precious cultural relics of pottery, stone, bone, mussel, horn and jade, and more than 20000 specimens of various types were unearthed. The collection of Dahe Village Heritage Museum mainly comes from archaeological excavation, with a total of 1945 pieces (sets), including 12 pieces (sets) of second-class cultural relics, 217 pieces (sets) of third-class cultural relics, and 1716 pieces (sets) of general cultural relics. Among the collections, Yangshao culture painted pottery is the most distinctive, with a large number. Among them, painted pottery Shuanglian pot, white pottery bowl and ∽ x pattern pottery pot are rare original art treasures.

Unearthed artifacts

The artifacts unearthed from the site can be divided into pottery, stone, jade, bone and clam, among which pottery is the most representative. Yangshao and Longshan times were the most.

Painted pottery Double pot

In 1972, the foundation of Yangshao culture was excavated from dahecun site. It is 20cm high, muddy red pottery, black color in red, covered with parallel lines. The two pots are connected in parallel, and a round hole is connected at the abdomen. Each side of the pot has one ear, round belly and flat bottom. It skillfully connects two pots with the same shape by using the principle of connector. It has unique shape, novel conception, simple and smooth lines and unique style. It is of great value to the study of social form, life customs and pottery art in primitive society.

The painted pottery Double pot should be a ceremonial item. It may be a drinking utensil for the tribal leaders and elders during the clan alliance or major ceremonial activities. It is a symbol of peace, friendship and equality to drink and pledge together in a double jug and turn a fight into jade and silk.

painted pottery basin

In 2014, it was unearthed during the reconstruction of the fire pool at Dahe village site. The clay red pottery, with its mouth extravagant, back folded, round lip, belly bulging, upper abdomen slightly bulging, lower abdomen rapidly retracting, and bottom incomplete, has been repaired. The inner wall and upper abdomen were all dressed in white. The mouth edge is decorated with eight groups of symmetrical patterns, which are composed of red color straight line pattern, white color arc triangle pattern, red color dot pattern and black color arc pattern. The abdomen is decorated with four groups of symmetrical patterns, which are composed of black color moon pattern, arc triangle pattern and dot pattern. From this, we can see that the ancients used the method of symmetrical equal division when drawing pottery patterns.

Traditional technology

There are two pairs of boreholes near the mouth of the upper abdomen of this white painted pottery basin. This should be because the ancients used the "baking" technology to fix the precious painted pottery basin tightly after it appeared cracks. This reflects that in the period of Yangshao culture, the traditional technology of "baking" already existed.

This white painted pottery pot was unearthed on top of a gray pottery pot with sand, and a clay red pottery bowl was also buckled on it. Therefore, it is speculated that it might have been used as the lid of the urn and coffin. This combination of urn and coffin is very gorgeous in the urn and coffin unearthed from Dahe village site. It is speculated that the owner of the tomb was a child who died in a wealthy family.

White colored pottery bowl

The clay red pottery has a narrow mouth, a round shoulder and a small flat bottom. The white clothes are painted with red color. The shoulders are decorated with three groups of connected diamond, arc, triangle and comb geometric patterns. The body is decorated with patterns composed of parallel straight lines, arc triangle, dot and diamond. With a height of 21 cm, beautiful shape, bright colors and careful composition, it is a rare ancient art treasure, reflecting the outstanding characteristics of the painted pottery in Dahe village.

Painted pottery pot

Clay red pottery, bell mouth, ball belly, surface painted with red, decorated with black color, straight line pattern, diagonal pattern and circle pattern, etc., with rich patterns, dignified and elegant shape, is very characteristic.

Clay grey pottery red color pot

Red color can, big mouth, folding edge, sharp lip, deep folding abdomen, flat bottom, along the surface and folding abdomen are decorated with a red color, the upper abdomen and near the mouth edge are decorated with patterns composed of parallel lines, reticulated patterns and curved patterns, the combination of different patterns makes the whole shape simple and elegant.

Painted pottery cylinder jar

It has a straight mouth and a vertical abdomen. The surface of the jar is polished. The mouth is painted with red ribbon pattern on the inner side, and the abdomen is decorated with red ribbon pattern. The whole shape is simple, bright and clean.

Deep belly painted pottery basin

Clay red pottery, basin belly with red painted lines and ripples, lively and natural patterns, elegant, witty, can be called a masterpiece of prehistoric painting art. It can be used for storing food, grain and washing with water.

Clay grey pottery racket

It is 5.7 cm in height and 8 cm in maximum diameter. It has a mushroom like shape on the patting surface and is spherical in shape. The spines around the back are round and the stalk is hollow.

Stone shovel

The blade is 19 cm in length, 9.4 cm in width, 7.4 cm in back width and 1 cm in thickness.

Antler scraper

Antlers are made of deer antlers, which are L-shaped and arc-shaped in cross section. It is 12 cm long and 6.5 cm wide.

Site value

Dahecun site is one of the most important archaeological discoveries in China in the 1970s. In terms of its large area, thick accumulation of cultural layers, rich cultural connotation and long duration, dahecun site is the best among thousands of ancient sites in the Yellow River Basin. Its important value can be summarized as follows:

1. The yardstick of Yangshao culture -- the accumulation layer of Yangshao culture

The Yangshao culture, Longshan culture, Erlitou culture and Shang culture in dahecun site have basically continued to develop for more than 3300 years, which is inferior to other ancient sites. It is the historical epitome of the development of ancient culture in Zhengzhou area, which experienced the prosperity stage of matriarchal clan in primitive society, the patriarchal clan stage and the Xia and Shang Dynasties in slave society. It provides valuable material for the study of the 5000 year history of Chinese civilization.

Among them, Yangshao culture lasted for 2400 years, including the whole process of its emergence, development and extinction. It is divided into seven periods, each of which has its own stratum and cultural features, and each period has an obvious relationship of development and evolution. Therefore, the excavation and arrangement of dahecun site provides a yardstick for the regional division of Yangshao culture in the Yellow River Basin and the development sequence, stages and types of Yangshao culture in central Henan. With this scale, the cultural connotation of Yangshao cultural sites excavated in Zhengzhou area can be divided into different stages, and the main pottery unearthed in a certain Yangshao cultural site, such as Ding, Bo, pen, bowl, etc., can be used to find its position in the development sequence of Yangshao culture by using the evolution law and stage characteristics of Dahe village Yangshao cultural pottery.

2. Colorful pottery of Dahe Village

At the beginning of the discovery of Yangshao culture, it was once known as painted pottery culture. It can be seen that painted pottery is the most eye-catching symbol of Yangshao culture, and it is also one of the significant characteristics of the difference between Yangshao culture and other new era cultures in China. It is also very important to study the stages and types of Yangshao culture and the relationship between different types by using the different development rules and styles of painted pottery. At the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s, Chinese archaeologists tried to do this, but they were stranded due to the limitation of data and research level. The research on the painted pottery of Yangshao culture in Dahe village provides abundant material for solving this problem.

There are a large number of colorful pottery unearthed from the dahecun site

Chinese PinYin : Da He Cun Yi Zhi