Chapter 6 Section 2 The Neolithic Age smokes everywhere

About 10,000 years ago, stone tools transitioned from hammering to grinding, and composite production tools entered the heyday.In the long course of human life practice, three epoch-making achievements appeared at this time: planting, breeding and pottery.This is what archeology calls the Neolithic Age.These three achievements laid the initial material foundation for the emergence of the era of human civilization. From the processes of sawing, chiseling and drilling in the manufacture of production tools and ornaments in the Upper Paleolithic, our ancestors have figured out that friction can generate heat and fire.Making fire manually was already a popular skill in the early Neolithic period.They casually discarded the leftover plant roots and melon seeds on the burnt open space. Soon, they found that new seedlings could grow; they gradually realized the fertilizer effect of plant ash on plant growth. This was the beginning of planting. Cultivation is called chop-and-burn agriculture.

In the Paleolithic Age, people have known to dig wild plant tubers and pick wild nuts such as hackberry seeds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, chestnuts, etc. to satisfy their hunger.After the planting industry appeared, along with the increase of population, a food crop with short production cycle and high yield was needed.Around the transition period between Paleolithic and Neolithic (about 10,000 years ago), our ancestors finally selected the first food crop from the seeds of "setaria", which is millet.As early as 10,000 years ago, in the late Paleolithic cultural layer of the Xiachuan site in Qinshui County, Shanxi Province, tools for pounding grain such as stone mills and hammers have been found (Figure 1, Figure 2).Millet and agricultural production tools (such as stone 钁 [jue], stone shovel, stone sickle, clam sickle, etc.) and grain processing tools (such as stone millstones, millsticks, etc.) were commonly unearthed from the early to middle period of the Neolithic Age in my country.From the Cishan and Peiligang cultural sites in the North China Plain 8,000 years ago, to the Yangshao Cultural Sites in the middle reaches of the Yellow River and the Dawenkou Cultural Sites in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, to the Hongshan Cultural Sites in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia more than 6,000 years ago The Fuhe cultural sites in the area, until more than 5,000 years ago, the cultural sites of Majiayao, Qijia, Machang, Liuhe and other cultural sites in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, and the Longshan cultural sites in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, all unearthed a large number of millet (millet) and various farm tools and grain processing tools.More than 5,000 years ago, barley, wheat, rice, sorghum and other food crops appeared in the ruins in the Yellow River Basin.

In the south of the Qinling Mountains, about 8,000 years ago, on the banks of Dongting Lake in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the agricultural tribes in Pengtou Mountain, Li County, Hunan Province, knew how to cultivate artificial rice from wild rice.The remains of domestic animals such as pigs, cattle, and sheep were also unearthed.About 7,000 years ago, the Hemudu people in the Hangzhou Bay in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River also cultivated indica rice, and they produced a large number of bone porridge (si 4) for cultivation.Later, rice was propagated in southern China. About 6,000 to 5,000 years ago, the Daxi Cultural Site and Qujialing Cultural Site in the Jianghan River Basin, the Majiabang and Liangzhu Cultural Sites around Taihu Lake in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and a little later, Lingnan The Shixia Cultural Site in China, and some Neolithic sites in the Erhai region of Yunnan Province, have generally unearthed artificially cultivated carbonized rice, and some have both indica and japonica rice.

In addition to food crops, the Neolithic also began to cultivate vegetables.In the Hemudu site, aquatic crops such as gourd seeds, water chestnut, and barley were unearthed; in the Banpo and Yangshao sites, cabbage or mustard seeds were unearthed.A little later, about 5,000 years ago, at the Qianshanyang site in the Taihu Lake area, in addition to gourds, melons, peanuts, sesame and broad beans were unearthed.Fruits and nuts have also been cultivated in the Neolithic age.Peaches, jujubes, and acorns were unearthed at the Hemudu site, chestnuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, and hackberry seeds were unearthed at the Banpo site, and peaches, apricots, plums, and jujubes were unearthed at the Qianshanyang site.Mostly peaches, apricots, plums and chestnuts have been cultivated artificially.

China is one of the largest crop origin centers in the world. As early as the pre-Neolithic period, about 10,000 to 5,000 years ago, a variety of food crops and a considerable number of vegetables, fruits and nut. Breeding is mainly developed on the basis of planting. As early as the Neolithic Age, China already had all six animals.Near the residential ruins of Banpo, there are two relics of livestock pens.Among the animal remains unearthed from Neolithic sites, pigs, dogs, cattle, sheep, and chickens are the most identified as domestic animals. Yangshao, Hongshan, Dawenkou, Longshan, Majiayao, Qijia, Qujia Ling and other cultural sites have a large number of remains of the above-mentioned domestic animals, there are horse bones at the Yangshao site, and horse and donkey bones at the Qijia site.Among the Neolithic sites in the south, pig, dog and buffalo bones are the most common, such as the Hemudu site, the Tanshishan site in Fujian, the Chenqiao site in Chaoan, Guangdong, the Zeng Piyan in Guilin, Guangxi, and the Neolithic site in Dali, Yunnan etc., there are remains of these domestic animals, and there are remains of domestic cats at the Hemudu site.

It is worth noting that the Xinkailiu Neolithic cultural site in Mishan County, Heilongjiang, the Hongshan cultural site in Liaoning, the Fuhe cultural site in Inner Mongolia, and many Neolithic cultural sites in the south have a large number of deer bone remains. There are still more dog bones, and deer may have begun domestication. Although the planting and breeding industries in the Neolithic Age have become the main source of food, fishing and hunting are still very important sidelines. Many sites have a wide variety of fish bones, animal bones and bird bones.Turtles, soft-shelled turtles, snails, and mussels from inland rivers, and oysters, clams, clams, and shellfish from the seaside also exist in various ruins.The Neolithic remains in the Luda area also include whale and shark bones and a stone net pendant weighing about 2 kilograms. It can be seen that about 5,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Liaodong Peninsula were able to fish in the deep sea.Crab remains were unearthed in the early Neolithic site of Xianrendong in Wannian, Jiangxi and the early Neolithic shell mound in Liyuzui, Dalongtan, Liuzhou, Guangxi. Our ancestors have eaten crabs for at least seven or eight thousand years.

