197 1 year, the jade dragon of Hongshan culture, which was praised as the symbol of Hongshan Culture by archaeologists, was unearthed at the Hongshan Culture site in Chifeng city, which is also known as the "hometown of China jade dragon". Hongshan Yulong hook, long mouth closed, long kiss. Its nose protrudes forward, its upper edge is inclined, its end face is flattened, and it has two nostrils side by side. It has long hair on its neck and a pointed tail, which is rolled up. Its shape resembles the word "dragon" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Yulong is dark green, curly, flat like "C", oval in cross section and 2.3 ~ 2.9 cm in diameter. The dragon's head is short and small, the kiss is extended forward, slightly pouted, the mouth is closed, the nose is truncated, the end face is nearly oval, and there are two symmetrical round holes as nostrils. Longan is prismatic, with a round front end and a slender upturned tail. There is a long mane on the back of the neck, which is curved and rolled up, with a length of 2 1 cm, accounting for more than one third of the dragon body. The mane is flat and thin, the shallow groove is not obvious, and the edge is polished sharply. Most of the dragon's body has no lines, only the forehead and the bottom of the jaw are carved with fine grid-like patterns, and the grid-like protrusions are regular small diamonds. Jade Dragon is carved from a whole piece of jade, and the details are also carved in relief and bas-relief, which shows the development level of jade carving technology at that time. Hongshan Yulong is unique in shape, exquisite in craftsmanship, smooth and full of vitality. The mysterious implication of jade dragon load adds a layer of beauty to it. It is worth noting that the image of Yulong has a strong fantasy color and has shown many factors of mature dragon shape.
The specific use of Hongshan Yulong needs to be further explored, but there is a small hole in the middle of the dragon's back. After the test, if it is suspended by rope, the tail of keel is just on the same horizontal line. Obviously, the location of the hole is accurately calculated. Considering the huge volume and special shape of Yulong, it is not only an ordinary ornament, but also a ritual tool closely related to the primitive religious worship in China. Niuheliang Site is located in Niuheliang Village at the junction of Lingyuan and Jianping counties in Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, and it is a Hongshan Culture site at the end of primitive society. In the early 1980s, archaeologists in Liaohe River Basin discovered a goddess temple here, and a complete life-size clay statue of the goddess was unearthed in the temple.
The reporter saw a replica of the goddess' head in the exhibition room of the archaeological workstation of Niuheliang Site. Her face is scarlet, with two prominent cheekbones, a round forehead, a flat nose and a pointed chin. She is a typical Mongolian race, close to the face of modern North China people. The goddess' eyes are inlaid with two crystal green round jade balls, which make her eyes bright.
Zhu Da, the stationmaster of the archaeological workstation of Niuheliang Site, told the reporter that six clay sculptures of naked women of different sizes were unearthed at the same time as the head of the goddess. These colored sculptures unearthed from Niuheliang Goddess Temple have a high artistic generalization, which can be compared with Venus in the west. However, it is worth noting that there are limb bones in the cavity of the unearthed plastic parts of the goddess' upper arm, which are mostly burned to ashes. Experts speculate that it may be human bones.
In Central Asia, there used to be a form of worship in which people smeared mud on their skulls. The statue of Niu Heliang may have been shaped on the basis of real people. This is not just artistic modeling. The head of the goddess can be used as a typical specimen to study the ancient ethnology and national history of China. For the first time, hundreds of millions of people in China saw the image of ancestors 5,000 years ago created by real people in loess.
So, is the statue of Niu Heliang related to the legendary "Nu Wa"? In ancient books, the first contribution of Nu Wa is "being a man in loess". The plastic part of the goddess Niu Heliang has limbs and bones, which are strikingly similar to those recorded in ancient books.
According to this, some experts speculate that the Niuheliang Goddess Temple in the Liaohe River Basin may be a memory and worship of Nuwa in the primitive ancient country at that time, and the sacrificial methods of the supreme ruler in ancient legends-"Jiao", "Liao" and "Fire Emperor" may also be held here. One kilometer away from Niuheliang Goddess Temple, there is a small earth mountain. After preliminary excavation, it is confirmed that this earth mountain is all artificially rammed. The rammed earth pile on the ground is nearly 40m in diameter and16m in height, and it is covered with huge stones. The inner stone circle is 60m in diameter and the outer stone circle is about 100m in diameter. The rammed earth has distinct layers, and the estimated total earthwork volume is above several hundred thousand cubic meters.
The shape of Xiaotushan is conical, and the top is slightly higher. The top is surrounded by three circles of stones, each layer of stones reaches 10 m and the height is 1 m. There are three circles of stones around the foot of the mountain. More than 30 rockfill mounds have been found on the hills around Xiaotushan. The whole rockfill mounds are conical, with a large top and the same layout as the pyramids in ancient Egypt. Therefore, archaeologists call it the "pyramid" of China.
Accompanied by Zhu Da, the reporter climbed to the top of the pyramid. Looking around from here, the ruins of the goddess temple and the "pyramid" are on a north-south line, while the stone pier ruins on the east and west sides are arranged on a line with the "pyramid" at equal distance. This layout makes people clearly feel the center of the "pyramid".
According to Zhu Da, when this "pyramid" was discovered, painted pottery pieces with the word "Zhi" and copper crucible pieces with Hongshan Culture characteristics were scattered everywhere on the mountain. At the top of the pyramid is a copper smelting site with 65,438+0,500 crucibles for smelting red copper. The height of each crucible is about 1 ft, and the spout is about 30 cm, which is as big as the bucket used by modern people. Now, in order to protect this copper smelting site, Zhu Da and others have sealed all these copper smelting crucibles with earth.
So, what is this "pyramid" building for? Scholars have different opinions, some think it may be an altar used by ancient primitive civilization in western Liaoning to worship heaven; Others think that this is the king's tomb; Some people speculate that it has something to do with the legendary Nu Wa.
The site of smelting red copper at the top of Niuheliang Great Pyramid is very consistent with the plot of Nu Wa smelting five-color stone in the myth and legend of the goddess mending heaven. Archaeologists also partially excavated the small golden pagoda around the Great Pyramid, in which a large number of jade articles were unearthed.
A complete male skeleton was unearthed in the central tomb of a stone tomb, with two large jade rings on both sides of the head, a double-dragon crossed hook-shaped handkerchief on the chest, a jade ring on the top of the head and a bracelet on the wrist. It is particularly interesting that the deceased held a jade turtle in each hand, a female and a male, which brought out the best in each other.
Mr. Su, a famous archaeologist in China, believes that the jade turtle may be the totem worship or protector of clans and tribal groups at that time. Of course, the most important person died, and probably the totem god in his hand, the symbol of this clan, returned to his ancestors.
According to experts' research, turtle worship is still very popular in rural areas of Liaoning and Jilin provinces. When young men and women get married, a large group of fancy paper-cuts with four turtles intersecting should be posted on the roof.
In another stone pile, archaeologists found a tomb with more than 20 jade articles. The deceased was still wearing a turquoise jade turtle on his chest.
Strangely, the jade turtles unearthed in these two stone tombs are headless, tailless and footless, and they are integrated. What exactly does this mean? Reminiscent of the myth and legend that "a broken turtle is enough to set up four poles" in "Goddess Mending Heaven" recorded in ancient books, doesn't this jade turtle with no head, no tail and no feet conform to the myth and legend?