Introduce Xu Liang culture.

Liangzhu culture is an important ancient civilization in Taihu Lake Basin in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China. Bronze culture, named after its discovery in Liangzhu Town, Yuhang, Zhejiang Province, was discovered in 1936, about 5250~4 150 years ago. After more than half a century of archaeological investigation and excavation, it was initially found that the site was distributed in Taihu Lake area. In Liangzhu, Anxi and Pingyao, Yuhang City, there are more than 50 Liangzhu cultural sites with Mojiaoshan site as the core, including villages, cemeteries, altars and other remains, which are rich in connotation, wide in scope and dense in sites. Since 1980s, high-platform mounds such as Fanshan, Yaoshan and Guanhui Mountain have been combined with the altar sites.

Pottery is characterized by black pottery, beautifully made, and some even painted. The most advanced pottery-making method in Liangzhu culture period is wheel system, and the shapes of black pottery bean plates are round and oval. Cooking utensils in Liangzhu culture period were mostly Ding. Jade is very developed, including beads, tubes, jade, yellow, cong, cicada and so on. Among them, the jade cong is large, up to 18 ~ 23cm, carved with a round animal face pattern, with exquisite craftsmanship. It is a treasure among ancient jade articles in China and is known as the "King of Jade Cong". The shape is an inner circle and an outer circle, which conforms to the ancient idea that heaven and earth are connected. The jade carving is engraved with the image of god beast and the image of the unity of god, man and beast, which may be the object of sacrifice at that time. Apart from the facial images of gods, people and animals, the most common patterns on jade articles are birds.

Silk flakes, ribbons and silk threads were unearthed in Shanyang before Liangzhu culture, which was the most important household silk fabric in ancient China. In addition, many altar sites have been found, such as the altar found at Yaoshan site in Yuhang, which is square in plane, with red clay platform, lime ditch and gravel platform from inside to outside, and the peripheral side is about 20 meters long. Generally, there is a big tomb on the altar, which may be the place where people worship their ancestors and gods. The food in Liangzhu culture period was mainly rice.

The material culture in Liangzhu culture is very developed, with tripod, bean, dish, double-nose pot, flowing pot, flowing cup, statue and reed as typical vessels, and the jade used for sacrifice is more developed, and the tomb specifications and settlement layout reflect strict grade differences. Liangzhu cultural sites are mainly distributed in Shanghai in the east and Qiantang River in the south. It is bounded by Maoshan Mountain and Tianmu Mountain in the west, south of the Yangtze River near Daning Town in the north, and it is roughly triangular around Taihu Lake, and its sphere of influence reaches eastern Zhejiang, southwestern Zhejiang, southern Anhui, southern China, Shandong and northern Jiangsu.

Liangzhu culture originated from Songze culture, and the main body of Liangzhu culture declined rapidly due to the failure of northward advancement and floods. People and city sites in Liangzhu culture can be displayed. Judging from the characteristics of social form, the third phase of Liangzhu culture has entered the primitive civilized society. Liangzhu culture stimulated the great development of primitive civilization in the Central Plains, produced drastic changes, and finally formed a prosperous early civilization in China. The etiquette system of Xia and Shang civilizations, such as Cong and Yue, and the patterns of gods, men and beasts all come from Liangzhu cultural factors.

Discovery and naming

Xing Wu, Zhejiang Province was discovered in 1934, and the representative Liangzhu site was excavated in 1936. There are striking black pottery in Liangzhu pottery, which is considered to be similar to the black pottery in Shandong at that time, so it is also called Longshan culture. From 65438 to 0939, some people divided Longshan culture into three regions: Shandong coast, northern Henan and Hangzhou Bay, and pointed out that the cultural stage in Hangzhou Bay was obviously different from that in Shandong and Henan. 1957 Some people think that Zhejiang's black pottery is easy to fade after drying, and there is no standard eggshell black pottery, which has its own characteristics in the modeling of pottery and stone tools. 1959 put forward the name of Liangzhu culture. The key sites that have been excavated now include Caoxie Mountain, Zhangling Mountain, Wujin Temple Wharf in Wuxian County, Jiangsu Province, Quemu Bridge in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, Shuitianfan in Hangzhou, Maqiao in Shanghai County and Fuquan Mountain in Qingpu County.

