The Banpo Culture belongs to the Yangshao Culture of the Neolithic Age in the middle reaches of the Yellow River and is located in Banpo Village, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province.
Dating back to about 6800-6300 years ago, the original residents of Banpo Village were settled and established villages based on clans or tribes. Banpo is a primitive society with no distinction between rich and poor. The residential areas are surrounded by trenches to protect them from wild animals. Houses are above ground and semi-underground, square or circular in shape. There is a large rectangular house in the center of the residential area, which may be a place for clan collective activities. The unearthed variety of agricultural tools, fishing and hunting tools reflect that Banpo residents' economic life placed equal emphasis on agriculture, fishing and hunting. Pottery includes coarse sand jars, small mouth pointed bottom bottles, etc. The painted pottery is very outstanding, with red ground and black color, simple and simple patterns, including human faces, fish, deer, plant branches and leaves, and geometric patterns. Among them, the most famous single fish-patterned pottery pottery unearthed in Banpo is a human-faced fish-patterned pot that combines a human face with a fish body. The fish on which they depend for a living is regarded as the patron saint of the clan and tribe, and people plant grains. , Fish only when necessary
Twenty-two symbols were found on the pottery, which may be a kind of primitive writing. When Banpo adults died, they were buried in the public cemetery, often with pottery, bone beads and other decorations. There are two same-sex tombs at the site, with two men and four women buried respectively. This is generally considered to be a burial custom in a matrilineal clan society. Children who died were buried in residential areas, usually in urn coffins. The exquisite and rich burial objects in a girl's pit tomb indicate the great love for girls at that time.
The Banpo Culture belongs to the primitive culture in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, showing the characteristics of the northern geographical environment.
The Shang and Zhou dynasties (21st century BC - 221 BC) were the mature period of my country’s ancient ritual system and the most standardized period of China’s ancient ritual system. "Etiquette is made with wine." Without wine, there is no ceremony. Therefore, the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties were also the most complicated periods in my country when wine etiquette was the most complex, and wine and politics were most closely integrated. Precisely because the wine ceremony received the most attention during the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, wine vessels developed most rapidly, and bronze wine vessels became the most glorious highlight of the bronze civilization of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties.
Hemudu Site
An early Neolithic site in southern China, a national key cultural relic protection unit. It is located in the northeast of Hemudu Village, Luojiang Township, Yuyao City, covering an area of ??about 40,000 square meters. Excavation began in 1973.
Let’s talk about the Neolithic Period first:
Neolithic Period (Neolithic Period)
In archaeology, it is the last stage of the Stone Age. The stage of development of human material culture marked by the use of ground stone tools (see stone tools). This name was first proposed by the British archaeologist Lubbock in 1865. This era has entered the Holocene in geological time. It developed after the Paleolithic Age or through the transition to the Mesolithic Age, and belongs to the later period of the Stone Age. The age begins approximately 10,000 years ago and ends from more than 5,000 to more than 2,000 years ago.
Basic characteristics and stages
It is generally believed that the Neolithic Age has three basic characteristics: the beginning of making and using ground stone tools; the invention of pottery; and the emergence of agriculture and livestock raising. Some scholars particularly emphasize the significance of the origin of agriculture, believing that it is the main feature of the Neolithic Age, or the main content of the Neolithic Revolution. The development paths of this era are very different around the world. In some places, there was no pottery for a long time after the emergence of agriculture, so it is called the pre-pottery Neolithic or the pottery-free Neolithic; in some places, pottery appeared more than 10,000 years ago, but it has not been around for a long time. Traces of agriculture and even ground stone tools are poorly developed. Therefore, it is not necessary to have all three characteristics to be called the Neolithic Age.
Because the Neolithic situation is very inconsistent in various places, there is no unified standard for staging. Some places have two phases, morning and evening, and some have three phases: morning, middle and evening. Some listed a separate era of Chalcolithic use as the transitional period from the Neolithic Age to the Bronze Age when a small amount of bronze artifacts appeared in the late period but there was no conscious production of bronze alloys yet; others classified this stage into the Neolithic Age Late stage.
