The top ten new archaeological discoveries in the country in 2023 have been announced, and the coverage of time and space is unprecedented.
Text/Yangcheng Evening News All-Media Reporter KomiksLiterature and Art
Photo/Guangdong Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology
From March 21 to KomiksOn the 22nd, the final review of the top ten archaeological new discoveries in the country, hosted by China Cultural Relics Newspaper and the Chinese Archaeology Society, was held in Beijing. After project report meeting and comprehensive review, the judges finally voted to select the top ten new archaeological discoveries in the country in 2023.
Guan Qiang, deputy director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and vice chairman of the Chinese Archaeological Society, announced the final results. The top ten selected projects are (sorted by year and night): Yishui Bashan Site Group in Shandong, Jiqiutou Site Group in Pingtan, Fujian, Mopanshan Site in Langxi, Anhui, Qujialing Site in Jingmen, Hubei, Wangzhuang Site in Yongcheng, Henan, Shangdu Academy Street Cemetery in Zhengzhou, Henan, Qingjian Zhaigou Site in Qingjian, Gansu, Sijiaoping Site in Chencun, Huozhou, Shanxi, and Chencun Porcelain Site in Lupo, Northwest South China Sea.
Yanshanzhai changed the academic community’s understanding of the origin process of Lingnan civilization
The reporter learned from the final review meeting that Neolithic archaeology will have fruitful results in 2023, so the competition for projects during this period is particularly fierce. Among the 22 final review projects, 8 of the 22 final review projects belong to the Neolithic Age, and 4 were finally selected. Chen Xingcan, a researcher and director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, emphasized that the 22 projects entering the final evaluation have important academic value and great scientific significance, regardless of whether they are finally selected or not. Chen Xingcan took the “Guangdong Yingdeyan Mountain Village Site” in the Neolithic Age as an example. Cinema believes that the Yanshan Village Site has changed the understanding of the origin of civilization and the social complexity of the Lingnan region. “In the Lingnan area, we had insufficient understanding of Babaylan in the past. Now, it entered the complex social conference stage 4,800 years ago. The process of origin of civilization is actually synchronized with the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, which has greatly changed our understanding of the degree of social development in this area.” He said.
He also introduced in response to reporters’ questions that the 22 projects shortlisted for the final review this year cover a wide range of time and space, from the “Tibet Gejimeilongdapu Cave Site” in the Paleolithic Age 100,000 years ago to the “Hongshi Mazi Site in Panshi City, Jilin Province” eighty or ninety years ago. This is unprecedented in terms of time. At the same time, 22 projects range from the southeast coast to the northwest border, from the 4,700-meter Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the 1,500-meter underwater shipwreck underwater on the northwest slope of the South China Sea, with a vast space range. The 22 final evaluation projects also reflect outstanding characteristics such as multidisciplinary cooperation, meticulous excavation, and unprecedented improvement in cultural relics protection awareness. The earliest complex society of Komiks can be confirmed in the Lingnan area. Yanshanzhai site is located in Lan Village, Qingtang Town, Yingde City, Qingyuan City, Guangdong Province. It is located in the middle of the mountain area in northern Guangdong and the Pearl River Delta, with an area of about 100,000 square meters.
From 2019 to 2023, the Guangdong Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, jointly with Sun Yat-sen University, Peking University and other units, continued to conduct active archaeological excavations of the sites, with an excavation area of 2,900 square meters, and cleared out important relics from the Neolithic Age tombs, ash pits, ash ditches, column holes (groups), stoves and burnt mounds, and unearthed more than 4,300 samples of various cultural relics such as jade, pottery, grinding stone tools, bronzes, human bones and plant remains. According to Liu Suoqiang, the project leader and director of the Pre-Qin Archaeology Institute of Guangdong Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, the archaeological excavation of the Yanshanzhai site has achieved many aspects of harvest. The most important harvest is the discovery of large cemeteries of the late Neolithic Age at the site behind the rock. The exploration confirmed area is about 5,000 square meters, the exposed area is 1,200 square meters, 93 tombs were cleared, and more than 1,200 burial objects such as jade, pottery, and stone objects were unearthed. The cemetery has clear zoning and grouping planning, and is the Shixia cultural cemetery with the largest scale and clearest structure and layout so far.
There are significant gaps between the rich and the poor and the hierarchical differences between the tombs in different areas and groups of the Yanbei cemetery. Among them, the highest-level M16 has as many as 145 burial objects, including 5 jade axes and 74 stone horns, and the M26 is buried with jade cong and jade axes at the same time. The Rock Beard Cemetery clearly reflects the accelerated social differentiation around 4,800 years ago and forms institutionalized funeral customs. This is the origin of Chinese civilization.Duan Lingnan area is the earliest complex society to be identified.