Cultural characteristics

The pottery of Liangzhu culture is mainly gray-black pottery mixed with fine sand and mud-gray tire black pottery. Rotation system is more common. Generally, the wall of the device is thin, and the surface of the device is mostly polished, and a few have fine patterns and holes. Kitty and tripod are very popular. Representative vessel shapes include tripod with fins or T-shaped cross section, bean with bamboo handle, ear-piercing pot, large round-footed shallow belly plate, wide-handled flowing cup, etc. The quantity and technology of jade articles such as inkstone and jade are unprecedented in other cultures of the same period. The stone tools are beautifully polished, including triangular plow, inclined handle knife, "cultivator", half moon knife, sickle, stepped shovel and other new shapes.

Cultural staging

Liangzhu culture can be roughly divided into early and late stages. In the early stage, it was represented by Yang and Zhang Lingshan sites in Qian Shan. Pottery is mainly gray pottery, but there are also a few black pottery. The utensils are shaped like fin-foot tripod, bag foot, perforated bean, ear-piercing pot, spherical pot, ear cup, ear, big mouth and bottom pot. Later, Liangzhu, Quemuqiao and other sites were represented. Clay black pottery is more common, and there are thin-walled black pottery. There are T-shaped tripod, bean with bamboo handle, ear-piercing pot, ear-piercing pot, round-bellied pot, reed, big round foot plate, wide-handled cup and so on.

socioeconomics

Liangzhu cultural residents are mainly engaged in agricultural production, and the main crop is rice. According to the identification of rice found in Qianshanyang, there are two kinds of rice: japonica rice and indica rice. Seeds of peanuts, sesame seeds, broad beans, melons and other plants were also found in Qianshanyang, Paddy Field and other sites. At that time, some people thought it was a crop, while others doubted its unearthed horizon and identification results. There are many kinds of farm tools, most of which are fine. Among them, the triangular plow has a flat body, a flat back and a slightly convex front, and often has 1 ~ 3 holes. Some people think it is a stone plow share installed on a wooden plow bed. The body of the inclined handle knife is slightly triangular, and there is an inclined handle at the top, which is rough and often polished only at the blade. Some people think that it is used to cut grooves in the land after being fitted with a wooden handle, and it is called a "soil breaker". These two new tools were widely used in Liangzhu culture period, and their names and exact uses need further study.

Handicraft industry is also very prosperous, and some may have formed professional production departments. Jade production is very prominent in the primitive culture of the same period in China. Jade mainly includes beads, tubes, pendants, pendants, bracelets, pendants, cicadas and so on. The long cylindrical jade cong with an outer circle and an inner circle has been polished and carved with patterns, and its specifications are set and its technology level is very high. For example, a jade cong unearthed is 33.5 cm high, and its body is engraved with a cross 15. Another jade cong is 23 cm high and has several groups of animal faces carved on it. A big jade jade is 26.2 cm in diameter. Similar clumps and walls were found in the tombs of Caoxie Mountain and Fuquan Mountain. Wheel system is widely used in pottery, with regular shape and beautiful shape. Some pottery pots are engraved with patterns of spin, hook and twist, and some ear-piercing pots are engraved with simplified bird patterns and twists, or woven patterns composed of round spins and double threads. These decorative patterns are fine lines, complex and diverse, and they are fine works in pottery. The pottery patterns found revealed the information of social and cultural progress at that time.

Handmade textile industry has also developed rapidly. Early household silk and linen fabrics were found in Qianshanyang site. After identification, silk scraps are silk quilts, which are woven in plain weave with 47 warp and weft threads per square centimeter. Ribbon is a 3-strand circular ribbon woven from 30 single yarns. Judging from the existing archaeological data, sericulture may have originated in Taihu Lake area. But some people are skeptical about the age of silk fabrics. Flax sheets are recognized as ramie textiles and plain weave. Generally, there are 24 warp yarns and 24 weft yarns per square centimeter, and some fine linen yarns have 365,438+0 warp yarns and 20 weft yarns. This is the earliest ramie fabric in China so far. The weaving of bamboo wares is relatively developed, with more than 200 pieces of products found in Qianshanyang site. Bamboo strips are mostly scraped, flat strips are used in the lower part of the container, and thinner bamboo wires are used near the mouth. There are various knitting methods, such as single warp herringbone, double warp and double weft herringbone, multi-warp and multi-weft herringbone, diamond lattice, dense weft and sparse warp cross, etc. Especially the complicated weaving methods such as plum blossom eyes and braids. These products are "inverted tips" for fishing, bamboo mats, baskets, grain baskets, dustpans, grates and so on for sitting or building. , widely used in production and life. In addition, Liangzhu culture also has wooden products such as paddles, troughs, pots and pestles. The use of wooden paddles shows that the primitive residents living in the vertical and horizontal areas of rivers have already had ship transportation.