The Neolithic Age in various places
The Neolithic Age in West Asia, North Africa and Western Europe developed earlier, and archaeological research is also more in-depth. This is the area where agriculture originated first, where metal tools first appeared, and where civilization entered the earliest era. It occupies a very important position in the history of world culture.
The earliest places in West Asia to enter the Neolithic Age were the Levant (now Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria), Anatolia (now Turkey) and the Zagros Mountains Piedmont area, which is the so-called origin of agriculture. crescent shaped area. This area has a typical Mediterranean climate, with rainy and humid winters and hot and dry summers. There are wild cereals suitable for cultivation and easily domesticated animals. From the Paleolithic Age to the Mesolithic Age, the development of culture has a considerable foundation, so it has become a The area where agriculture and livestock raising first appeared. Around 9000 BC to 8000 BC, we entered the primitive Neolithic period, with the emergence of agriculture and animal husbandry. From 8000 BC to 7000 BC, the Pre-Pottery Neolithic or Non-Pottery Neolithic periods were entered successively. Wheat, barley, lentils, peas, etc. were cultivated, and sheep and goats began to be raised. Some sites even had pig bones.
The Jericho site, a typical site of this period, has semi-underground houses built with adobe bricks. There are stone walls and ditches outside the village, and there are stone watchtowers inside the walls. This is the earliest building of its kind in the world. Around 7000 BC to 6000 BC, various parts of West Asia successively entered the pottery Neolithic or developed Neolithic period. The earliest pottery can be called earthenware, with extremely low heat; later, plain gray-brown pottery with thick tires appeared, and finally painted pottery appeared. At this time, agriculture has further developed, and irrigated agriculture has been established in some places. The houses are generally multi-room style with flat roofs, and some houses have bull-head-shaped statues in them. Around 6000 BC to 5000 BC, some sites here had bronze wares (copper pins, etc., made by cold forging in some sites, which can be traced back to about 7500 BC), entering the era of both copper and stone.
The Neolithic culture in West Asia had a significant impact on surrounding areas during its development. First, it spread to the Nile River Basin in North Africa, and second, it expanded to southeastern Europe. The Neolithic culture in the Nile River Basin is divided into three phases. From the early stage, it is the pottery Neolithic phase. Neolithic cultures in other parts of North Africa are divided into three major systems: Saharan Neolithic culture, Mediterranean Neolithic culture, and Capusa traditional Neolithic culture. Pre-Pottery Neolithic cultures existed in mainland Greece, Crete, and Crimea on the northern coast of the Black Sea. Since the emergence of pottery, there has been mainly a patterned pottery culture in southern Europe, while a line pottery culture has existed in the Danube Valley. In these areas, a painted pottery culture emerged after entering the age of combined use of copper and stone (see Tripoliye-Cucuteni Culture ). In the northern parts of Eastern Europe, the small grate pattern pottery culture was popular in the Neolithic Age.
Central Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia Central Asia entered the Neolithic Age around 6000 BC to 5000 BC, represented by the Zhetong Culture. This culture is distributed throughout Turkmenistan. Most of the stone tools inherited the local Mesolithic Age tradition and included many fine stone tools. At the same time, ground stone axes and grain grinders also appeared. Wheat and barley have been grown and goats raised. The pottery is all handmade, and the pottery is often mixed with grass powder. In addition to plain pottery, there are also some painted pottery. Judging from the overall cultural outlook, it is obviously influenced by the Neolithic culture of West Asia. The Neolithic culture in northern Central Asia is relatively late, and its representative is the Krterminar culture, which dates from about 4000 BC to 2000 BC. The economy is mainly based on fishing, hunting and gathering, and the pottery is mostly decorated with engravings or stamps. There are very few patterns and painted pottery.
The earlier Neolithic culture in the South Asian subcontinent began around 6000 BC and was distributed in the Baluchistan and Indus River basins. Residents grow wheat and barley and raise sheep, goats and cattle. Pottery did not appear until about 4500 BC, and painted pottery soon appeared. By about 3500 BC, it entered the era of Chalcolithic use.
In Southeast Asia, Indonesia and other places, there was a Neolithic culture that mainly planted yam, but no real agricultural economy was developed.
