On February 15, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage held an important progress meeting of the "Archaeological China" major project in Beijing, and notified five important archaeological achievements including the Sitai site in Shangyi, Hebei.

Whether it is the discovery of new prehistoric cultures in the north, the sacrificial system in frontier areas, the development of handicraft technology, or the construction of capital buildings by ethnic minority regimes, archeology once again allows people to see the cultural exchanges and interactions in various regions of the land of China since ancient times. Chinese civilization is eclectic, continuous, and diverse.

　　Sitai site in Shangyi, Hebei: Discovery of a new northern archaeological culture

　　The Sitai site is located in Shangyi County, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, covering an area of ​​about 150,000 square meters, dating back to about 10,400 to 6,400 years ago.

　　The Shangyi Sitai site can be divided into five groups of cultural relics of different ages. Archaeologists discovered six and a half crypt houses about 10,000 years ago in the first group of relics.

Zhang Chi, a professor at the School of Archeology and Museology at Peking University, believes: "This is the biggest highlight of the Sitai site. They are the earliest houses with the best evidence and the earliest archaeological discoveries in China so far. This is the beginning of settlement." In the second group of remains, there are also 4 houses. The site of a semi-crypt room.

These groups of house sites are the earliest evidence of village settlement in the northern region, showing the transition of people from the mobile habitation of the Paleolithic Age to the gradual settlement of the Early Neolithic Age.

　　Embossed pottery, fine stone tools and other relics were also unearthed from the site, combined with the semi-crypt house site, etc., the characteristics of the Sitai site are distinctive and unprecedented.

Zhao Zhanhu, a researcher at the Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that this is the earliest Neolithic archaeological culture in the northern region, which can be named "Sitai Culture".

"This is the latest proof of our northern cultural history of thousands of years." He said.

　　A round-bottom pot with a large mouth and pointed was unearthed in the fifth group of remains.

According to Zhao Zhanhu, this is the only one in the current domestic reports, but it miraculously reflects the similarity in decoration and shape with the pottery pots unearthed in the Baikal region of Russia, showing the relationship between the Sitai site and the farther north. Cultural exchange and interaction.

The exchange and interaction between the Sitai site and the surrounding cultures in different periods is also a testimony to the diversity, integration, eclecticism, and continuous extension of the Chinese civilization.

　　Ancient City Village Site in Jinning, Yunnan: Finding a Source of Dian Culture

　　Gucheng Village Site is located in Jinning District, Kunming City, Yunnan Province. It is a large lakeside shell mound site during the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

These shellfish are mainly snails from Dianchi Lake.

Snail shells are used as building materials.

Archeology found a large number of crushed snail shells that were discarded after eating snail meat by the ancients. The crushed snail shells were alternately stacked with layers of ashes to form living surfaces or road surfaces, and complete snail shells were also used as cushions under the living surfaces.

　　According to Zhou Ranchao, an associate researcher at the Yunnan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, around the house site, a special type of "snail shell pile" relics - a pile of remains formed by mixing pink sandstone powder and complete snail shells , the plane shape is close to a circle, and there are regular circular post holes on the east and west sides of the snail pile.

"It is speculated from the characteristics and form of the accumulation that such relics may be related to some kind of handicraft processing." She said.

　　Snails are closely related to people living in the Dianchi Lake area. Sun Hua, a professor at the School of Archeology and Museology at Peking University, said: "The shell mound site is a cultural phenomenon in Yunnan. There are stories related to snails in the myths and legends of the origin of Nanzhao, and there are legends about the early construction of Dianchi Lake. The same is true." The accumulation of snail shells several meters thick at the Gucheng Village site, as well as the discovery of a large number of relics with unique characteristics of the shell mound site, reproduced the cultural landscape of the ancient ancestors boating in Dianchi Lake by the lake and fishing for snails. Discussing important issues such as settlement patterns, livelihood patterns, ethnic groups, and environmental changes in the ancient Dianchi Lake area before the emergence of the Dianchi culture provides key evidence.

　　Sijiaoping Ruins in Lixian County, Gansu Province: Suspected Sacrificial Places for the First Emperor’s Western Tour

　　The Sijiaoping site in Lixian County, Longnan City, Gansu Province is a large-scale architectural site in the Qin Dynasty. Experts speculate that it may be the sacrificial site for Qin Shihuang's west tour.

　　The Sijiaoping site was artificially flattened from the top of the original Sigezi Mountain to form a mountaintop platform with an area of ​​about 28,000 square meters.

A circle of walls is rammed around the platform, and high platforms and corridors are built on the platform.

The Sijiaoping site is composed of a square rammed earth platform in the middle, four groups of auxiliary buildings facing the four sides of the earth platform, and a quadrangular curved ruler-shaped auxiliary building. The whole is centrally symmetrical, and each group of buildings is also axially symmetrical.

"Overlooking the ruins, it looks like a beautifully woven Chinese knot." Hou Hongwei, deputy research librarian of the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that such a large-scale and well-regulated building complex is quite rare in archaeological discoveries of the same period in China. Ritual architecture is one of the symbols of the unity of a centralized state.

　　According to literature records, before the east tour, Qin Shihuang conducted a west tour in the second year of the unification of the whole country. The areas visited were Beidi County (now Pingliang, Qingyang area) and Longxi County (now Shui, Longnan, Dingxi area) of Qin Dynasty. , Li County, as the ancestral home of the Qin people, is also within the scope of inspection.