Fields and graves

The life of Liangzhu cultural residents is relatively stable. Three were found in Qianshanyang site. One of them is about 2.5 meters long from east to west and 1.9 meters wide from north to south. The wooden stakes are arranged in the east-west direction, and there is a long wood in the middle, which seems to have played the role of "purlin" with several layers of bamboo mats on it. The other only keeps the next row of dense and neat wooden stakes in the east, which are covered with big reed mats and bamboo mats. Some earth wells were also found in Huxing Lake in Wuxian County, leaving many pottery and stone axes at the bottom. There is also a wooden well circle in Taishidian, Kunshan, which is made up of 4 ~ 5 bent boards and is about 2 meters long.

Dozens of tombs have been found in various places, with rectangular pits, mainly with heads facing south and straight limbs buried. There are graves of all sizes. Small tombs found in Haining, Jiaxing, Pinghu, Yuhang and other places in Zhejiang Province, the quality of buried pottery is generally far from authentic. Some small tombs are buried with pig jawbones or perforated stone axes and large jade articles. Large tombs are not only large in scale, but also large in quantity and high in quality. Such as Caoxieshan 198 Tomb, east-west 1.7 meters, north-south 4 meters, more than 60 funerary objects, including 5 jade cong, 2 jade bi, and more than 30 jades such as bracelets, tubes, beads, cones and axes. Although Tomb No.6 of Fuquanshan Site was destroyed, there are still 1 19 pieces of jade, stone tools, teeth and pottery, including 5 pieces of jade cong and 4 pieces of jade bi. There are as many as 57 pieces of jade cong and jade bi buried in the No.3 tomb of Sidun. There are so many jades buried with them, which is unprecedented in the past and a special phenomenon in Liangzhu culture. Some people call this phenomenon "jade burial". There are more than 40 pieces of pottery, jade and stone tools buried in a tomb at Zhanglingshan site, among which jade cong, jade cong and jade cicada with animal face patterns are more prominent. At the foot of the tomb owner, three skulls and pottery buried with them were found. Some people think that their identity should be slaves. Near the two tombs of Guangfulin Site in Songjiang County, Shanghai, there are bones of a pig and a dog, which may belong to martyrs. The above shows that on the basis of the development of agriculture and handicrafts, there was a difference in wealth possession at that time, and there were ritual vessels such as Yu Cong and Yu Bi that only people with special status could have. Some jade cong are also engraved with a series of animal facial patterns symbolizing power. During Liangzhu culture period, clan society has embarked on the road of disintegration.

Relations with other cultures

From the comparative analysis of the relationship between physical objects and layers in Caoxie Mountain and Zhang Ling Mountain, Liangzhu culture evolved from Songze culture. The tombs of Songze culture are mainly buried with straight limbs facing south, which is basically consistent with Liangzhu culture. The Songze cultural stone hairpin with ridges gradually appeared on the back, which was in the previous stage of Liangzhu cultural ladder stone hairpin. The axes of perforated stones are similar. The flat-footed tripod, slender high-handle beans and high-necked flat-bellied pot in Songze culture are related to the fin-shaped tripod, flat-footed tripod, black pottery slender high-handle beans and high-necked ear-piercing pot in Liangzhu culture.

Regarding the development direction of Liangzhu culture, the bronze cultural remains in the middle part of Maqiao provide clues. The middle layer of Maqiao lies in the lower layer of Maqiao, which is the remains of the late Liangzhu culture. The discovered stone sickle, segmented Shi Mao, triangular plow and inclined handle knife are close to Liangzhu culture, and the number of the latter two stone tools is increased compared with Liangzhu culture. The black pottery in the middle of Maqiao is closely related to the black pottery of Liangzhu culture, and their shapes such as tripod and reed are also closely related. As for the middle layer of Maqiao, there are a lot of printed pottery, and there is no material to explain the relationship with Liangzhu culture, and its source needs further study.

There is an interactive relationship between Liangzhu culture and harmony. Duan's praise and Guan Erhu are one of the basic characteristics of Liangzhu culture, and a few of them are found in the remains of the late Dawenkou culture, which is the product of Liangzhu culture. The jade brand unearthed in Dawenkou may be related to the jade cone ornaments of Liangzhu culture. Several pieces of painted pottery with vortex patterns were unearthed in the Liangzhu cultural site in Shanghai Haimaqiao and Lin Ting of Jinshan, which may have been influenced by Dawenkou culture. Pottery unearthed from Liangzhu cultural sites such as Maqiao and Quemuqiao should also be related to Dawenkou culture and Shandong Longshan culture. The pottery of Liangzhu culture and Longshan culture in Shandong Province generally adopts the wheel system, with black pottery occupying a prominent position, polished plain pottery prevailing, and many pots and pans. , indicating that the two have certain * * * characteristics.