North Asia and Northeast Asia Japan is the earliest region in the world where pottery appeared. There are also pottery sites in Mongolia and Siberia that are close to 10,000 years old. However, ground stone tools in this area have never been very developed, and agriculture appeared very late, which is exactly the opposite of the situation in West Asia. The pottery in this area has a unique feature, that is, cylindrical jars are particularly popular, usually gray-brown, decorated with carved or embossed patterns. In Japan, pottery has many Jomon patterns, so the Neolithic Age in Japan is also called the Jomon Age. Korean and Siberian pottery is often decorated with grate patterns.
Due to the influence of the Neolithic culture of Northeast China, North Korea’s Neolithic culture developed dryland agriculture and cultivated millet and millet in more than 4000 BC. In the eastern region of Mongolia, millet was also grown from 3000 BC to 2000 BC, and livestock such as cattle and sheep were raised. Japan's agriculture only developed rapidly after 1000 BC due to the influence of the mainland. Siberia has always been dominated by fishing, hunting and gathering.
The concept of the Neolithic Age is not usually used in prehistoric archeology in the Americas, Oceania, and south-central Africa. But if we use the standards of Old World archeology to measure it, there is still Neolithic culture there. America was basically in the Neolithic Age before the arrival of European colonists. Even the Mayan Kingdom (see Mayan Civilization), which had established a highly civilized society, basically did not use metal tools. America is an important area for the origin of agriculture, where corn, beans and pumpkins were first cultivated. The Indians called them the Three Sisters. The only domestic animal is the vicu?a. Before the colonists entered, Oceania was still basically in the hunting and gathering economic stage and could not make pottery, so the boundaries between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic there were not very clear. In the Neolithic Age in central and southern Africa, many people still made stone tools and cultivated yams, which was somewhat similar to the situation in Southeast Asia.
China China entered the Neolithic Age about 10,000 years ago. Due to the vast territory, the natural geographical environment is very different in various places, and the appearance of Neolithic culture is also very different. It can be roughly divided into three major economic and cultural areas: ① Dryland agricultural economic and cultural area, including the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, Liaohe River and Haihe River basins, etc. This is the origin of dry farming such as millet and millet. Pigs and dogs were raised early on, and later cattle and sheep were raised. ②Paddy agricultural economic and cultural zone, mainly in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Agriculture in the Lingnan region has always been underdeveloped, and the fishing, hunting and gathering economy occupies a relatively important position, and can be divided into a sub-region. Rice has been planted in this area for a long time and is an important origin of rice agriculture. In the early days, pigs and dogs were raised, and later buffaloes and sheep were raised.
③The hunting-gathering economic and cultural zone includes most of Northeast China north of the Great Wall, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, accounting for approximately 2/3 of the country's area. There is basically no agriculture in this area except for a few places. Microlithic tools are particularly developed but rarely ground stone tools. Pottery is also not very developed.
Except for the above-mentioned area ③ which is difficult to classify due to insufficient archaeological work, the first two areas can be roughly divided into four periods: the early period is about 10,000 BC to 7,000 BC, based on the cave sites and shell mounds in South China. There are mainly ruins, with a small amount of ground stone tools and pottery. Agriculture has sprouted, and pigs have been raised in some locations. In the middle period, from about 7000 BC to 5000 BC, the Cishan Culture in North China had relatively developed dryland agriculture, planting millet, broomcorn millet, raising pigs, and relatively developed polished stone tools and pottery; the Pengtoushan Culture in Central China (See the Pengtoushan Site) etc. have planted rice, raised pigs and buffaloes, etc., ground stone tools are still rare, and pottery is relatively developed. In the late period, from about 5000 BC to 3500 BC, North China was dominated by Yangshao Culture and Dawenkou Culture. Agriculture further developed and there were larger settlements, such as Banpo and Jiangzhai (see Banpo Culture, Jiangzhai Site). It is popular to bury multiple people together for the second time, and the well-developed painted pottery is a major feature. Central China is mainly dominated by Hemudu Culture and Daxi Culture. The Hemudu Culture has extremely rich remains of rice and paddy farming tools such as bone grass. In the Daxi Culture, house construction often uses rice husks mixed with mud to plaster the walls. There are also large amounts of rice husks in the side walls of pottery, indicating that rice agriculture has developed greatly. development. The last period is the Chalcolithic Age (which may not be classified as the Neolithic Age), approximately 3500 to 2000 BC. At this time, North China was dominated by Shandong Longshan Culture and Henan Longshan Culture, and Central China was dominated by Liangzhu Culture and Shijiahe Culture. By this time, small pieces of bronze were common, and there were central settlements and the earliest city sites, such as the Ziya City Site in Zhangqiu City, Shandong Province, the Pingliangtai City Site in Huaiyang, Henan Province, the Shijiahe City Site in Tianmen, Hubei Province, and the Chengtoushan City Site in Li County, Hunan Province. Large-scale divided buildings appeared in house construction, and white ash and adobe were used to mop the floors and build walls. Pottery was generally wheel-made, a large number of exquisite jades appeared, and weapons such as axes and arrowheads increased significantly among stone tools. Tombs are polarized. Large tombs often have coffins and coffins, and rich and exquisite burial objects; small tombs have neither burial furniture, nor any burial objects in most cases. In the Liangzhu culture, there were even large-scale artificial tombs of nobles. This increase in material wealth and the polarization between rich and poor and social status heralds the coming of a civilized society.
