More than 70 exquisite stone carvings were excavated when the south retaining wall at the top of a Tai Chi platform in the archaeological core area of Shimao site was completely exposed.
"Huangchengtai is the best preserved and largest early Miyagi building in East Asia."
Importance of site value
The discovery of Shimao ruins constantly refreshes the academic understanding of early civilization in China. The stone carvings unearthed from the south retaining wall of Tai Tai Ji far exceed the previous academic judgment on the early civilization of China 4000 years ago.
Shimao site is a super-large central settlement in the late Longshan period and early Zhixia period in northern China, which consists of three parts: Huangchengtai, inner city and outer city. In 20 18, in the east of Huangchengtai, the archaeological team discovered and confirmed "Taitaiji".
From 20 18 to 20 19, the archaeological team cleaned the "four boundaries" of Dataiji, leaving its south retaining wall completely exposed. The base surface of Huangchengtai is roughly a circular square with a side length of about 130m and surrounded by stone walls. The south retaining wall is made of staggered joints of sandstone stones, and many wooden holes are found on the wall, with the highest residual height of about 4.5 meters.
Dating data show that the age of these stone carvings should be no later than around 2000 BC. Experts believe that these stone carvings have laid an extremely important material foundation for the core position of Huangchengtai in Shimao city site, and should have the same spiritual connotation as the "hiding jade in the wall" and laying the foundation with a head, which reflects the spiritual sustenance of Shimao ancestors for laying the foundation for Huangchengtai.
Shimao Site was selected as one of the "New Archaeological Discoveries in China" for three times.
Since 20 1 1, the Shimao site has carried out systematic archaeological work. The site consists of Huangchengtai, inner city and outer city, covering an area of more than 4 million square meters. It is the largest known urban site in China in the late Longshan period and early Zhixia period.
In 20 18, archaeologists discovered a large building abutment on the east side of Huangchengtai, on which a large number of building bases were distributed, temporarily called "Taiji Base". After 20 18 to 20 19 excavation, the outline of large platform foundation gradually became clear. The plane of the large foundation is roughly square with rounded corners, and the side length is about 130m. The core of the platform is tamped with soil and surrounded by stone walls. At present, the south retaining wall and its surroundings of the large foundation are basically exposed, and the positions of the west retaining wall and the north retaining wall have been determined. According to preliminary statistics, more than 40,000 specimens of various cultural relics have been unearthed in the abandoned accumulation in the upper part of the northern section of the east retaining wall, including bones (teeth and horns), stones, pottery, jade articles, bronzes and other relics, as well as textiles and patent leather fragments. More than 70 exquisite stone carvings were found in the south retaining wall, some of which were embedded in the south retaining wall. The phenomenon of stone carving embedded in the wall should have the same spiritual connotation as "hiding jade in the wall" and hitting the foundation with human head. The construction and use of Dataiji should be no later than 2000 BC, and the stone carving should be no later than 2000 BC. The discovery and confirmation of "The Story of Taitai" opened the prelude to discussing the settlement division and functional nature of Huangchengtai, and laid an important material foundation for the core position of Huangchengtai in Shimao city site.
According to Sun, president of Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology and head of the archaeological project of Shimao Site, this is the third time that Shimao Site has been selected as "New Archaeological Discovery in China", and the previous two times were 20 12 and 20 16 respectively.
The Paleolithic cave site in Maogedong, Shaanxi Province filled the gap of human cave dwelling in the late Paleolithic period in Qinling area.
What was excavated from the site?
There may be a large bone-making workshop.
A surprising number of relics have been unearthed from the wall covering the northern part of the east retaining wall, including bones, pottery, stones, jade articles, bronzes and other relics, among which the number of bone utensils is the largest, and the number of bone needles exceeds 1000. Combined with the excavation of "chain-making" tools such as aggregate, blank, waste, stone knife (saw) and grindstone, it is speculated that there should be a large-scale bone-making workshop at the top of Huangcheng abutment.
The largest Ying Tao is close to one meter.
A large number of pottery fragments found in the ruins of gypsum statues were packed in 3000 or 4000 boxes. It took archaeologists more than two years to spell out more than 20 Ying Tao, the largest of which is 90- 100 cm.
The clavichord about 4000 years ago.
Twenty-three musical instruments, mouth springs, a bone tube whistle and a ceramic ball whistle were unearthed at Shimao site. Kouquan is the "spring" recorded in China's pre-Qin literature. The mouth spring made of stone is the earliest mouth spring in the world at present, and it is a great discovery in the history of world music. Dating data show that it was made about 4000 years ago.
Color murals with geometric patterns
Prehistoric color murals have also been found in Huangchengtai, with colors such as red and brown, and the patterns are mainly geometric patterns. These murals show that the building level is very high, and the stone men have already achieved considerable artistic accomplishment.