The biggest mystery of the Loess Plateau: Shimao Site.

Many records of ancient civilization in China have been refreshed by Shimao Ancient City.

The city site is located in Tuwei Valley, Gaojiabao Town, Shenmu County, Shaanxi Province. The city site includes Huangchengtai, inner city and outer city.

First, age. Excavated in 20 12. Dating time is 2300-2000 years ago.

Second, the scale. The ancient city discovered here covers an area of more than 4.25 million square meters, which is the leader of prehistoric city sites.

The city wall is made of stone. It is said that the stone comes from Tuwei River at the foot of the mountain. A large number of jade articles were also found in the cracks of the city wall. The city also has a strong military function design, and three "horse-faced fortresses" have been excavated.

The city site is located in Tuwei Valley, Gaojiabao Town, Shenmu County, Shaanxi Province. The city site includes three parts: Huangchengtai, inner city and outer city, among which Huangchengtai is a rounded stone slope protection terrace with a top area of more than 80,000 square meters. The remaining stone wall in the northeast corner is 200 meters, 3 ~ 7 meters high, and there are also remaining city walls in the south and southwest corners. The inner city is built on the mountain, and the well-preserved place is higher than the ridge 1 meter. The existing length is more than 5700 meters and the width is about 2.5 meters. The outer city is an arc-shaped city wall that extends to the southeast by using the inner city wall in the southeast. The existing one is about 4,200m long and 2.5m wide, and the well-preserved part is more than 1 m high.

Third, race. Stone statues with high noses and deep eyes were also found in the site. Is it the image of local people or the communication between Europe and Asia? Those double-sided jade carvings are playful and lovely, belonging to fine jade.

Fourth, is it related to the Yellow Emperor? Whose city is Shimao Ancient City? Historians and archaeologists told a legend that it was once the capital of the Yellow Emperor.

Of course, this statement makes sense, but there are also doubts. The legendary Yellow Emperor is generally believed to have lived around 3000 BC, and later around 2800 BC, while the rocky headland was 2300-2000 years ago. Does the Yellow Emperor really live that late?

Time is a big obstacle to turning Shimao Ancient City into Huangdi City. The upper line of the ancient city is close to the Xia Dynasty, and the lower limit has entered the Xia Dynasty. Let's look at the location near the rocky headland. Lushan Mao Site is located in the northern suburb of Yan 'an City. Since the 1960s, early jades have been found here, and the main shapes are graupel, knife, jade, jade and so on. Xinhua site is also located in Shenmu county, to the west of Shimao site, about 20 kilometers away. Since the discovery of this site by 1987, Shaanxi Institute of Archaeology and other units have conducted many investigations and excavations, and 39 jade articles, including cymbals, shovels, knives, axes, rings and Zhang, have been unearthed and collected. The jades unearthed at Xinhua Site are basically the same as those unearthed at Shimao Site. Do they belong to the same era and the same culture?

Fifth, it is different from Central Plains culture. The late Longshan culture of Shimao site belongs to the same culture as the culture that entered the Xia Dynasty. It belongs to the same culture as Dakou Phase II, Xinhua, Xinghua Village Phase IV and Zhukaigou Phase I and II. It is an independent archaeological culture in northern China. Compared with the Central Plains, it has a different cultural outlook and does not belong to the same archaeological culture.