The site has four successively laminated cultural layers. The third and fourth layers are the earliest Neolithic cultural layers discovered in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the southeastern coast, dating back about 6,000-7,000 years ago. The unearthed cultural relics are very rich, including a large number of relics of artificially cultivated rice, wooden building components with tenon eggs, and thousands of pottery and bone vessels with relatively fine decorative patterns engraved on them.
The mortise and tenon joints found in the ruins are the earliest mortise and tenon joints discovered in ancient wooden buildings in China. Among the animal remains, there are artificially raised pig, dog, and buffalo bones, among which pig bones have the largest number. Artificially cultivated rice relics are the earliest crops discovered in China. Previous international literature believed that India was the origin of rice in Asia. However, the earliest rice in India was discovered in Lutar in central India. According to C14 determination, its age was 1700 BC, 3000 years later than the rice unearthed at the Hemudu site. The most interesting thing is the bone whistle, which can still produce a beautiful sound. The discovery of a large number of cultural relics at the Hemudu site proves that as early as 6,000-7,000 years ago, there was a relatively advanced primitive culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Like the Yellow River Basin, it is the birthplace of the ancient civilization of the Chinese nation.
Hemudu Culture
Neolithic Age culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China. It was named in 1976 because it was first discovered at the Hemudu site in Yuyao County, Zhejiang Province. Mainly distributed in the Ning (Bo) Shao (Xing) Plain on the south coast of Hangzhou Bay, and across the sea to Zhoushan Island. According to radiocarbon dating and correction, the age is approximately 5000 BC to 3300 BC. The discovery and establishment of the Hemudu Culture expanded the field of archaeological research on the Neolithic Age in China, indicating that there was also a splendid and ancient Neolithic culture in the Yangtze River Basin.
The only site of this culture that has been excavated on a large scale so far is the Hemudu site. In 1973-1974 and 1977-1978, two phases of excavations were conducted under the auspices of the Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Management Commission and the Zhejiang Provincial Museum. In 1982, the State Council announced it as a national key cultural relics protection unit. In addition, late remains of the Hemudu culture have been found in Chenjiao, Yin County, Zhejiang, Baziqiao, Ningbo, Baiquan, Daju, Zhoushan and other places.
Cultural characteristics
Pottery is mainly black pottery with carbon, red pottery with sand, and red and gray pottery. In addition to plain pottery, interlaced rope patterns are popular on the belly and bottom of pots. The wide rim of the pottery is often engraved with geometric patterns such as parallel stripes, waves, circles, leaf shapes, and grain spikes. Occasionally, dark brown patterns on white ground can be seen. of painted pottery. The majority are flat-bottomed and round-bottomed vessels. Representative utensils include cauldrons, jars, bowls with handles, shallow dishes with wide rims, hanging bags, legs, etc. The pottery cauldron used with legs has always been the main cooking vessel of the Hemudu culture. Bone production tools are abundant. Especially in the early period, the number of bone tools far exceeds the total of stone, wood, and pottery tools. As far as we know so far, they are unique to China's Neolithic culture. Woodenware is more sophisticated and diverse.
