Chapter 9 Section 8 Several City Sites Four Thousand Years Ago

The site of the city 4,000 years ago is the most striking discovery in recent years.At present, more than 20 have been discovered in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.The discovery of these city sites is of great significance for exploring the origin of my country's cities, the origin of the country and civilization. The city sites dating back 4,000 years ago were first discovered in Henan Province, and five of them have been discovered in Henan Province so far.They are Wangchenggang in Dengfeng, Pingliangtai in Huaiyang, Haojiatai in Yancheng, Mengzhuang in Huixian County, and Xishan in Zhengzhou.In addition, a section of rammed earth wall was also found in Hougang, Anyang in the early years.

The Wangchenggang city site is the earliest city site discovered and confirmed more than 4,000 years ago. It is located on a platform about one kilometer west of Gaocheng Town, Dengfeng County. Excavations from 1977 to 1981 show that it is composed of two city sites juxtaposed in the east and west. .Most of the city wall of the east city has been washed away by the river, of which the remaining south wall is about 30 meters long in the west, and the south section of the west wall is about 65 meters long. The south wall and the west wall intersect perpendicularly.The plane of Dongcheng may be square.The west city and the east city share a city wall, and the west wall of the east city is the east wall of the west city.The foundation grooves of the south and west walls of the west city and the rammed earth layer for the walls still exist underground. The foundation groove of the west city wall is 4.4 meters wide, 2.54 meters wide at the bottom, 2.04 meters deep, and the thickness of the rammed layer is about 10-20 centimeters.The south wall is 82.4 meters long, the west wall is about 92 meters long, the east section of the north wall was also washed away by the river, and the west section is about 29 meters long.Both the southwest corner and the northwest corner of Xicheng are close to 90 degrees, indicating that the plane of Xicheng is also square, with an area of ​​about 10,000 square meters.There is a gap about 10 meters wide between the east of the south wall of the west city and the south end of the east wall, which may be the remains of the south gate of the west city.Based on the analysis of the remains of the two city sites, the west city may have been built after the destruction of the east city.

Many rammed-earth architectural relics have been found in the Wangchenggang city site, but all of them have been destroyed and their original appearance cannot be discerned.In addition, some rammed circular earth pits were found, and the skeletons of adults and children were buried in the pits, ranging from two to seven, and several pits were filled and rammed at once.This phenomenon may be related to important architectural relics, which belong to the foundation pit.The Wangchenggang city site was dated as early as 4,300 years ago. The city site is small in size, and its function may be as a defensive castle.

The Mengzhuang city site is the largest city site found in the middle reaches of the Yellow River 4,000 years ago.It is located on the eastern slope of Mengzhuang Town, Huixian County, with Taihang Mountain in the north and the old course of the Yellow River in the south. It was discovered in 1992.The plane of the city site is square, the length and width of the city wall are about 400 meters, and the total area is 160,000 square meters.Except for the west city wall, the other three walls are well preserved, consisting of the main city wall and additional parts on both sides.The top width of the main city wall is 5.5 meters, the bottom width is 8.5 meters, the remaining height is about 0.2-1.2 meters, and some parts are 2 meters high.The additional parts on the inner and outer sides of the main city wall are about 10 meters wide and are the result of later restorations.There is a moat around the outside of the city wall, and the bottom of the river is 5.7 meters deep from the surface.The Mengzhuang city site was built in the middle period of Longshan Culture in Henan Province, about 4300 years ago.

The Pingliangtai city site is the best preserved one known so far. It is located in the southwest of Dazhuzhuang, four kilometers southeast of Huaiyang County. It covers an area of ​​about 50,000 square meters and is about three to five meters above the nearby ground. year. Two drillings and excavations from 1979 to 1980 showed that the city site was square in plane, 185 meters in length and 185 meters in width, and the city area was about 34,000 square meters.The city wall is built with small slabs, that is, a small slab earth wall with a height of 1.3 meters and a width of 0.8-0.85 meters is first rammed on the inner side of the city wall as the inner wall of the city wall, and then soil is rammed on the outer side of the city wall, and the height is increased layer by layer. Exceed the height of the wall built with small boards, and then pile up the upper part of the city wall.The city wall is more than three meters high, about 8-10 meters wide at the top, and about 13 meters wide at the bottom.Two north and south gates have been found, both located in the middle of the south and north city walls.Among them, there are east and west guard rooms at the south gate. The guard rooms are built with adobe according to the city wall, and the doors of the rooms face each other.The guard room is 4.2-4.4 meters long from north to south, and 3.1-3.3 meters wide from east to west.Between the east and west guard rooms is the city gate passage, about two meters wide.There is a drainage system under the doorway, that is, a ditch is dug under the doorway, which is high in the north and low in the south, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. One, on which two are paved side by side, the surroundings of the pipes are filled with stones and soil, and paved on top of them as the road surface.The residual length of the drainage pipe found is about 5 meters long, and it is made of multiple joints, each of which is 0.35-0.45 meters long. It is 0.27-0.32 meters, and the small opening of each section of pipeline faces south, and is inserted into the large opening of another section of pipeline, so that it can be buckled step by step.This is the earliest urban drainage system discovered in my country.

