Touching the Chinese civilization 5000 years ago
It’s a common sense rooted in the hearts of every Chinese that China boasts s a history of five thousand years.
Many documents in history regard Heluo Ancient Country as the birthplace of 5000 years of Chinese civilization. However only literature records, but no material objects related had been found for many years,there has been no relevant physical proof, which has become a puzzle puzzling academic circles for many years,which as become a problem that has puzzled academic circles for many years.
photo/Zhou Yong
With the continuous excavation and exploration of Shuanghuaishu Site in Heluo Town, Gongyi City from 2013 to 2020, the capital of "Heluo Kingdom" about 5,300 years ago appeared in front of the world. This discovery has found the exact physical evidence and time for the origin of the agricultural and mulberry civilization in China, which is unique in the world civilization. Shuanghuaishu site is therefore called "the embryo of early Chinese civilization".
From 2013 to 2020, archaeologists excavated the capital of "Heluo Kingdom" about 5,300 years ago in the south of Shuanghuaishu Village, Heluo Town, Gongyi City.
Wang Wei, chairman of the Chinese Archaeological Society, believes that this "is the vital materials in the key period and region of Chinese civilization". Shuanghuaishu Site has been called the "embryo of early Chinese civilization" and was selected as one of the "Top 10 New Archaeological Discoveries of 2020" and "Top 6 New archaeological Discoveries of 2020" by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
photo/Zhou Yong
The archaeological work of Shuanghuaishu Site began in 1984. It was originally named "Tanxiaoguan Site" according to the place where it was found. Later, it was found to be only a part of the site, so it was renamed "Shuanghuaishu Site", and the investigation continued.
In 2013, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Relics, the Zhengzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Institute of Archaeology Chinese Academy of Social Sciences conducted archaeological investigation jointly, then a great deal of work has been done in the archaeological investigation, exploration and excavation of Shuanghuaishu Site and its surrounding areas.
In May 2020, the site, about 1,500 meters long from east to west and 780 meters wide from north to south, covering an area of about 1.17 million square meters, was finally revealed.
After repeated demonstrations, experts confirmed that the site includes three ring moats in the middle and late Yangshao Culture, the foundation site of rammed earth palace, the central dwelling site, the Wengcheng wall, the rammed earth square, etc. In addition, a large number of housing sites, ash pits and animal bone pits, etc., rich articles of Yangshao Culture period have been unearthed.
The remains of Shuanghuaishu Site are divided into five stages and seven sections according to the relationships between the monuments. The first stage is Peiligang culture period, the second stage is equivalent to the late stage of Dahecun Site II (late stage of Miaodigou type), the third stage is equivalent to the third stage of Dahecun Site, and the fourth stage is equivalent to the fourth stage of Dahecun Site, which is further divided into early, middle and late stages. The fifth phase is equivalent to the fifth phase of the Dahecun Site.
Experts believe that the building remains found is in line with the later large-scale palace architecture in ancient China.
Among many unearthed objects, a silkworm-shaped carving has become an important evidence of the origin of agricultural mulberry civilization.
photo/Xu Zongfu
This silkworm-shaped carving was made from a tusk of wild boar.It is 6.4 cm long, less than 1 cm wide and 0.1 cm thick.According to the related experts, its structure is almost exactly the same as that of the present silkworm which has a fat body. In addition, the silkworm has obvious marks of polishing, probably to make it more transparent and be yellow, similar to the state when spinning silks.
The team of Zhao Feng and Zhou Yang from the Chinese Silk Museum detected silk protein in the W125 urn coffin of Shuanghuaishu Site by using the latest electrochemical immunotechnology. In addition to the silk unearthed at the same time, and compared with the agricultural and silk objects found at Qingtai and Wanggou sites, the experts finally came to the conclusion that not only the earliest silk was in China, but also the earliest silkworm domestication and silkworm silks, which proved that the Central Plains had the leading agricultural mulberry civilization in China during the Yangshao Culture period, and was the earliest complete representative of the cultural tradition of Chinese agriculture and mulberry civilization.