The buildings at the site are well-structured and well-ordered. Preliminary speculation is that it is a ritual building complex with special shapes and functions related to sacrifices. It is likely to be a sacrifice place prepared for the first emperor's westward tour.

It has important academic value for the study of the politics, etiquette system and architectural history of the Qin Dynasty.

　　Ningxia Helan Suyukou Porcelain Kiln Ruins: This is the "Official Kiln" of Xixia

　　The Suyukou porcelain kiln site is located in Suyukou, Helan Mountain, Ningxia. It is a handicraft production site of fine white porcelain in the Western Xia Dynasty, which has the nature of an "official kiln" in Western Xia.

　　According to Chai Pingping, a librarian at the Ningxia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, the Suyukou porcelain kiln site is one of the best preserved kiln factories in the country.

Around the kiln, quartz mines and china clay mines were found as raw materials, coal mines as fuel, and gullies as water sources, revealing the complete layout of the kiln industry.

In addition, the Suyukou Porcelain Kiln Site also reveals the complete remains of the kiln factory, including the quartz processing area, molding area (pile of porcelain clay and blank forming area), glaze application area, storage area (raw material storage, drying blanks, storage), and firing area. And the waste dump area, showing the "one-stop" of porcelain production.

　　In the past, porcelain produced at the Suyukou Porcelain Kiln Site was found in high-level sites such as Xixia Mausoleum, Helan Mountain Xixiali Palace, and Lin'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty. .

Experts comprehensively infer that the site here is the firing site of Xixia court porcelain, which has the nature of Xixia "official kiln".

　　More than 470,000 porcelain pieces were unearthed from the site, and the porcelain products are mainly fine white porcelain.

Qin Dashu, a professor at the School of Archeology and Museology at Peking University, pointed out: "In the past, it was always said that people in the Song Dynasty liked celadon. Archaeological evidence shows that the ruling class and scholar-bureaucrats in the Song Dynasty may prefer white porcelain, and the Xixia rulers also liked white porcelain. The production of white porcelain in Xixia official kilns shows that although Xixia There was a fierce battle with the Song Dynasty, but the culture was still influenced by the Song Dynasty."

　　The Suyukou Porcelain Kiln Ruins, as the Xixia Porcelain Kiln Site, absorbed a large amount of advanced kiln technology from Jingdezhen Hutian Kiln and other kilns in the South on the basis of the traditional kiln technology in the north.

Qin Dashu believes that it may be that Suyukou Porcelain Kiln sent people to Jingdezhen to study, or even Jingdezhen kiln workers came here to produce, reflecting the historical facts of ethnic cultural exchanges, exchanges, and blending in the Song Dynasty.

　　Inner Mongolia Bahrain Zuoqi Liaoshangjing Site: Khitan "Sinicized" Royal Architecture

　　The Liao Shangjing site is located in Lindong Town, Bahrain Zuo Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and is one of the five capitals of the Liao Dynasty.

The city site consists of two parts, the imperial city in the north and the Seoul city in the south. The plane is slightly in the shape of a "day", with a total area of ​​about 5 square kilometers.

　　The Liao Dynasty was a multi-ethnic dynasty founded by the Khitan people. Liao Shangjing was the earliest and most important capital among the five capitals of the Liao Dynasty.

The excavation this time is the foundation site of the No. 1 large building in the southwest of the Imperial City of Shangjing.

　　When the building was first built in the Liao Dynasty, the hall was nine rooms wide and four rooms deep, with the front out of the platform. The rear hall was rebuilt in the Liao Dynasty with nine rooms in width, five rooms in depth, and both the front and back out of the platform.

The scale of the foundation and the scale of the bay are both larger than the palace buildings in the palace city found in the excavations so far. It is the largest and best-preserved building foundation in the southern area of ​​the Shangjing Imperial City in Liao Dynasty, indicating that this building was built in the Liao Dynasty. , is the prominent royal building in the capital.

　　Archaeological excavations have confirmed that the building underwent three large-scale constructions during the Liao and Jin dynasties. During the three constructions, the axis position, orientation and courtyard scale of the building remained unchanged, but the building scale, temple body structure and rammed earth structure of the three constructions remained unchanged. The base practices all vary, reflecting changes in architectural age and class.

　　Wang Ying, an associate researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the courtyard of the No. 1 large-scale building is facing south. The layout is of great significance in the evolution of the Liao and Jin dynasties."

　　According to the "History of the Liao Dynasty", there are Confucian temples, Guozijian, temples and Taoist temples in the southwest of the imperial city of Shangjing in the Liao Dynasty, and other important early Liao buildings.

Zhu Shiyan, deputy director of the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the Khitan Dynasty adhered to its tradition of "sitting west and facing east" in palaces and other buildings. In addition, it also absorbed and respected the traditions of the Central Plains. Buildings such as the Confucius Temple and Guozijian in the south have not changed. Their characteristic of "sitting north and facing south" is also a vivid manifestation of the historical process of the integration of national cultures and the pluralistic unity of Chinese civilization.

　　(Reporter Li Yun Wang Xiaofei)

　　Guangming Daily