I Amazing Achievements
1. The World's Largest and Most Advanced Urban Flood Control System of the Same Period
In the northwestern part of the ancient city of Liangzhu, the ancestors constructed a large dike 6.5 kilometers in length to guard against flooding from the remnants of the Tianmu Mountains. The Yuhang area of Zhejiang Province is the largest rainstorm center area in the entire Zhejiang Province, often occurring once-in-a-century mega-floods. The Liangzhu people built this dike to protect the ancient city of Liangzhu, the national capital. Locals call it "Tangshan Tuguan", which is at least 4 meters high and 30 meters wide on average, in addition to its length of 6.5 kilometers, and on its periphery it forms a reservoir for storing floodwaters, which is still capable of carrying boats.
Seven kilometers to the west from Tongsan Tugaki, there are two other dykes - Pangong Dike and Chilwushan Dike, one 5 kilometers long and the other 6 kilometers long, one section of which, at the mountain defile, has a dike up to 20 meters high, made of layers of different soils rammed together, and is exceptionally sturdy. This two-fold flood control system ensures that Liangzhu ancient city has not been destroyed by floods between the millennia. In the south of Liangzhu Ancient City, aerial photography shows that there are also long stretches of earth wall, is likely to be part of the flood control project. And compared to the same period of India's ancient city - known as "ancient Manhattan" Mohengzuo - Darrow has been destroyed by floods seven times, and finally had to be abandoned. We should admire the Liangzhu people's strong ability to prevent floods.
2. The world's largest city in 2500 BC and civil engineering
5000 years ago, the area around the ancient city of Liangzhu was still a swampy area with few people. However, starting 4,900 years ago, a group of people suddenly arrived, filled in and swamped the area, and built a large-scale metropolis. In terms of archaeological dating, it is likely that these people came from the southern foothills of Tianmu Mountain, and that they gathered in the area of Yaoshan before the ancient city was established, building the massive Yaoshan Altar.
It is likely that they began building the Liangzhu ancient city immediately after leaving Tianmu Mountain. The first to be completed is a huge building site "ancient top", in archaeology, it is also known as "Mojiao Mountain" - this huge building foundation 8-10 meters high, east-west length of about 670 meters high, east-west length, north-south width of 450 meters, an area of more than 300,000 square meters, was the world's largest civil engineering. After that, Liangzhu people built secondary platforms with an area of hundreds of thousands of square meters around Mogok Mountain. After that, the Anti-san and the Imperial Tomb Hill may have been built in turn. Since the archaeological excavations have not yet given full revelation, we cannot now guess how much earthwork was consumed by these huge projects.
From about 2500 BC to 2300 BC, Liangzhu Ancient City "wall" construction is completed, the ancient city is slightly rounded rectangular, north-south direction, east-west length of 1500-1700 meters, north-south length of 1800-1900 meters, the enclosure of the area of more than 2.9 million square meters. The bottom of the wall paved stone as the foundation, width 40-60 meters, the foundation above the more pure loess pile, part of the lot above the surface remains more than 4 meters high walls. *** Six water gates were found. The amount of earthwork of the entire city wall when no less than the Egyptian pyramids. From the Yangtze River Basin in other areas of the ancient city form, they all have *** the same thing - the city wall wall surface is gentle, straight inside and outside the slope - extremely focus on flood control function. Therefore, the "wall" should be water wall, mainly used as flood control.
During the same period, on the periphery of the city wall, a larger scale of civil engineering rose, such as Meirendi, Bianjiashan and other long earth wall in three layers, three layers of the Liangzhu Ancient City surrounded, constituting its "outer city", after archaeological excavations, these earth wall is actually the time of the ceramic craftsmen and lacquer craftsmen work and live in the community - of course, may also have made communities - and, of course, probably made silk. These communities were connected by a large network of man-made canals, each with its own dock. Through these waterways, the products of the ancient city were transported throughout the Suzhou and Zhejiang regions, forming a large-scale trade network centered on Liangzhu.
The overall size of Liangzhu Ancient City and its outer city reached 30 square kilometers, which was the largest metropolis in the world at that time.