Trapezoidal stone axes with asymmetrical blades, stone adzes with arched backs and thick bodies, bone blades, slanted bone arrowheads, tubular bone needles, bone whistles, wooden spears, wooden knives, etc. are all unique artifacts. A large number of remains of mortise and tenon wooden components and gantry-style buildings show the housing characteristics of the Hemudu culture.
Phases and ages
The 4th and 3rd layers and the 2nd and 1st layers of the Hemudu site represent the early and late phases of the Hemudu culture respectively. ① Early period: about 5000 BC to 4000 BC. The pottery system is simple, and carbon black pottery is the absolute dominant one. In addition to the smooth plain surface, there are many rope patterns, and the carved geometric patterns and animal and plant patterns are prominent. The main shapes of the vessels include a shoulder-ridge cauldron with a narrow mouth or an open mouth, a straight-mouth cylindrical cauldron, a large mouth jar with two ears on the neck, a shallow dish with a wide rim, an oblique belly basin, a ring-shaped single-handled bowl, a large ring-footed bean bowl, a basin-shaped steamer, and a block. Body legs, etc. There are few types of stone tools, and they are generally not well polished. The axes and adzes are thick and large, and there are no holes in the main stone tools. ② Late period: about 4000 BC to 3300 BC. Sand-filled red pottery and red and gray pottery are the most abundant. The muddy red pottery in the front section has red outer walls and black inner walls, and is often coated with red pottery coating; the muddy red pottery in the back section has the same color on the outside and inside, and is rarely coated with pottery coating. Following the rope pattern, hollow patterns appear. Newly appeared tripod, floor-standing type with special-shaped legs and hanging bag type. Other main vessel shapes include open cockscomb-eared cauldrons, open-faced flat-belly cauldrons, cow-nosed and eared jars, folded-rim jars, hollowed-out beans, and empty-belly inclined body legs. Most of the stone tools were polished, and flat long stone adzes, perforated stone axes, rectangular double-hole stone knives and stone spinning wheels appeared.
Agriculture and livestock breeding
Rice remains are commonly found in a large area on the 4th floor of Hemudu. In some places, rice, rice husks, stems and leaves are mixed together, forming 0.2~ The accumulation layer is 0.5 meters thick, and the thickest part is more than 1 meter. The large number and well-preserved rice remains are rare in the archaeological history of the Neolithic Age in China. After identification, it mainly belongs to the late rice type of cultivated rice indica subspecies. It and the rice unearthed from the Luojiajiao site in Tongxiang of the Majiabang Culture are both dated to 5000 BC. They are the two earliest examples of rice in China and the oldest artificially cultivated rice in the world. This is of great significance for exploring the origin of rice cultivation in China and its position in the history of world rice agriculture. The representative agricultural tools of Hemudu culture are still intact, and hundreds of them have been unearthed in Hemudu alone. It is made from the scapula of deer and buffalo. The shoulder blade is usually drilled with a horizontal shank. For those with thin bones, the shoulder blade is ground into a half-moon shape. Vertical grooves are carved in the middle of the front of the crown and both sides are cut. Drill a hole on each side. A wooden handle mounted on the bone was also found. The lower end was embedded in the groove. Multiple circles of rattan were threaded through the horizontal handle to tighten it. The top was made into a T-shaped or open-carved triangular handle hole. In addition, there are very few wooden pestles, perforated stone axes, double-hole stone knives and wooden pestles nearly 1 meter long for pounding rice.
The main livestock include pigs and dogs. Broken pig bones and teeth can be seen everywhere, as well as obese pottery pigs and pig patterns carved on the square-mouthed pottery bowls. There is a pottery pot with an image of rice ears and pig patterns carved on it, which is generally a reflection of the dependence of livestock raising on agriculture. In addition, a large number of buffalo bones were also unearthed, indicating that the cattle may have been domesticated.