More than 10 rectangular row houses have been found in the city site of Pingliangtai. Some of these houses were built on the ground, and some were built on high platforms, and adobe was generally used as building materials.Among them, a row house located in the south of the eastern part of the city was built on flat ground. It is 12.5 meters long from east to west, 4.34 meters wide from north to south, and 0.34 meters wide with adobe walls. It is divided into three rooms: left, middle and right. The width is 0.7 meters, and there are water slopes outside the north and south house walls.Most of the relics unearthed in the city are pottery. What is striking is that a piece of copper slag was found in an ash pit, indicating that the copper smelting technology had been initially mastered at that time.

So far, 13 city sites of the Longshan Culture period have been discovered in Shandong Province in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, four of which are located in the north of Taiyi Mountain, eight in the west of Shandong, and one in the southwest of Shandong.Some of these city sites are densely distributed, presenting a partial picture of many city sites. The four city sites on the north side of Taiyi Mountain are Chengziya, Longshan Town, Zhangqiu County, Dinggong, Yuancheng Township, Zouping County, Tianwang, Linzi County, and Sunjiaji Bianxianwang, Shouguang County.Its distribution range is about 100 kilometers from east to west and about 40 kilometers from north to south.Chengziya is about 50 kilometers away from Dinggong in a straight line, Dinggong is less than 40 kilometers away from Tianwang, and Tianwang is less than 40 kilometers away from Bianxianwang.The age of their construction is only three or four hundred years apart.

After three years of excavation from 1984 to 1986, the Bianxianwang city site was found to be composed of two inner and outer cities. The outer big city was expanded and rebuilt on the spot after the inner small city was destroyed.The site of the small city is located slightly southeast of the central part of the site of the big city. The plane is a rounded square, each side is about 100 meters long, and the area is about 10,000 square meters. There are four gates in the east, west, south and north.The plane of the Dacheng site is also a square with rounded corners, each side is about 240 meters long, and the city area is about 57,000 square meters.A city gate was opened in the middle of the four sides of the city wall, and the gaps in the city walls of the west and north city gates that have been excavated have the same width, about 10 meters.The city wall was built by ramming, and only the foundation groove part of the city wall was found.The construction of the foundation trench of the city wall is a huge project. It is in the shape of a slope trench, about six to seven meters deep, seven to eight meters wide at the mouth, and about 10 meters at the widest point. The foundation trench is filled with soil layer by layer, and the thickness of the rammed layer is about 5-15 cm range.In the rammed layer of the foundation trench, small tombs were also found that buried human, dog, pig skeletons and pottery. These were buried deliberately during the construction of the city, which may be related to the custom of laying the foundation.

The site of Dinggong City was discovered in 1991. It is roughly square in plane. The city is about 350 meters long from north to south, 310 meters wide from east to west, and covers an area of ​​about 100,000 square meters.The city wall is about 20 meters wide and about 1.5-2 meters high.On the outside of the city wall, there is a giant moat more than 20 meters wide and three meters deep. This is the first time a moat discovered 4,000 years ago.What is particularly noteworthy is that 11 engraved symbols were found on the pottery fragments in an ash pit beside the city wall. After research, most scholars believe that they are original characters that do not belong to the current Chinese character system.

The city site of Chengziya was first discovered in 1928. Excavations in 1990 showed that there are actually three Chengziya city sites, which were built in the Zhou Dynasty and three periods before it.Among them, the earliest one belongs to the Longshan culture period. It has the largest area, nearly square in plane, more than 430 meters wide from east to west, and 530 meters long from north to south, covering an area of ​​about 200,000 square meters.Part of the city wall has been destroyed, but the four walls of Kishan are completely preserved underground.The east, south, and west walls are relatively regular, while the north wall is curved and convex to the north.The remaining city wall is 2.5-5 meters above the ground and 8-13 meters wide.The Chengziya city site is three or four times larger than the Bianxianwang city site and Pingliangtai city site, and 20 times larger than the Wangchenggang city site. Its nature may have surpassed the scope of a castle mainly used for defense.

