Historical evolution of Songze ancient cultural site

Songze Village was originally an ancient market town. As early as the early Ming Dynasty, relying on the convenient water and land transportation here, it gradually formed from a natural village into a Jiangnan market town and gathered popularity. According to legend, Yuan Song, the prefect of Wu County in the Jin Dynasty, once lived here and built the Hudu Fortress. After his death, he was buried on the mountain in the north of Songze Village. Later, his descendants also immigrated here one after another, so it was called "Songzhai". It was also named after "Songze" because it was located in the prosperous land of Zeguo, a water town.

Since the 1960s, the Songze ruins have been discovered. "Songze Culture", as an archaeological name, has been recorded in the history of Chinese civilization, which shrouded the Songze "earth mountain" The mysterious veil was unveiled one by one by local farmers and archaeologists. The "culture" hidden under the thick soil of Songze has been unearthed.

People were surprised to find that the ancestors of Shanghai six thousand years ago had built their own "villas" out of tree trunks, reeds, thatch and other materials, and used square pads under the pillars. , to prevent the ground from sinking. A stove pit for drinking and cooking is dug outdoors to differentiate the living and residential functions. At that time, their environmental awareness was quite strong. The Songze site also has the earliest well of the "Majiabang Culture" in the country. The wellhead is nearly round and has been dug quite scientifically. For daily drinking water, we no longer have to rely on turbid water in rivers and mire. Instead, we can dig into the ground to collect water near our residence and enjoy pure "tap water". This not only improves the efficiency of water collection. timeliness, and maintains the sustainable development of healthy human reproduction and survival.

Songze culture is a type of Neolithic ancient culture represented by the middle culture of the Songze ancient cultural site four kilometers east of Qingpu District. The Songze Culture dates back to about 4900-5800 years ago and is roughly distributed in the areas south of the Yangtze River, north of the Qiantang River, and east of Taihu Lake.

During two planned excavations from 1961 to 1974, *** discovered 100 tombs from the Songze Culture period. *** A large number of jades and pottery were unearthed, as well as many residential remains and artifacts. The remains of the stone tool site, rice seeds japonica rice and indica rice more than 6,000 years ago, and the bones of livestock pigs and dogs were also found.

In 1982, at the Chinese Archaeological Annual Meeting held in Hangzhou by national archaeologists, it was determined that the Songze Culture was a Neolithic culture in the Taihu area that inherited the Majiabang Culture and the Yuhang Liangzhu Culture. A certain typical representative culture. Cultural relics from the Songze Culture period have been discovered at the Chonggu Fuquan Mountain Ancient Cultural Site, the Dayingsi Qiancun Ancient Cultural Site, and the Zhengdian Jinshan Tomb Ancient Cultural Site in Qingpu. The discovery of the Songze Culture provides important information for the study of the history of human development in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China, especially the primitive culture in the Taihu Lake area and the ancient cultural history of Shanghai.

In 1957, when Shanghai archaeologists were conducting an archaeological survey in Qingpu, they collected several pieces of Neolithic sand-filled red pottery and muddy gray pottery from the rockery pier, which aroused the archaeologists' concern. Notice.

In 1958, comrades from the breeding farm of the Shanghai Publishing Bureau discovered antlers, pottery shards and some stone tools in the farmland north of the village. As a result, archaeologists determined that an ancient cultural site existed there.

In 1960, archaeologists conducted trial excavations at the site and discovered rich Neolithic ruins, including an ash pit and a tomb as well as a large number of sandy red pottery, muddy red pottery and gray pottery. , black pottery sherds, based on the excavations, it was determined that the main scope of the Songze site was about 500 meters from east to west and about 300 meters from south to south at the intersection of the current 318 National Highway (called Hu Qingping Highway at the time) and Songzetang. scope.

The first planned excavation was carried out from May 21 to June 18, 1961. 18 5×5 meter squares were excavated on the rockery pier, and later an additional 2×2.5 meters were excavated. and two small exploration pits of 1×2 meters, with an exposed area of ??457 square meters. In addition to understanding that the Neolithic Age remains can be divided into upper and lower layers stratigraphically, 50 Neolithic Age tombs were cleaned up.

From 1974 to 1976, another planned excavation was carried out, 6 areas were explored, an area of ??202 square meters was revealed, and 46 Neolithic tombs were cleared. Three excavations revealed an area of ??703 square meters. Some geometrically printed pottery remains and Neolithic settlement remains were discovered. 100 tombs were cleared and a large number of precious cultural relics were unearthed, including stone tools, jades, bone tools, There are 621 pieces of valuable items such as pottery and tooth ware.

At the end of February 2004, the Archaeological Research Department of the Shanghai Museum conducted rescue excavations because a ruins museum was to be built in the ruins area. The excavation work was completed from February to the end of April, and many new important archaeological results were obtained.

The first is the discovery of artificial altars built during the Majiabang Culture period more than 6,000 years ago. Artificially piled earth platforms were used as altars, and ceremonial activities such as offering sacrifices to ancestors or gods were held on the altars. This was extremely popular in the Liangzhu culture more than 4,000 years ago. The discovery of an altar from the Majiabang period takes the history of artificially built altars a big step forward.

The second is to discover the architectural relics of the Majiabang Culture period - house sites. The house site is located on native soil to the north of the altar. There is one complete tower with a circular plane and 15 pillar holes in the outer ring. The floor inside the room is solid and the area is about 5.5 square meters.