To put it simply, culture is civilization.
Neolithic culture in the lower reaches of the Yellow River in China. It was named after it was discovered at the Dawenkou site in Tai'an, Shandong. Mainly distributed in Shandong Province and Huaibei region of Jiangsu Province. Including Beixin Culture and Longshan Culture. The main distribution areas are the vast areas in the lower reaches of Wenhe, Sihe, Yihe, Zihe and Huaihe rivers in Shandong, northern Jiangsu, northern Anhui and eastern Henan. It is a representative culture of the middle Neolithic Age in this area. Typical sites that have been excavated include Dawenkou in Tai'an, Gangshang in Tengzhou, Xixiahou in Qufu, Yedian in Zoucheng, Wangyin in Yanzhou, Liulin in Pi County, Dadunzi, Chengzi in Zhucheng, Donghai Valley in Rizhao, and Sanlihe in Jiaozhou.
The Dawenkou Culture dates from about 4040 BC to 2240 BC and lasts for about 2000 years. According to the stratigraphic stacking relationship and relic characteristics, it can be divided into early, middle and late phases. There are muddy and sand-added pottery. In the early period, red pottery was dominant. In the later period, the proportion of gray and black pottery increased, and white pottery and eggshell pottery appeared. Mainly handmade, later developed into wheel-made pottery, with a firing temperature of 900-1000°C. The types of utensils include tripod, kettle, bean, bean, zun, single-eared cup, goblet-shaped cup, high-collared jar, kettle with back, etc. Many pottery has a smooth surface and is decorated with scratches, string patterns, basket patterns, circles, triangular prints, holes, etc. Painted pottery is rare but full of characteristics. The colors are red, black and white, and the patterns include circles, geometry, flowers and leaves, etc.
The Dawenkou Culture was first discovered in 1959. After excavation, it was determined to be the remains of the late Neolithic Age. The archaeological community is about to name the Dawenkou site and similar cultural relics as the Dawenkou Culture. Later, in 1974, 1977, and 1978, several more excavations were conducted. The site is rich in connotations, including tombs, house sites, cellars, etc. The unearthed daily utensils mainly include tripods, beans, pots, pots, bowls, plates, cups and other utensils, which are divided into painted pottery, red pottery, white pottery, gray pottery and black pottery. Especially the painted pottery vessels have fine and well-proportioned patterns and regular geometric patterns. The production tools include finely ground stone axes, stone adzes, stone chisels and ground bone tools, and the finely ground bone needles are almost comparable to today's needles. The tombs are mainly buried with people lying on their backs and stretched out. It is a common custom to bury tusks along with them. Some also bury pig heads and bones to symbolize wealth.
The discovery of the Dawenkou Culture found the origin of the Longshan Culture in Shandong, and also provided important clues for the study of the original culture in the Huanghuai River Basin and the coastal areas of Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Beixin Culture Beixin Culture Site
Beixin Culture was recognized as a new culture and began with the excavation of the Beixin Site in Teng County, Shandong from 1978 to 1979. It is an early cultural site of primitive society in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. According to the carbon-14 excavation of the Beixin site, it was dated to 7300-6300 years ago. Its discovery and establishment not only solved the origin problem of Dawenkou culture, but also provided a Issues in agriculture, handicrafts, fishing and hunting production in the early primitive society of my country provide important basis and clues. The agricultural characteristics reflected in the Beixin culture include, first, the discovery of carbonized millet particles, and second, the unearthing of a large number of ground production tools. At the bottom of some cellars, grains of millet crops were found. These carbonized grains of millet are one of the earliest crops discovered in northern my country. This shows that agricultural production is the main source of their livelihood and also an important part of their settled life. An important guarantee for survival. Millet is a drought-tolerant crop. From the geographical environment, soil quality and climate, the area where the Beixin culture is located is very conducive to ancient human settlement and ancient agricultural production. Because the precipitation in this area is concentrated in summer and is less than the average annual precipitation in the south, residents of the Beixin culture naturally chose millet, which is drought-resistant and early-maturing, as their main crop. Its discovery not only confirms that our country has developed primitive agriculture, but also confirms that our country is one of the earliest countries with developed agriculture in the world. Agricultural production tools found include axes, shovels, and knives made of stone; hoes made of antler, etc. Most of the axes are made, and the main plane is trapezoidal or rectangular. They are tools for reclaiming wasteland and felling trees.