The eight city sites distributed in the southwestern part of Shandong Province were discovered in 1994 and are divided into two groups, the north and the south.The three buildings in the southern group are Jingyanggang, Huangguzhong and Wangzhuang in Yanggu County.Among them, Jingyanggang city site is the center.Jingyanggang city site is nearly flat oval in plane, 1,150 meters long from north to south, 230-400 meters wide from east to west, with an area of ​​about 350,000 square meters. The city wall above the groundwater level is one to two meters high. Culture and city walls of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.There are two rammed-earth platforms in the city. The large one is 520 meters long and 175 meters wide, covering an area of ​​about 90,000 square meters. The platform is five to six meters high and divided into several floors.The small site is 15 meters northeast of the large site, 130 meters long, 60 meters wide, and covers an area of ​​about 8,000 square meters. Both sites are built with raw yellow sand.Huangguzhong City Site is located eight kilometers southwest of Jingyanggang, with an area of ​​about 60,000 square meters.Wangzhuang city site is located 10 kilometers northeast of Jingyanggang, with an area of ​​about 30,000-40,000 square meters. There are five in the northern group, namely Jiaochangpu, Tuwei, Lepingpu (Salipu), Shangzhuang, and Wangji, Dong'e County, in Chiping County.Among them, Jiaochangpu city site is the center.The Jiaochangpu city site is rectangular in plan, about 1,100 meters from east to west, more than 300 meters from north to south, and covers an area of ​​nearly 400,000 square meters. There are also two sites in the city, which are opposite to each other.Dongtai site is 160 meters long, 100 meters wide, with an area of ​​16,000 square meters and a height of 6 meters.The West Terrace site is 800 meters long, 160 meters wide, and covers an area of ​​128,000 square meters.The two sites are 70 meters apart.Of the remaining four city sites, three are located in the east-south-north line of the Jiaochangpu city site, about three to four kilometers apart, and three to six kilometers away from the Jiaochangpu city site.Shangzhuang city site is located in the north and west of Jiaochangpu city site, about 19 kilometers apart.The area of ​​these four city sites is about 30,000-40,000 square meters. These two groups of city sites in southwestern Shandong have formed a distribution pattern in which small cities are attached to large cities. Five city sites dating back to 4,000 years ago have been discovered in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Chengtou Mountain in Li County, Hunan Province.Among them, the Chengtoushan city site is the earliest, about 5,000 years ago; and the Shijiahe city site has the largest area, about 1.3 million square meters. The Chengtoushan city site is located in Nanyue Village, Dongxi Township, about 20 kilometers northwest of Lixian County, in the west of the Liyang Plain. Excavations in 1991 confirmed that it was built in the early Qujialing culture.The city site is nearly circular in plane, with a diameter of about 325 meters. It is composed of a moat, rammed earth walls, city gates, rammed earth platforms and roads in the city.The moat is a combination of artificial and natural channels. The preserved moat from the southwest to the north gate is 460 meters long, 35 meters wide and 4 meters deep. It is still full of water.The city wall is rammed, with a width of about 20 meters and a residual width of about 7 meters at the top. The existing height is 5.7-6.3 meters from the water surface of the moat.There are four gaps in the city gate, corresponding to the east and west, and the north and south. At the east gate, a pebble road with a width of more than five meters has been cleared to lead into the city.There is a large circular weir in the north gate, which communicates with the moat through the north gate waterway.The site of the rammed-earth platform was found in the west and south of the city center. Pottery workshops and burial areas were also found in the city. Eight pottery kilns and nearly 500 tombs of various types have been cleared.In addition, a section of the main road that may run through the east and west gates of the city site was cleared in the west of the central part of the city. The road is 2 meters wide and paved with red-burned soil. Shijiahe City Site is located on the north side of Shijiahe Town, Tianmen County.The western part of the west wall and the south wall are well preserved. The bottom of the wall is about 50 meters wide, which seems to be piled up. There are large gaps in the north and south walls. It may be an earth platform built by digging the moat mound.There are concentrated residential areas, cemeteries and relics of religious activities in the city.Among them, a one-meter-thick adobe wall and dense thick pillar holes were found in the residential area. In addition to special building sites, there were thousands of pottery animals and hundreds of statues of people holding fish in religious relics.The city site was built in the prosperous period of Qujialing culture, about 4600 years ago. Four to five thousand years ago, so many city sites of different sizes appeared in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, which not only shows that the society at that time was highly differentiated, but also that it was in an era of great turmoil. .