Liangzhu ancient city

Last week, Zhejiang Institute of Archaeology released a major archaeological achievement-after 18 months, an ancient city with an area of 2.9 million square meters was discovered at Liangzhu site (the area is similar to that of the Summer Palace in Beijing). This ancient city, roughly centered on the site of Jiaomoshan in Liangzhu ruins area (discovered in the early 1990s), is about 1500~ 1700 meters long from east to west and about 1800~ 1900 meters long from north to south, with a slightly rounded rectangle and a north-south trend. The residual height of some sections of the city wall is more than 4 meters, and the technique is exquisite-the bottom is paved with stones with a width of 40-60 meters (the most complete existing ancient city wall in China-the Xi 'an ancient city wall built during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, with a bottom width of 18 meters and a top width of 15 meters), and pure loess is piled on it and compacted. Judging from the ceramic fragments unearthed from the city wall, the age of this ancient city is not later than the late Liangzhu culture, that is, 4000 years ago. Yan Wenming, a famous archaeologist and professor of Peking University, commented on the ancient city: this is the largest contemporary ancient city discovered in China at present, and it can be called "the first city in China"; It has changed the original understanding that Liangzhu culture is only a glimmer of civilization, which indicates that Liangzhu culture has actually entered the mature stage of prehistoric civilization development. This is another major archaeological discovery in China after the discovery of Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan Province in the last century.

The city wall is an important symbol of the difference between clan society and civilized society. Professor Yan Wenming said that Liangzhu culture can be traced back to 5300~4000 years ago. At present, there are about 60 ancient cities found in China, the smallest of which is 10 square meter, and the largest is Liangzhu ancient city, with an area of 2.9 million square meters.

The jade articles of Liangzhu culture can be traced back to 4200~5300 years ago.

In the mid-1930s, this relic was first discovered in Liangzhu Town, Yuhang, Zhejiang Province, so it was called "Liangzhu Culture".

Liangzhu culture includes Fanshan in Yuhang, Zhejiang, Yaoshan, Wuxian in Jiangsu, Zhangling Mountain, Caoxie Mountain, Wujin Temple Pier, Luodun in Changshu, Fuquan Mountain in Qingpu County, Shanghai and Funing in Anhui during this period.

Liangzhu culture and Hongshan Culture are two centers of Neolithic jade culture.

The jade articles in Liangzhu culture are not only various, but also exquisite in thinking and gorgeous in ornamentation. Experts praised the technological level of jade articles in Liangzhu culture as "wonderful", and the ornamentation pushed the creation of Neolithic jade articles to the peak.

The creation form of jade in Liangzhu culture laid the foundation for the modeling of jade in later generations.

Characteristics of Jade Articles in Liangzhu Culture

First, the jade articles in Liangzhu culture are straight and straight, and the lines are smooth and smooth.

Second, the corner line of Liangzhu culture jade is deep and wide, and the bottom of the line is slightly curved.

Third, there are two processing methods for the Yuhuan line of Liangzhu culture: manual grinding and pipe drilling rotary grinding. The former has shallow line marks and many "burrs" along the line.

Fourth, the jade rays of Liangzhu culture are fine and the scars are obvious.

Five, Liangzhu culture jade bas-relief, using the method of reducing the ground and leveling the convex, highlighting the main decorative patterns and strengthening the theme expression.

Six, Liangzhu culture jade often has "saw marks". When carving jade articles in Liangzhu, a small hole is first made in the jade article, and then the redundant part is sawed off with a saw, commonly known as "shovel" or "wire drawing". The chord used is like a saw blade without teeth, which will leave a pull mark on the surface of the engraved hole.

Seven, Liangzhu culture jade decorative patterns, new patterns are dazzling, including: God-man animal face pattern, bundle silk pattern, twisted silk pattern, Chiyou pattern, Liren pattern, animal eye bird pattern, Yun Leiwen pattern, cattail grass pattern.

Eight, Liangzhu culture jade pays special attention to the thinking of eye shape. Compared with the "line carving" of Hongshan culture jade, "Eye of Liangzhu" is more colorful in detail description. "Liangzhu Eye" has not only single and double circles, but also cirrus-shaped, diamond-shaped, ear-shaped and short linear eye sockets.

Nine, Liangzhu culture jade surface polished smooth, some jade "patina", commonly known as "glass light".