3. Lacquer, silk, jade, jewelry, unparalleled black pottery, and the germ of writing
Liangzhu culture in the jade is famous all over the world, especially the cong, bik, battle-axe and other heavy, its carving and modeling has reached the degree of excellence, the site is full of related information, I do not say more here. Liangzhu period of lacquer ware is also exceptionally developed, not only can produce colorful lacquer ware, but also able to produce complex jade lacquer ware. Liangzhu period, social affluence, cultural prosperity, lacquerware from the valuable into the homes of ordinary people. At that time, Liangzhu people's tombs, coffins are painted with lacquer. Even in the wooden parts of the plow agricultural tools and arrow tufts on the wooden rod also have lacquer, visible lacquer at that time is not only not a luxury, but also quite common daily use of materials.
The world's earliest domestic silk fabrics were found at the Qanshanyang site in the northern part of the ancient city of Liangzhu. Silk density and modern fine linen comparable, reflecting the high level of textile technology. Liangzhu people's pottery craft is unparalleled in the world, not only the graceful and elegant modeling, weather extraordinary, and the complexity of the process, amazing. Bianjiashan once unearthed a piece of pottery, less than 20 square centimeters of pottery carved with 23 exquisite bird-shaped pattern. And in the Chuo Dun site unearthed a black ceramic wide handle cup, chic shape, carved all over the body of the elaborate sacred patterns, even contemporary artists are also breathtaking.
Liangzhu people also like agate, ivory and other precious artifacts, and made crafts. Among them, there was an ivory scepter unearthed in Fuquanshan, the carving process is complex, fully comparable to the Liangzhu jade cong on the gods and men animal face pattern. The Liangzhu people were also quite powerful in navigation, they were able to penetrate far into the sea and catch sharks and other deep-sea fish. And at that time, collecting shark teeth was a kind of luxury fashion of Liangzhu nobles.
Liangzhu people culture period of ceramic text than the same period anywhere in China are much more complex, some pottery on the mnemonic symbols can be connected into a sentence. Harvard University Museums in the United States has a Liangzhu pottery neck ring, which is engraved with 9-12 words in rows of neatly engraved symbols, and its style is more beautiful than the oracle bone inscriptions. It can be said that the Liangzhu period there is the germ of Chinese writing - of course, more similar archaeological discoveries are needed to confirm it.
It is worth mentioning that the Liangzhu people were the first in ancient China to adopt plowing technology, as well as large-scale irrigation systems (see the Liangzhu rice paddy site in Maoshan), which led to a qualitative improvement in food production. This has become a fundamental factor in supporting the prosperity of Liangzhu society.
Second, the rise and fall of Liangzhu culture
In 3500 BC, the young Huaxia people suddenly rose in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. They initially originated in 6000 BC in the area of Shaanxi and Gansu, and then expanded greatly to the hinterland of the Central Plains, forming the world-famous Yangshao culture.
It must be said that this was a remarkable people - they defeated the Hougang culture of the Eastern Barbarians, and penetrated deep into Shaanxi, Gansu, eastern Henan, Hebei, western Liaoning, and the Yangtze River basin, forming the most powerful clan in the ancient times. However, in their heyday, they were confronted by a mysterious people. This mysterious people came from the far, wet south, and they fought their way up to the south bank of the Yellow River, and then suddenly disappeared from the hinterland of the Central Plains.
This people came from the Taihu Lake area in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and were later called the "Songze people" by archaeologists, the ancestors of the Liangzhu culture.
Why did they attack the Middle Kingdom, thousands of miles away? Why did they fight with the mighty Huaxia? The reason may never be explored. But one thing is certain - the wealth of the north was luring them into military adventures. As early as 3800 B.C., the society of the Songze people was severely polarized - excavations at the Dongshan Village site show that in the early days of the Songze culture, two major groups, the nobles and the commoners, were already formed. The aristocrats began to decorate their lives with jade artifacts and to take them for burial after their deaths.
However, the best jade production base within China at that time was in Lingjiatan along the Huaihe River. The society of the people of Lingjiadan also greatly revered jade, and their jade-making technology was well-developed, and their firing and construction techniques were also second to none at the time. The Songze people obviously coveted their wealth exceptionally. In 3600 BC, the Songze people seized control of the Lingjiatan area by force, and then occupied the entire Huaihe River valley - making conflict between them and the Central Plains inevitable.