Primitive fires used to be the source of human wisdom. From eating barbecued meat and popping nuts, people gradually learned to cook meat on red-hot stone slabs and cook soup with red-hot stones.At this time, there are more "fried" and "boiled" cooking techniques.From the customs and habits of some ethnic minorities today, we can still see the remnants of this primitive cooking: the Moinba people in the meander area of ​​the Yarlung Zangbo River in the southeast of Lhasa in my country are still used to baking buckwheat cakes or pan-fried buckwheat cakes on red-hot thin stone slabs. Meat.The Blang people in Xishuangbanna area work in the wild and don’t need to bring pots and stoves. They dig a hole on the beach, put several layers of banana leaves in the hole, and then pour clean water into the water, and put the fresh fish caught from the river into the water. Light a bonfire, put red-hot pebbles into this plantain pot, wait for the water to boil and add a little salt to make a pot of delicious fish soup with pebbles, and then eat it with clam shells.The Blang people use bamboo tubes to cook, which is also the earliest "pot": first cut off a section of bamboo, make a hole in the bamboo membrane at one end, put rice and water in, pound a handful of bamboo leaves to plug the hole, and throw it into the pot. On the fire, when the bamboo tube is burnt yellow and the steam from it dries up, take out the bamboo tube and cut it open, and you will get a tube of fragrant rice.However, this method of digging ridges to hold water and make a cooking pot often eats sand and soil into the stomach.The sills cannot be moved, and nomadic farming and nomadic life require a movable utensil for holding water and cooking things. This need in life finally pushed primitive people to invent pottery.In the beginning, they were also inspired by the fire. Primitives discovered that the clay burned by fire could turn into a hard piece of mud, which would not disperse again; This is the initial revelation of forming technology.So I tried to smear thick mud around the basket woven with thorns, and after air-drying, put it in the fire and burn it. Finally, the thorns turned into ashes, and a clay pot appeared in front of my eyes. From then on, a new era of human use of pottery began.

The early pottery unearthed in my country, represented by Cishan and Peiligang, has gone a long way. There are many types of pottery, including pottery bowls for washing, pottery pots for storing grain, pottery pots for storing water, and pottery for cooking. The pottery tripod, the pottery platter for serving vegetables, the pottery bowl for soup, the pottery bowl for rice, the pottery cup for drinking water, etc.The firing temperature of these pottery has reached 900°C (the firing temperature of general fine pottery and porcelain is 1300°C-1400°C).There are two types of these pottery: muddy pottery and sandy pottery. Clayy pottery is generally used for storage vessels; sandy pottery is intentionally mixed with an appropriate amount of sand grains in the clay, because many sand grains contain aluminum or quartz, so that The fired pottery has a loose structure and can adapt to rapid cooling and rapid heating, so cooking utensils are made of sandy pottery.The sand-filled pottery shows that primitive people's pottery making technology has reached a peak.There are also rough pottery sheep and pig heads at the Peiligang site, which are the earliest pottery sculptures known in my country.Although the pottery at these two sites is in the primitive hand-made stage, it is quite mature.The bowl-shaped tripod unearthed from these two ruins is a combination of a stove and a cooking pot, which can be moved to any place for cooking away from the fire pit, increasing the flexibility of cooking.This bowl-shaped tripod has a deep belly and a big mouth, and it is a hot pot. It can be seen that our ancestors have eaten hot pot for at least 8,000 years.In the early and middle Neolithic sites in the coastal areas of Liaoning and Shandong, many pottery hot pots with open and deep belly were unearthed, often accompanied by fish bones and shells.

In the late Neolithic Age, about 5,000 years ago, the Longshan Culture in the Yellow River Basin, the late Dawenkou, the late Yangshao, the Qujialing Culture, the Majiabang Culture, and the Liangzhu Culture in the Yangtze River Basin, the Shixia Culture in the Pearl River Basin, A large number of wheel-made pottery have been unearthed at the Hedang site in Foshan, Wujiacun and Guojiacun in the Liaohe River Basin, and a large number of wheel-made pottery. With Tao Jun, this is a qualitative leap in the ancient Chinese pottery industry, and the work efficiency has been greatly improved. Moreover, the thickness of the finished product is uniform, the shape is correct, and the types of pottery have also increased a lot.At this time, Tao 鬲 (li chestnut) and Tao 甗 (yan eye) appeared. Li is used to cook liquid food. It has three pocket-shaped feet, which can not only increase the capacity, but also maximize the contact area of ​​the fire. Using Li to cook things can save energy and cook quickly.Zong is composed of a combination of 鬲 and 甑, and the bottom of the 甑 is a porous 箄 [pai brand].When cooking rice, first put the rice in the steamer, cook until the rice grains swell, and then remove it into the steamer to steam. It is a dual-purpose steamer and cooker.The appearance of pottery jars shows that our ancestors knew how to use steam heat as early as 5,000 years ago.With 鬲 and 甗, the way humans cooked grains, in addition to putting them in charcoal fire to eat popcorn, added two more eating methods: porridge or steamed into dry rice.With Tao Ding, cooked meat has added "stew" and "shabu".More than 5,000 years ago, the Yellow River Basin, Yangtze River Basin, Liaohe River Basin, and Pearl River Basin in our country were all filled with smoke from cooking, and the fragrance of rice was overflowing.