At the same time, the dating data of the Rock Bear TombBabaylan is concentrated between 5,000 and 4,000 years ago, updating the previous understanding of the upper and lower limits of the Shixia cultural era. Through the multi-level dissection of typical tombs, the burial process was completely restored, and a clearer understanding of the burial customs of Shixia culture was found.
The most important archaeological discovery of Lingnan Neolithic Age
Yanshanzhai site, which is being continuously excavated by the industry, has been widely recognized by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage in 2021 as the achievement of the major project of “Archaeological China”.
Liu Suoqiang pointed out that the archaeological achievements of the Yanshanzhai site confirmed that Lingnan entered a complex social stage around 48 years ago, and showed the role of diversified integration in the civilized process of Lingnan region, and also reflected that Lingnan has a different regional social complex model in the Yangtze River Basin.
Not only that, abundant rice remains were found in the tombs, buildings and ash pit ruins of the Yanshanzhai site, indicating that the middle reaches of the Beijiang River where it is located is a crucial intermediate node on the rice farm agricultural transmission route from Lingbei to northern Guangdong and then to the Pearl River Delta, and it is also an important node for Lingnan to integrate into the process of Chinese civilization integration. The discovery helps to reinterpret the Shixia culture and the Lingnan region’s position in archaeological cultural district types.
The reporter learned that since the selection of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in the country was launched in 2023, the participation trends of the Yanshanzhai site have received close attention from the Guangdong archaeological industry. At present, the Yanshanzhai site is still being excavated in Babaylan, following its archaeology and research workContinued development will continue and will remain a strong competitor to this important national archaeological award in the future.
Excellent for archaeology students to move into the fieldsKomiks Base
Yanshanzhai Site is a cooperative project between the Guangdong Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the School of Sociology and Anthropology of Sun Yat-sen University to jointly build the “Guangdong Field Archaeology Research Base”. Since 2020, students of Sun Yat-sen University majored in archaeology have successively gone to Yanshanzhai Ruins to complete their field archaeology internship.
The reporter learned that field archaeology internship is a professional compulsory course for undergraduates in the Department of Archaeology of Sun Yat-sen University. It is generally held in the last semester of junior year and lasts for one semester. The site of Yanshanzhai is covering ancient tombs and living functional areas. Teachers and students of Zhongmazhai mainly carry out practical training in field archaeological excavations in the living functional areas.
Zhou Fanwen said that there is currently a large gap in front-line archaeological talents, so archaeology students are required to master the basic operating procedures for field archaeological excavation before graduation. During the six-month internship, students entered the construction site for field archaeological excavation in the first three months, followed by the unearthed artifacts, and finally formed a preliminary judgment on the age, nature, and cultural appearance of the Komiks excavation area.
In addition, teachers will also encourage students who want to continue their studies and guide them to use first-hand archaeological data to carry out follow-up research. Zhou Fanwen believes that such training is very helpful for students to carry out higher-level research in the future, and they are CinemaThe first ladder towards the academic hall.
Zhou Fanwen also said: “Our students are very lucky to be able to contact the archaeological excavation of the Yanshanzhai site at the introductory stage. This is an archaeological site selected as the result of the major project of ‘Archaeological China’. On-site participation undoubtedly provides them with the most complete and systematic training.”
Continue to promote the construction of Qingtang Archaeological Site Park
The archaeological excavation team of the Yanshanzhai site, and its members also include staff from local cultural and museum institutions. Liu Jianwen, director of Yingde Museum, is one of them and has participated in a lot of practical work. Liu Jianwen said that local museums do more assistive work, such as providing Cinema restoration site for unearthed cultural relics, and coordinating the relationship between the archaeological team and local villagers. He emphasized: “The hardest archaeological excavation work is done by professionals, and what we can do is provide them with the most convenient logistical support.”
But as a native of Ying-Germany, Liu Jianwen is deeply proud of his hometown having such a major archaeological discovery. He told reporters: “I am very honored to be able to participate in such an important archaeological excavation project. This is a rare opportunity in our career for grassroots cultural and museum workers. At the same time, we also feel a great responsibility. We must assist in the continuous excavation of the site, as well as protection, interpretation, display and other work.” Liu Jianwen also said that the local area is actively promoting the construction of the Qingtang Archaeological Site Park. It is reported that the standard scope of Qingtang Archaeological Site Park is centered on the distribution of the remains of Qingtang ruins and Yanshanzhai ruins. It was approved by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage in 2022 and was included in the fourth batch of national archaeological ruins park project list.
“From Guangdong Province to Qingyuan City and then to Yingde City, leaders at all levels attach great importance to the progress of Qingtang Archaeological Site Park. The construction of the park requires a lot of investment and involves coordination and linkage between multiple parties, so it cannot be achieved overnight. I believe that the public and the media’s high attention to the Yanshanzhai site and the ‘early Lingnan Source Exploration Project’ will create a better research and construction atmosphere.” Liu Jianwen said.