Fishing and Hunting
A large number of wild animal remains were unearthed in Hemudu, including more than 40 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and molluscs. The vast majority are sika deer, sambar deer, Sibuxiang (elk), muntjac, deer and other deer species. There are more than 400 antlers alone. There are also a lot of remains of birds, fish, turtles and soft-shell turtles. There are also very few remains of warm zone animals such as Asian elephants, Sumatran rhinoceros, and red-faced monkeys. There are more than a thousand bone arrowheads, among which the long-fronted or short-fronted arrowheads with asymmetrical collars are more distinctive. There are also narrow and long-fronted willow leaf-shaped arrowheads, blunt-pointed or sharp-pointed tapered arrowheads, etc. . There are no fishing gears such as nets and sinkers, but there are a large number of fish bones, and some bone arrowheads may also be used for shooting fish. Other fishing and hunting tools include wooden spears, bone fish darts, etc. The discovery of wooden oars with one-piece handles and leaves indicates that the boat was already in use. In addition to being used for transportation, it may also have been used in fishing activities. The bone whistle, made by carving holes in poultry bone tubes, is not only a musical instrument, but can also be blown to trap animals during hunting.
Primitive handicraft industry
The most distinctive features of pottery are carbon black pottery. Especially in the early days, both cooking utensils and eating containers were made of this kind of pottery. The tire mud is pure and contains only about 1.5% iron. A large amount of rice husks and crushed rice stems and leaves are used as soup materials. The craftsmanship is relatively primitive, and the utensils are all handmade and not very regular. According to tests, the firing temperature is 800 to 900°C, and it is fired in an oxygen-deficient reducing flame. The fetus is relatively thick and loose, lightweight and highly absorbent. In the later stage, they were basically still made by hand, but some were modified by slow wheels. More complex shapes such as tripod ware and bag-foot ware appeared, and the firing temperature of some pottery increased to about 1000°C.
As for braiding and weaving, fragments of reed mats were found in Hemudu, using a weaving method of two warps and two wefts. Light wooden spinning wheels, as well as pottery and stone spinning wheels of different sizes and weights. It can be used for yarn drawing and twisting. Also found were wooden beating knives thought to be parts of the original waist machine, a long wooden tooth-like device for combing warp threads, and a cloth-rolling shaft with notches cut at both ends.
The production of bone tools of the Hemudu Culture was relatively developed, including arrowheads, arrowheads, fish darts, whistles, awls, needles, tubular needles, daggers, handled daggers, fusiform tools, saw-shaped tools, chisels, and spoons. and other various utensils, widely used in production and life fields. There are hairpins, tubes, pendants, beads and other decorations. There are also butterfly-shaped utensils (raw materials include wood, stone, bone, and ivory), boot-shaped utensils, and other utensils whose purpose is currently unknown.
The grinding is generally fine, and a few have bone daggers and bone hairpins with carved patterns or double-headed bird patterns, which can be called exquisite practical crafts. There are also more than 20 ivory products, including a butterfly-shaped vessel engraved with the image of two birds facing the sun, a phoenix-shaped dagger-shaped vessel, a small cup with engraved weaving patterns and silkworm-like patterns, etc., showing the exquisite craftsmanship at that time.
The phoenix bird is shaped like an ivory dagger.
The wood craftsmanship is very outstanding. In addition to wooden shovels, shovels, pestles, spears, paddles, mallets, spinning wheels, wooden knives and other tools, many handles for bone shovels, stone axes, stone adzes and other tools were also found. The ruler-shaped handle is made of bifurcated branches and antlers, and a tenon-shaped binding surface is cut out of the lower part of the fork head. The stone ax is bundled on the left side, and the stone adze is bundled on the front side. Many wooden building components unearthed at the Hemudu site were chiseled with tenons, especially the invention of dovetail tenons, tenons with pin holes, and tongue-and-groove boards, which marked the outstanding achievements of woodworking technology at that time. A melon-shaped wooden bowl with a collar and a foot was unearthed on the third floor of Hemudu. It had a thin layer of vermilion paint on the surface, which peeled off quite a bit and showed a slight luster. It was identified as raw lacquer. This is the earliest lacquerware in China to date.
