Chapter 7 Section 6 Xinglongwa Cultural Settlement and Hongshan Cultural Altar and Mound

The Xinglongwa Cultural Settlement Site and the Hongshan Cultural Altar, Temple, and Tomb Remains are located in the eastern part of Inner Mongolia and Western Liaoning. Their discoveries fully demonstrate that the primitive culture of the West Liao River Basin 7,000-5,000 years ago was not only different from that of the Central Plains, but also Quite developed and mysterious, it has aroused widespread concern in the academic circles. The site of Xinglongwa settlement is located on the southwest slope of the mountain ridge in the southeast of Xinglongwa Village, Baoguotu Township, Aohan Banner, Chifeng City. Since 1983, about 30,000 square meters have been excavated. It is the area north of the Great Wall, the largest excavated area and the earliest age in my country original settlement site.The Xinglongwa settlement site is irregularly circular, with a diameter of about 166-183 meters, surrounded by a large ditch with a width of about 1.5-2 meters and a depth of 0.55-1 meter.The housing sites in the settlement are generally arranged in a northwest-southeast direction, with a total of about 10 rows, and each row has about 10 groups of houses in an orderly manner.These houses are all semi-crypt, nearly square in plane, and some are rectangular, with different sizes. The largest one has an area of ​​about 60 square meters, the largest one has an area of ​​140 square meters, and the small one has an area of ​​about 20 square meters.There is a burning stove indoors, and some houses also have cellars or buried tombs.There are still charcoal remains in individual houses, which may be the remnants of the wooden structure of the houses.The production tools unearthed in the house are mainly stone tools, including hoes, shovels, axes, chisels, millstones, grinding sticks, etc., as well as bone tools such as bone cones, bone daggers, and fish darts; the main living utensils are pottery such as jars and bowls. , the device shape is relatively simple.The age of the Xinglongwa settlement is about 7000-8000 years ago, about 1000 years earlier than the Jiangzhai settlement in the Guanzhong area.

The remains of Hongshan cultural altars, temples, and tombs dating back 5,000 years ago are located in the valley of the Daling River in the three counties of Lingyuan, Jianping, and Kazuo.The altar site is located at the front end of the ridge behind Dongshanzui in the southeast, facing the Daling River, and facing a mountain pass across the river; the temple is on the ridge named Niuheliang about 50 kilometers northwest of the altar site. Four kilometers to the south, there is an abrupt mountain, which looks like a pig's head, facing it far away.To the east of the temple is an open land under the ridge, and on the hills surrounding the temple to the west and south, there are more than 10 stone mounds.

The altar site of Kazuo Dongshanzui, discovered in 1982, is made of exquisitely processed stone materials. It covers an area of ​​about 2,400 square meters, and the buildings in it are distributed according to the central axis and two wings.In the north of the central axis is a square altar, which is 11.8 meters long from east to west and 9.5 meters wide from north to south. There are many large stone bars standing in it. The stone bars are about 85 cm high. There are objects such as Shuanglong Shouyu Huang.In the south of the central axis is a circular altar, about 15 meters away from the square altar in the north, with a diameter of about 2.5 meters. There were a group of small nude statues of pregnant women and several large statues of sitting figures in the altar, which were dumped on the altar when they were unearthed. outside.Most of these small portraits of pregnant women have mutilated heads, about five centimeters high, bulging abdomen, fat buttocks, clearly carved vulvas, polished and smooth body, and their bodies seem to be painted red.The large sitting statue is about half the size of a real person, with a broken head, hands crossed on the abdomen, and sitting cross-legged. It may be an idol worshiped by ancestors at that time.These statues of figures dating back 5,000 years ago were discovered for the first time in my country. They were located on the altars corresponding to the north and south circles, and they should have been the objects of sacrifice at that time. The large stone strips in the square altar may be another symbol of the objects of sacrifice.So this is the central place where people engaged in sacrificial activities 5,000 years ago.

The Niuheliang temple site is located at the junction of Lingyuan and Jianping counties. Excavations from 1983 to 1985 show that its architectural structure is relatively complex, consisting of a multi-room building and a single-room building.The multi-room is in the north, which is the main building. It is 18.4 meters long from north to south and 6.9 meters wide from east to west. The main room is located in the north of the north-south center of the building. The main room is connected.The single-room building is located about 2 meters south of the multi-room building and has an area of ​​about 16 square meters.On the walls of this group of buildings, there are painted patterns, which are painted in ochre-red and yellow-white colors interlaced, with triangular geometric patterns, hooked lotus patterns, etc., which are magnificent and magnificent. They are the earliest painted murals discovered in my country so far.

In the main room, apart from clay sculptures such as pig dragons and bird claws, remnants of clay sculptures of six individuals were found, including heads, shoulders, arms, breasts, and hands.The portraits vary in size, but they are all female. The largest one is located in the center of the main room, about three times the size of a real person.The head of a medium-sized figure was found on its side, which was relatively well preserved and was about the same size as a real person. The top part of the hair was missing. It was 22.5 cm high, 16.5 cm wide, and 23.5 cm wide through the ears. The eye sockets are relatively shallow, and the eyes are embedded with round jade pieces, which are piercing and bright. The nose bridge is low, the mouth is wide, the lips are painted red, and the face is painted red, which seems to be the shape of a Mongolian face.Most of these female statues of different sizes are seated, and their sitting positions may be divided into centers and levels. They are all goddesses enshrined at that time, and they may be idols worshiped by deified ancestors.Therefore, this group of buildings is a goddess temple.

Six stone tombs have been discovered, which are about 750-1100 meters away from the temple.Among them, the one excavated in 1983 in the south of the temple has four stone mounds, arranged in an east-west direction, with a total length of more than 110 meters. The two in the middle are square and round.The square stone mound is 17.5 meters long from east to west, 18.7 meters wide from north to south, and about 1.4 meters high. The outer wall is built with large stones on the east, west and north sides. In the center of the tomb is a stone platform with a side length of 3.6 meters and a current height of 0.5 meters. In the center of the tomb is a coffin made of stone slabs. The tomb is 2.21 meters long from east to west, 0.85 meters wide and 0.5 meters high.The circular cairn is located two meters east of the square cairn. It is surrounded by three rings of light red stone piles inside and outside. It is a round altar with a high inside and a low outside. The diameter of the outer ring of the round altar is about 22 meters, and the diameter of the inner ring is about 11 meters. .This round altar may have the nature of a tomb sacrifice.Three meters to the west of the square stone mound is a rectangular stone mound, 26.8 meters long from east to west, 19.5 meters wide from north to south, with inner and outer stone walls.A row of 24 painted terracotta cylinders was found inside the inner wall, which may have a special purpose.Outside the south inner wall, 15 stone-slab tombs were found. These tombs are composed of vertical stone slabs or flat stones. There were at least five pieces buried with them, including jade hoop-shaped vessels, ring-shaped jade pig dragons, jade bi, jade hook-shaped cloud ornaments, jade rings, etc., and each piece was well-made.

The Niuheliang stone mounds are large in scale and complex in structure, and the tombs in the mounds are different in size. It is the largest group of stone mounds discovered in my country 5,000 years ago.They are centered on the temple, distributed in groups, each located on the top of the mountain, and within 50 kilometers, together with the temple and the Dongshanzui altar, constitute a sacred area with a hierarchical relationship, reflecting the existence of a large area at that time. A well-developed social organization with strong religious overtones.