Shovels are flat and thin in shape. Some are rectangular, trapezoidal and tongue-shaped in plan, some are square in shape, and some are horizontally rectangular. Some have traces of use on their blades and are polished throughout. They are used for plowing soil and sowing seeds. tools. Stone knives can be divided into two types: beaten and ground. Most of the stone knives are made by processing stone flakes and are slightly rectangular. The ground knives are slightly rectangular or half-moon shaped and may be used as a harvesting tool. The antler hoe mainly uses the bifurcation of the antler to grind one side of the short branch into a bevel blade, and the side of the long branch as the handle. In addition, some cut off a section of the antlers and trimmed the upper part to fit the handle. This kind of antler hoe may be used for digging trenches for planting or digging holes for planting, and it can also be used for cultivating and loosening the soil. The stone grinding disc, stone grinding rod and stone grinding cake are matching utensils and are a set of grain processing tools. The shape of the grinding discs ranges from square to similar to the shape of a shoe sole with a short foot underneath. They are made by grinding. Some discs have arc-shaped concave surfaces due to long-term use. These tools were indispensable in the primitive production process, which laid a good foundation for the rapid development of primitive agriculture.
The pottery of the Beixin Culture is mainly yellow-brown pottery with sand and clay red pottery, with a small amount of black pottery. Sand-filled pottery has a lower fire temperature and a thicker pottery body; clay pottery has a higher fire temperature and has a fine texture. All pottery is handmade and is still in its primitive stage. The types of unearthed vessels are monotonous and simple in shape, mainly tripods, cauldrons, jars, bowls, pots, etc. These pottery vessels were the daily utensils of people at that time. Handicraft industries such as weaving, sewing and bone making have also begun to develop. Regular mat patterns are clearly printed on the bottoms of the two unearthed residual pottery vessels. The emergence of finely ground bone needles and pottery spinning wheels made it possible to use wild fibers and animal plush to weave and sew clothing. Therefore, it can be said that the people of Beixin at that time had entered the stage of clothing from the era of wearing animal skins and waistband leaves. In addition to working in agricultural production, hunting, fishing and gathering are still indispensable means of survival for people in the Beixin culture. Bone arrowheads, antler spear-shaped tools, projectiles, bone fish darts, pottery net pendants, bone shuttles, as well as a considerable number of animal bones, fish bones and shells were unearthed from the site. After identification, they included pigs, cattle, sika deer, deer, Sibuxiang, raccoon dog, badger, chicken, turtle, herring, clam, Chinese snail and other species. Except for pigs, which have been domesticated, these animals are all wild animals, which reflects this fact. To sum up, in the era more than 7,000 years ago, the natural climate and geographical environment were very different from now. Our ancestors were under such conditions. It is a great thing to use crude production tools to develop production and live a relatively stable settled life on this ancient land. After the discovery of the Beixin site, it attracted the attention of all parties and was announced as a key cultural relic protection unit by the Shandong Provincial People's Government in 1991.
The Beixin Cultural Site is located in the north of Zaozhuang City. It is an early Neolithic village site more than 7,000 years ago.
The Beixin Cultural Site is located in Beixin Village on the old road of Xue River in Guanqiao Town. The terrain is flat and the soil is fertile. It was an ideal area for ancient ancestors to engage in production activities.
In 1964, the Institute of Archeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences formed a cultural relics census team to visit Teng County and discovered the Beixin site. In the autumn of 1978 and the spring of 1979, two excavations were conducted on the Beixin site, which lasted 85 days. The excavation area was 2,583 square meters, and very fruitful results were obtained. The carbonaceous specimens obtained during the excavation were determined by isotope C14 and were dated to 7,300 years ago, which was the development stage of the matrilineal clan society in ancient Chinese society that tended to flourish.