Houses and wells
The Hemudu culture is popular in a dry-rail style building with piles and boards higher than the ground. Thousands of wooden components such as round piles, square piles, sheet piles, beams, columns, and wooden boards related to this kind of architectural relics have been found in various cultural layers of the Hemudu site. There is a stilt-style longhouse on the fourth floor. There are more than 220 piles and long logs close to each other. They are arranged in 4 rows relatively regularly, parallel to each other, and running northwest to southeast. The longest existing row of piles is 23 meters long. The distances between the 1st, 2nd and 3rd rows from southwest to northeast are roughly equal, and the total width is about 7 meters. It is inferred that the indoor area is more than 160 square meters. The distance between rows 3 and 4 is 1.3 meters, which is the front porch aisle facing the northeast side. Within the scope of the architectural remains, fragments of reed mats, many pottery fragments, and a large number of plant skin shells and animal bones discarded by people after eating were unearthed. This large stilt-style building is undoubtedly a public residence, and the interior is probably divided into several small rooms. Ganlan-style architecture is one of the important architectural forms in the area south of the Yangtze River in China since the Neolithic Age. The one discovered at Hemudu is the earliest. In addition to the stilt-type buildings, later in the early days, there was also a type of pillar-type ground-level building. Wooden boards were placed at the bottom of the pillar holes as the foundation. Some were filled with braised earth blocks, clay and broken pottery fragments to form a solid structure. It has a mortar-shaped column foundation and a wooden column in the middle.
Mortise-and-tenon wooden components and tongue-and-groove boards
The remains of a shallow wooden well were discovered on the second floor of the Hemudu site. This is the earliest known well relic in China and the oldest relic using a shaft support structure discovered so far. The well is located in a shallow circular pit with a square mouth, about 2 meters on a side, and about 1.35 meters deep. Dozens of rows of piles are planted close to the four walls of the well, and a horizontal square frame supported by a mortise-and-tenon socket is used on the inside to prevent tipping. Long logs are laid flat on the top of the piles to form the frame of the wellhead. Around the well is a circle of 28 fence posts distributed in a circle with a diameter of about 6 meters. In addition, small long logs and reed mat fragments with a slightly radial plane were found inside the well. It can be seen that the well must have been covered with a well pavilion.
Tombs
In the residential area on the 4th floor of Hemudu, two baby urn coffins with pottery cauldrons and pottery pots as burial objects were discovered. There are more than 20 tombs on the 1st to 3rd floors, but there are no tomb pits or burial tools. Only one has a wooden board at the bottom. Adults and infants are mostly buried alone. There are three tombs where two people are buried together, one of which contains two children. In the tombs on the second and third floors, it is common for a single person to be buried sideways with his limbs bent. A few are buried with his head facing east or northeast, and most of them have no burial objects. The tombs in the first layer are usually buried with single people lying on their backs, and some are buried with their limbs bent on their backs. The heads are in different directions. Most of them are in the northwest. They generally have funerary objects but they are not rich. The two tombs with the largest number each have 6 Pieces, usually placed in cauldrons and beans, rarely production tools. Generally speaking, the burial styles, head orientation and funerary objects have changed in different periods.
Resident species
See the physical characteristics of China’s Neolithic residents.
Relationship with other cultures
The early remains of the Hemudu culture represented by the 4th layer of the Hemudu site are different from the Majiabang Culture Luo represented by the 4th layer of the Luojiajiao site. The Jiajiao type is of the same age, and the shapes of the hexagonal pottery bowls and the double-eared bowls with curved mouths are similar, indicating that there is a certain connection between the two.
The early and late stages of the late Hemudu culture were roughly at the same time as the Majiabang culture, Majiabang type and Songze culture (see the Songze site). The Majiabang type developed the plain waist-rim pot (or (called wide-eaves cauldrons) are occasionally seen in the early stages of the late Hemudu culture. On the contrary, the small but characteristic hanging-sac type pots in the late Hemudu culture are also found individually in the later stage of the late Hemudu culture. During the early stage, the long stone adze, the engraved ridged beans, the petal-shaped ring feet, the chisel-shaped tripod feet, etc. are all in the same style as the Songze Culture. The late Hemudu Culture may have been strongly influenced by the Majiabang Culture and the Songze Culture. People believe that the 4th and 3rd layers of the Hemudu site are the newly discovered Hemudu culture, while the 2nd and 1st layers should belong to the Majiabang culture, the Majiabang type and the Songze type (or be named separately as the Songze culture). ; ; The nature and attribution of its late remains require further study.