Chapter 10 Section 1 Xia Culture Exploration and Taosi Site, Erlitou Culture

In Chinese history, there was a Xia Dynasty before the Shang Dynasty, but the Xia culture has long been a blank spot in archaeology.Therefore, exploring the issue of Xia culture is a major issue related to the emergence of the Chinese state, and has attracted widespread attention from the archaeological and historical circles. It is hoped that archaeological means can be used to confirm and supplement the history of the Xia Dynasty.According to literature records, the main activity areas of the Xia people include: the Fen, Wei, and Su watersheds in southern Shanxi, the Yi, Luo, and Ying (ying) watersheds in western Henan, and even the Guanzhong Plain, all of which are the focus of exploring Xia culture. area.The Erlitou culture, which is mainly distributed in the western part of Henan, was once used as the research object for exploring the Xia culture.In recent years, the discovery and excavation of the Taosi site in Xiangfen, southern Shanxi will contribute to further breakthroughs in the exploration of Xia culture.

The Taosi site is located in the south of Taosi Village at the west foot of Chongshan (commonly known as Taershan) in the northeast of Xiangfen County, Shanxi Province, with an area of ​​3 million square meters.The distribution range of this culture is all in the Fenhe River and the Weishui River Basin, which is the place of "Xiaxu".The age of the site was determined by carbon fourteenth, which is about 2400-1800 BC, and it has gone through more than 600 years.It is quite consistent with the Xia calendar (the Xia calendar should be from 24 BC to the 18th century BC).Some scholars also believe that it is the cultural relic of Tao Tang (Tang Yao).

The site was excavated in 1978, and it includes two parts: residential site and tomb.The cultural connotation is very rich and has obvious own characteristics, which can be named Taosi culture. There are three types of house sites: ground-based, semi-underground and cave dwellings.The plane of the house site is mostly square with rounded corners, and there are also circles.The ground in the house is mostly burnt soil, but also lime.The indoor area is generally 2-3 meters in length and width.There is a stove inside, or a stove with a flue.Apparently for individual small families.The site of a large house has not yet been found, but fragments of rammed earth and carved white-ash walls have been unearthed in the early ash pits, indicating the existence of a large building.There is a circular well near the house site, which is about 14 meters deep, and there is a frame-type wooden wall protection near the bottom.There are also lime kiln sites, where lime is fired and used as a building material.

In the ruins, round pouches, rounded square pouches and rounded square cylindrical pits were found.The shape is regular, the walls and bottom of the pit are smooth and flat.Some put a layer of plant ash or white ash on the bottom of the pit.There are stone tools, bone tools, pottery and carbonized grain particles in the pit, which is obviously a storage cellar.Another kind of large pit with a circular or oval shape, flat bottom or concave bottom, often with up and down ramps or doorways along the side of the surrounding wall, which is used for storage or for raising livestock. Taosi Longshan Culture has two major features: one is the unearthed gorgeous painted pottery.Most of the walls of pottery pots, bottles, basins, plates, etc. are painted.Or use black pottery clothes as the ground, or use red as the ground, and apply red, white, and yellow colors on it.Decorated with dragon patterns, variant animal patterns, dots, and stripes.Among them, the painted Panlong pottery plate is the most characteristic.The second is the unearthed batches of painted wooden utensils.The fetal bones of these wooden utensils have all decayed.The original shape can be peeled off according to the residual paint layer.It is known that there are many kinds of utensils such as case, Ji, Zu (zu resistance), box, plate, bucket (spoon), bean, "cang-shaped utensil", drum and so on.And use mortise and tenon and wood splicing technology, and can also be used for arc treatment.Apply painted paint (lacquer) to wood.With red as the ground, colorful patterns are drawn in yellow, white, blue and black.Among them, the wooden drum is made of hollowed out tree trunks.Painted on the outside of the round drum cavity, the drum surface is covered with crocodile skin.The largest piece is 1.04 meters high, with an upper diameter of 43 cm and a lower diameter of 57 cm.That is to say, it is called "鼍 [tuo] drum" in ancient literature.In the tomb, the wooden drum and the stone chime [qingqing] (te chime) coexist.The special chime, 80-90 cm long, is made of limestone and is used as a sentence pattern.This wooden drum and special chime are the earliest treasures of the same kind of musical instruments in our country.

Pottery is mainly sandy gray pottery and argillaceous gray pottery, there are also sandy or muddy brown pottery, and muddy black pottery.The decorations are mainly Jomon and basket patterns, and there are also square patterns, additional pile patterns, string patterns, perforated holes, milk nail patterns, etc.There are three kinds of making methods: hand-made, molded and wheel-made.Cooking utensils are mainly "kettle stove", 斝 [jiajia], and 鬲 [li stand].In the early stage, "kettle stoves" were often used, and in the middle period, pottery kilns appeared and coexisted with "pot stoves".There are also tripods, retorts (gifted by Zeng), vats, pots, pots, basins, plates, etc.Polished black pottery gui [gui ghost] appeared in the late period, which has its own characteristics.