The economy of the Beixin period was dominated by agriculture, and a complete set of farming tools and millet grains were unearthed from the site. From stone shovels, antler hoes, and pointed horn tools for sowing, to clam sickles for harvesting, stone grinding discs, and stone grinding rods for threshing, they all played an important role in studying the agricultural production conditions at that time. At the same time, judging from the unearthed pottery, its craftsmanship is relatively primitive. There are two types of pottery: sand pottery and clay pottery. The decorations include additional pile patterns, scratches, nail prints, etc. The handicraft industry also sprouted in the Beixin period. . Domestic pig-shaped skulls were also discovered at the site, refreshing the history of pig farming in my country. Because of the unique cultural features of Beixin cultural relics, it was named "Beixin Culture". It was announced to the world in 1982 and included in history textbooks.
The excavation of the Beixin ruins and the naming of the "Beixin Culture" are an important discovery in the Neolithic Age in the Haidai Cultural Zone and the source of the development of the Dawenkou Culture in Shandong. She will be the beginning of Shandong. Prehistoric archeology has taken a big step forward and is of great historical significance.
Houli Culture
[Edit this paragraph] Introduction
The Houli Culture is named after the first excavation of the Houli Culture site in Linzi District, Zibo City, Shandong Province. The distribution range of this culture is mainly in the piedmont zone on the north side of the Taiyi Mountains. The sites that have been formally excavated mainly include Linzi Houli, Weifang Qianbuxia, Zhangdian Pengjiazhuang, Zhangqiu Xiaojingshan, Xihe, Zouping Sunjia, Southwest Village, Changqing Yuezhuang, etc. According to carbon 14 determination, its age is approximately between 8500 and 7500 years ago, which lasted for more than a thousand years.
The main ruins include house sites, trenches, ash pits and tombs. The houses are all semi-crypt type. The plan is square or rectangular with rounded corners, and the area is generally 30-50 square meters, and the larger one is more than 50 square meters. Some of the residential areas were barbecued, and stove sites and some pottery, stoneware and other daily utensils were found. Tombs are generally in rectangular earth pits with vertical holes, which are relatively neatly arranged. In some tombs, no burial tools are found. Most of the deceased's heads were facing east, and some were facing north. Most of the burials involve a single person lying on his back with his limbs straight. Most of them have no funerary objects, but a few have clam shells on them, and a few have pottery legs. The tomb chamber is generally about 2 meters long and 0.6-0.8 meters wide. The pottery is mainly reddish-brown pottery, followed by red, gray-brown, black-brown and green-gray-brown pottery. The craftsmanship is clay strip construction, the surface of the vessel is mostly plain, and the shape of the vessel is mainly round-bottomed, with only a small number of flat-bottomed and ring-footed vessels found. The main types of utensils include cauldrons, pots, pots, bowls, basins, bowls, bowls, shaped utensils, cups, plates, lids and feet.
Yueshi Culture is a key cultural relic protection unit in Shandong Province. It is located in the southeast of Dongyue Stone Village, Dazeshan Town, Pingdu City. Discovered in 1959. The site is about 70 meters long from north to south and 200 meters wide from east to west. A large number of stone tools, pottery, bone tools and clam tools were unearthed. Because the relics unearthed from the Dongyue Stone Site have unique shapes and styles, they are called "Yue Stone Culture" by the archaeological community, and further confirmed that it is an ancient culture created by the Dongyi people. It provides a basis for studying the whereabouts of the Longshan Culture. and Xia and Shang histories provide important information. Located near Yueshi Village in the east of Daze Mountain, the site was discovered on the shore during the construction of the Ziyang Reservoir in 1959. Archaeologists have unearthed a large number of stone tools, pottery, bone tools and clam tools here, which have been proven to be an ancient culture created by the Dongyi people.