Chapter 4 Section 3 Banpo, Jiangzhai and other original settlement sites

The early villages in our country have been buried underground due to their age. From 1954 to 1957, my country's first large-scale excavation of the Banpo site in Xi'an opened a window to understand the villages in my country 6,000 years ago. The site of Banpo Village in the eastern suburbs of Xi'an has an area of ​​about 30,000 square meters, and about 10,000 square meters have been excavated.The village is surrounded by a large defense ditch that is five to six meters deep and six to eight meters wide. Houses, most of the pits, livestock pens, and children's urn coffins are clustered in the center of the village, and are separated by a small ditch. It consists of two pieces, each with a big house and several small houses.The north of the village beyond Dafangweigou is a public cemetery, and the kiln for firing pottery is at the east end of the village.

The site of Banpo Village has not been fully excavated, but its discovery has accumulated valuable experience for the excavation of the complete site of Jiangzhai Village in the future. Jiangzhai Village is located 15 kilometers northeast of Banpo Village, on the east bank of Linhe River about one kilometer north of Lintong County, and at the northern foot of Lishan Mountain in the south. The total area of ​​the site is about 50,000 square meters. From 1972 to 1979, after eight years and 11 excavations, more than 17,000 square meters were revealed. At the bottom of the site, a primitive village site that was basically well preserved and about 6,600 to 6,400 years ago was discovered.This village site is the final village site after several additions and expansions. It is divided into three parts: residential area, public cemetery, and kiln.

The residential area is located in the middle and has an oval shape with an area of ​​about 26,000 square meters.The east, north, and south sides are dug and surrounded by large trenches as external defense facilities, and the southwestern part is surrounded by the river as a natural barrier.On the inside of the trench, small houses are set up at regular intervals as outposts to keep an eye on the situation outside the village.The main entrance of the residential area is in the southwest, which is close to Linhe.The Linhe River was the source of water for the daily life of the residents at that time, and the workshops for making pottery and the kilns for firing pottery were also set up beside the river.

In the center of the residential area is an empty square with an area of ​​about 5,000 square meters, which is a public place for group activities.On the west side of the square, there are two livestock pens with an area of ​​about 50 square meters.Around the ring square, five groups of about 100 houses were built in five directions.There are about 20 houses in each group, with large houses as the main body, surrounded by medium and small houses, and the doors of each house open to the central square.The big houses are square in plan, with an area of ​​nearly 100 square meters. The largest one is 124 square meters. There are stove pits and stoves in the room, as well as production tools and daily necessities.In addition to being used as a residence, this kind of big house may have been the center of discussion at that time.Medium-sized houses are also square in plan, with an area of ​​20-40 square meters. There are also stoves and daily production and living utensils indoors.There are the largest number of small houses, with round and square planes, covering an area of ​​about 15 square meters. There is also a stove pit, where production and living utensils are placed.Medium and small houses were the residences at that time.Most of the cellars for storing food and utensils are near the house.

The public cemetery is located to the east of the Great Ditch, and three pieces have been found from north to south.Adults are buried in the cemetery, and babies are mostly buried in large pottery near the house.A total of more than 170 people were buried in the three cemeteries. These numbers are not suitable for the size of the village. Therefore, several other cemeteries may have been destroyed. The reappearance of the site of Jiangzhai Village provides a wealth of material for the study of the form of villages in the Yellow River Basin around 6,500 years ago and the social organization structure it reflects.The researchers speculate that the residents of a group of houses in the village with large houses as the main body may be the most basic production and living units in society at that time, and five such social grassroots units were combined to form the village collective.The overall layout of the Jiangzhai Village site fully reflects the life scenes of primitive large-scale agriculture that was managed by groups, united as one, working together, and equally distributed.This form of villages may have been scattered in the Yellow River Basin around 6,000 years ago.

The natural environment of the southern region is different from that of the Yellow River Basin and the northern region, and the layout of the villages may be different, but the complete original village site has not been revealed so far. In 1972, the discovery of longhouses in Xiawanggang, Xichuan County, Henan Province provided rare information for understanding the Yangtze River system and the form of villages around 5,500 years ago. Xiawanggang longhouse is a ground-level building, located on a low hill 35 kilometers southwest of Xichuan County, surrounded by the Danjiang River on the east, south and north sides.The longhouses are generally arranged in a northeast-southwest direction, with a width of about eight meters and a length of about 84 meters. There are 29 rooms, and three rooms turn south at the east end of the longhouse.The whole building is divided into 20 units.Each unit has an outdoor doorway, and the indoor layout can be divided into four types: the first type is an entrance hall and an inner room, the second type is an entrance hall, two inner rooms, and the third type is an entrance hall, an outer room, One inner room, the fourth type is an entrance hall, one outer room, and two inner rooms.The indoor area of ​​each unit room ranges from 15 to 39 square meters, and the stoves are located in the inner room.The gates of the longhouses all face southeast, and the gates of the three houses turning south from the east end face southwest. The gates are about 56-125 centimeters wide, and some have thresholds.The walls of the house are built with wooden pillars and brambles, and the walls are smoothed with grass and mud.The indoor living surface is covered with soil and bamboo woven fabrics are laid.The ground and walls have been roasted by fire and are relatively hard.There are hard surfaces paved with braised soil in front and back of the longhouse as a place for activities.

The planar structure of the Xiawanggang longhouse already has quite advanced house design principles, reflecting a relatively progressive social organization structure.Researchers speculate that the residents of this longhouse were a social activity group at that time, which may be the residence of members of a large family; while each unit is an independent living unit, which may be the residence of members of the extended family. In 1983, a large palace-style building belonging to the late Yangshao Culture was discovered in Dadiwan, Qin'an, Gansu.The site of the building faces south and consists of a main room and three rooms on the left, right and back, with ancillary buildings and a wide field in front.The plane of the main room is rectangular, 16 meters long from east to west, about 8 meters deep, with an indoor area of ​​about 131 square meters. Open one side door each.It is worth noting that the floor of the main room is paved with man-made lightweight aggregate and cementitious materials fired from raw stone. After testing, the floor is still equivalent to the strength of the current No. 100 mortar cement floor.The entire construction area is about 420 square meters, symmetrical on the left and right, with clear primary and secondary, forming a large-scale and complex architectural group.It not only embodies the astonishing achievements of design and craftsmanship 5,000 years ago, but also reflects the unprecedented development of social organizations at that time.

The same age as the large palace-style building in Dadiwan, but a larger building site was discovered in 1994 at the site of Nanzuogedaqu, Xifeng City, Gansu Province.The large-scale house in Gedaqu is a long strip from northwest to southeast, with a length of 35 meters from north to south and a width of 18 meters from east to west, with an indoor area of ​​about 630 square meters.The south side is open.The wall is rammed with flat floors, with a width of about 0.35 meters, a length of 2.3 meters, and a residual height of 2.6-2.8 meters.The interior is rammed with soil and is higher than the outdoor ground.There are scattered water surfaces under the foundations of the north, east and west walls outside.In addition, four house sites were found distributed around the large house.This is the largest and earliest slab-walled house building discovered so far, reflecting the architectural skills of the Yangshao Culture as early as 5,000 years ago.