Significant progress has been made in handicraft sectors such as pottery, bone, and stone.New handicraft categories such as carpentry, color painting, painting (xiuxiu) decoration and jade inlay appeared.Among the pottery, there are thin-bodied pottery with pure pottery color, crisp and sound percussion, and a thickness of less than three millimeters.Jade ware is exquisitely ground, can drill regular holes, and can be inlaid with turquoise or small clam pieces to form arm ornaments.All this marks a new height in the development of Taosi Longshan cultural handicraft industry. More noteworthy is the emergence of bronze vessels and writing.A bronze bell-shaped vessel was unearthed from a tomb.According to chemical analysis, the copper content is 97.8%, and it is a red copper ware cast with a composite mold.It proves that metallurgical technology has been mastered at that time.On the wall of a pottery flat pot unearthed in the residence site, there are writing brushes and Zhushu characters, and its structure is very similar to the homographs in oracle bone inscriptions.It shows that the text has been generated at that time.This is the earliest writing brush and Zhushu found in my country so far.

Taosi cemetery is located in the southeast of the residence, with an area of ​​more than 30,000 square meters.More than a thousand tombs were found, all of which were rectangular earth pit shaft tombs, and the deceased was basically buried alone with his body upright.In addition, there were only three cases of bent-leg burials, one case of bent-over burials, and one case of a juvenile deceased.Most of the dead head towards the southeast, that is, towards the peak of Chongshan (Taershan). Burials can be divided into three types: large, medium and small.There are the most small tombs, followed by medium tombs and the least large tombs.

There are nine large tombs, all of whom are male.The pit is rectangular, three meters long and two meters wide.A wooden coffin is used, and the bottom of the coffin is covered with cinnabar.Burial objects up to 200 pieces.There are painted pottery, painted panlong pottery dishes, painted wooden ware, painted (lacquered) wooden tables, tables, zu, boxes, plates, spoons, beans, and "warehouse-shaped utensils".Jade and stone wares include jade (stone), Yue, Yuan, stone axe, adze [ben Ben], arrowhead, Shu [shu Shu], and "√"-shaped chef's knife.There are also whole pig skeletons and so on.

Medium-sized tombs can be roughly divided into two types: one is that the owner of the tomb is male, and a wooden coffin is used, and some coffins are covered with cinnabar.There are groups of pottery (including a small amount of painted pottery), a small amount of painted wood, jade and stone (axes, cong, yuan, etc.) and several or dozens of pairs of pig mandibles.The second is that the owner of the tomb is a woman, and the painted wooden coffin may be used, or there may be a coffin [lianlian] quilt [qinqin] and cinnabar.They are buried symmetrically on the left and right sides of the large tomb.Funeral painted pottery vases, jade inlaid head and arm ornaments.Half to one pair of pig mandibles.

Small tombs, mostly without wooden burial utensils.Some roll up their corpses with foil curtains.Most do not have any burial objects.In some cases, only one or two pieces of bones were buried with them. The significant difference in the Taosi cemetery mentioned above is the most direct reflection of the division of wealth and class within the tribe (which should have formed a nation at this time).A privileged class arises, the first class oppression emerges.In addition, the social division of labor was further diversified and specialized, such as the casting of bronze wares and the application of writing.It marks that the brilliant light of the civilization era has been radiated on the land of China.

The Erlitou site is located in Yanshi County, Henan Province.On the south bank of today's Luo River (the old course of Luo River is south of the ruins), it is between Yiluo and Luohe.The Erlitou culture is named after the Erlitou ruins.The age of its early culture is roughly from the 19th to the 18th century BC, which roughly coincides with the activity area and time of the late Xia Dynasty.Therefore, take it as one of the objects to explore Xia culture. According to the stratigraphic relationship of the site and the arrangement of typical pottery, it can be divided into four phases.The characteristics of the pottery in the first period are mainly brown pottery, and polished black pottery accounts for a certain proportion.The decoration is mainly basket pattern, with a small amount of square pattern and thin rope pattern.Most of the utensils have wide folded edges and small flat bottoms, which have the color of Longshan culture in Henan.The characteristics of the pottery in the second period are quite a lot of polished pottery, tan pottery and black clothes pottery.The decoration is mainly thin rope pattern, and the shape of the vessel is mostly narrow curling edge and round bottom.Gui, Li, Dakou Zun, etc. appeared.The pottery of the third period and the fourth period are similar in characteristics, mainly gray pottery with pitting on the inner wall.The decoration is mainly thick rope pattern, and the shape of the vessel is multi-rolled and rounded.Some types of utensils, such as 鬲, 斝, and Dakou Zun, are very close to similar utensils in the middle of the Shang Dynasty.This shape shows the trend of integration in the fourth period.Therefore, most scholars believe that the early Erlitou culture (Phase 1 and Phase 2) may be the late Xia culture, while its late period (Phase 3 and Phase 4) may be the early Shang culture. Regarding the nature of Erlitou culture, there are quite different opinions in the academic circles.There are mainly the following opinions. (1) It is believed that the early remains of the Erlitou culture (Phase 1 and Phase 2) may be Xia culture.Since there are still elements of Longshan culture in the remains of the first and second periods, but no Longshan elements in the remains of the third period, a group of utensils that are the same as or similar to the typical utensils of the mid-Shang Dynasty culture appear, indicating that their age has passed. Enter the Shang Dynasty. (2) It is believed that the remains of Erlitou Culture Phase I to Phase IV are all earlier than Zhengzhou Shang City.Zhengzhou Shangcheng is the capital of Shangtang [bobo].Therefore, the entire Erlitou culture is Xia culture. (3) It is believed that the Erlitou culture may be the Xia culture before Shang Tang destroyed Xia.From the second period, it is the early culture of the Shang Dynasty. (4) It is believed that the remains of the first to third phases of the Erlitou culture are closely related, which should be the Xia culture. This academic issue is still being discussed, and new archaeological discoveries will also be placed.

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