June 11 is the cultural and natural heritage day, which coincides with the full year of the launch of a new round of Archaeology at nanzuo site. The reporter learned from the nanzuo site joint archaeological team that, following the previous discovery of large-scale palace buildings and concentrated unearthed cultural relics, the archaeological team recently launched the excavation of the southern area of the "palace area", and some new suspected tread or road relics were found.
This is the "palace area" of the nanzuo site in Qingyang, Gansu Province.
"The new discovery will help to further reveal the layout and structure of large palace buildings in the core area of nanzuo site." Nanzuo site joint archaeological team excavation team member zhangxiaoning said.
Nanzuo site, located in Xifeng District, Qingyang City, Gansu Province, was discovered in the late 1950s. It is a high-grade large-scale settlement site from the late Yangshao period to Miaodigou phase II about 5000 years ago. With the approval of the State Administration of cultural relics, a new round of archaeological work was launched at the site in June 2021.
Six previous archaeological excavations at nanzuo site showed that there was a group of people who lived about 5000 years ago on Dongzhi plateau in Qingyang City, Gansu Province. They mastered exquisite pottery making and architectural art and ate millet and rice.
"The new round of archaeological work shows that the nanzuo site is unprecedented in terms of its high level, large scale and strict layout. It is very likely to be a large-scale central settlement with the nature of a capital." Hanjianye, the leader of the joint archaeological team of nanzuo site and professor of the Department of ancient culture and Museum of the school of history of Renmin University of China, said.
According to Han Jianye, in the core area of the site, the archaeological team found a large rammed earth building area and a large palace style building F1 with distinct primary and secondary. F1 is surrounded by nine contemporary large rammed earth platforms and their surrounding double ring trenches. After preliminary investigation and exploration, the inner area of the "outer ring trench" of the site is about 6million square meters, which is one of the largest settlement sites about 5000 years ago. The building area of F1 is more than 800 square meters, of which the indoor part is 630 square meters, which is also the largest in the same period.
"The area of nanzuo site is twice that of Erlitou site. The core area is as large as Mojiao mountain and Taicheng, the central area of Liangzhu ancient city site, another evidence of 5000 years of Chinese civilization." Said Zhang Chi, a professor at the school of archaeology, culture and Museum of Peking University.
This is a bone arrowhead painted with vermilion unearthed from the nanzuo site in Qingyang, Gansu Province.
In the new round of archaeology, the site also unearthed a large number of pottery with unique shape and exquisite workmanship, many of which were first or rare in the Jing Wei River Basin of the Loess Plateau. For example, the large-scale painted pottery pot unearthed and restored, with a maximum abdominal diameter of 78 cm and a height of 68 cm, is the largest painted pottery pot unearthed in the region at the same time; The thinnest part of the white pottery tyre with a covered ring foot is only oneortwo millimeters, which is also the first discovery; At the same time, stone arrowheads and bone arrowheads painted with cinnabar were also unearthed, which are similar to the "Tong arrow" bestowed by the emperor of Zhou Dynasty on the princes.
"Nanzuo site has a unique value and reflects a strong social public power, which shows that Longdong region has entered the early stage of national or civilized society at that time, and is of great value to the demonstration of China's 5000 year civilization." Hanjianye said.
The new round of archaeological excavation is planned to be carried out in five years. This round of archaeological work not only uses aerial photography, simulated three-dimensional images and other digital methods to restore the site, but also its archaeological research vision will go deep into the study of all aspects of the society at that time.