After defeating the Hougang people, the Zhongyuan people suppressed the Dawenkou people, who were also a part of the Eastern Barbarians, in a corner of Shandong, and had a tendency to unify the Yellow River. However, after the impact of the Songze culture, the expansion of the Huaxia people began to turn to decline. At that time, the Songze people may have been an allied force of the Eastern Barbarians - but in any case, this alliance soon ceased to exist. In 3300 BC, the Taihu Lake area changed dramatically, Liangzhu culture replaced the Songze culture - it is not known how this dramatic change occurred. But we can at least see that the Liangzhu people soon turned against the Dongyi tribe, and they attacked the northern part of the Suzhou region, driving the Dongyi tribe out of the center of the northern part of Suzhou, where they had lived for generations. At the Hall of Flowers site, archaeologists have discovered the burials of Liangzhu nobles as well as the burials of Dawenkou commoners *** at the same site, and the earliest human sacrifice pits in China. And archaeological investigations have shown that the number of settlements throughout the northern Suzhou region has declined dramatically - the Dongyi people were not only defeated by the invading Liangzhu people, but also moved far away with their clans.
Now, the Huaxia people have instead become allies of the distant peoples, **** with the clamping down on the Dongyi people. However, the expansion of the Dongyi people in the west was a decisive victory, and they successfully captured Yuandong and Yuzhong. The Yangshao culture was torn apart and the Huaxia group had to retreat to Guanzhong.
While the sun rises in the east and rains in the west, a peaceful period of development began for the Liangzhu people. The ancient city of Liangzhu began to be established and gained dominance over the entire Taihu Lake neighborhood. According to the form of jade and the analysis of the production characteristics, scholars can be roughly sure that the entire Taihu Lake area are distributed by Liangzhu Ancient City - this is likely to reflect a political relationship with the characteristics of the clan branch. The Liangzhu city was likely to have commanded an ancient state with a vast territory.
With the urbanization of Liangzhu City, several different "cities" appeared in the Taihu Lake area - Fuquanshan site and Sidun site. The Fuquanshan site covers an area of 1 square kilometer, with a large altar and a high-ranking aristocratic cemetery in the center. Teradon site size and Bokcheonsan site is comparable in size, it not only has a central altar, but also has the inner circle and the outside of the two rings of the Hao - Teradon as the center, they also dug a cross-shaped canal project, but it is not known exactly where it leads to.
Regardless, the entire 60,000 square kilometers of the distribution of Liangzhu culture, Liangzhu Ancient City's prominent position has never been shaken. Liangzhu ancient state's territory, north from northern Jiangsu, south to central Zhejiang, west to Anhui (this is only an estimate, its western border has not yet been determined), east to the sea, and its jade ceremonial objects spread as far as Guangxi, northern Shaanxi. It can be said to have influenced half of China.
However, it wasn't long before things began to change on the outside. Beginning in 2600 BC, the Longshan culture emerged in the Central Plains. One of these cultures was called the "Zolutai Culture", and from 2400 BC, they gradually expanded to the southeast. The Liangzhu society was drastically affected, and the Liangzhu culture was transformed into the Qanshanyang culture. However, the construction of Liangzhu ancient cities continued during this period, which seems to indicate that they still maintained their political independence.
Around 2200 BC, the expansion of the Liangzhu area by the Zuolutai people intensified, and a new culture type, the Guangfulin culture, appeared in the area around the Taihu Lake, and during the same period, the ancient city of Liangzhu was abandoned. The Liangzhu ancient state may have suffered the fate of the state at this time. Even so, there is some evidence that the culture of the Taihu Lake region still flourished, and it seems that the foreign rulers did not completely disrupt the order of life of the Taihu Lake region's aboriginal inhabitants.
By 2000 BC, the political situation in much of China was in turmoil. The ancient city of Taosi, which flourished in the Central Plains, was destroyed and brutally massacred (see Taosi's "Great Disturbance Pit"); groups of people from the Ordos region of the Liao culture infiltrated much of the Central Plains; the Longshan culture of Shandong declined on a wide scale, with the loss of eggshell pottery craftsmanship and jade-making, and a sharp decline in population; the ancient city of Shijiahe in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River was destroyed, and a force from the Central Plains occupied the area; and the ancient city of Shijiahe in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River was destroyed, and a force from the Middle A force occupied the region; the ancient city of Baodun in Sichuan was abandoned, and the process of urbanization was suspended.
It was during the same period that a barbaric people from southern Zhejiang once again ransacked the Taihu region and drove the Zolutai people out of the area around southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang. Thereafter, the Taihu region was plunged into a long period of cultural blankness and decline - cities ceased to exist, jade was no longer made, and the way of life of the aristocrats was discarded. The Taihu region returned to a simple rural life and primitive hierarchical order. The once prosperous ancient state of Liangzhu was permanently forgotten. It was not until the 20th century, through the efforts of archaeologists, that the great achievements of the ancestors were once again known to future generations.