dadiwan site

dadiwan site

Dadiwan site, located in the east of Shaodian village, Wuying Township, 45 kilometers northeast of Qin'an County, Tianshui City, Gansu Province, is located on the second and third terraces and the adjacent gentle slope mountains on the South Bank of Qingshui River, a tributary of Hulu River, with a total area of 2.7 million square meters

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Dadiwan site is a prehistoric site from 8000 to 4800 years ago. It is an earlier site discovered in Neolithic Age in China. The excavation in 2006 shows that the history of human activities at Dadiwan site has been pushed forward from 8000 years ago to 60000 years ago. Nearly 10000 pieces of pottery, stone, jade, bone, horn, mussel and other cultural relics were unearthed from the site, and 241 houses were excavated. The site is of great value in exploring the clues and original features of Chinese civilization, revealing the archaeological chronology and cultural sequence of ancient cultures in Longyou and Tianshui

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On January 13, 1988, Dadiwan site was announced by the State Council of the people's Republic of China as the third batch of national key cultural relics protection units

. In December 1994, Dadiwan site was designated as a patriotic education base by Gansu provincial Party committee

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Historical evolution

The Dadiwan site contains five cultural periods. According to the carbon-14 dating, the age is about 7800-4800 years, spanning about 3000 years. The first phase of Dadiwan remains, namely the former Yangshao culture or Dadiwan culture, was about 7800-7300 years ago. The second stage of Dadiwan remains is the early Yangshao culture, about 6500-5900 years ago. The third period of Dadiwan site is the middle period of Yangshao culture, about 5900-5600 years ago. The fourth period of Dadiwan site is the late Yangshao culture, about 5500-4900 years ago. The fifth stage culture of Dadiwan site, namely the lower Changshan culture, was about 4900-4800 years ago

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In 1958, the Dadiwan site was discovered

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From 1978 to 1984, Gansu Provincial Cultural Relics team carried out continuous archaeological excavation of Dadiwan site for seven years

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In 1995, the Gansu Provincial Cultural Relics team conducted a supplementary excavation of the Dadiwan site, exposing an area of 14000 square meters

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In 2006, the Dadiwan site was excavated by Lanzhou University, Gansu Provincial Institute of cultural relics and Archaeology and Gansu Dadiwan Institute of cultural relics protection

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From May 2006 to October 2008, Gansu Provincial Institute of cultural relics and archaeology, School of resources and environment of Lanzhou University and Gansu Dadiwan Institute of cultural relics protection jointly excavated the Dadiwan site for many times, and discovered the remains of human activities from 8000 to 60000 years ago

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Site features

Scale layout

Dadiwan site, with a total area of 2.7 million square meters, is an early, large-scale "palace style building" with the most Chinese architectural style. The layout is regular, balanced and symmetrical. It is composed of the main room, the rooms on both sides of the East and the west, the back rooms and the appendages in front of the door, with a total area of 420 square meters. In addition, fire protection layers are added to the design layout of walls, doors and stoves

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Stratigraphic accumulation

The first-third cultural layer of Dadiwan site was formed 60000-20000 years ago, and only quartz smashing technology products, such as quartz flakes and fragments, were found in the layer; the fourth cultural layer was formed 20000-13000 years ago, and microlithic technology products and Dadiwan stage I ceramic tablets began to appear, but they were subordinate in the overall number of relics; the fifth cultural layer was formed 13000-7000 years ago, mainly composed of microlithic and quartz fragments The sixth cultural layer was formed 7000-5000 years ago. The main cultural relics are Banpo and Yangshao pottery

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Cultural relics

Since the first excavation of Dadiwan site in 1978, nearly 10000 pieces of earthenware, stone, jade, bone, horn, mussel ware and other cultural relics have been unearthed. 241 houses have been excavated, which are deep cave and shed type buildings. There are 104 stove sites, 321 ash pits and kiln caves, 35 kiln sites, 70 tombs and 9 trenches

. F901 is a "concrete" floor. The building f901 is a palace building. Painting found at room f411. No. f901, the material in the mixing layer of the original ground floor is the earlier man-made lightweight aggregate in China. The relics of wall columns wrapped with grass mud, numbered f405 and f901, are the earliest examples of fire fighting in China. The unearthed strip plates, shovel shaped plaques and dustpan shaped utensils are the earliest weights and measures in China

. It is the most primitive painted pattern in China. The shapes of pottery include round bottom bowl, three foot bowl, three foot pot, round foot bowl, small mouth bottle, pointed bottom bottle, mouth foot tripod, flat bottom kettle, strip plate, deep belly pot, etc. A large number of early painted pottery products are mainly painted with the combination of variant fish pattern and bird pattern. More than 10 kinds of symbols were found on the pottery, some of which are similar to water ripple, some of which are similar to the growth of plants, and some of which are intersected by straight lines and warps. The unearthed painted pottery bottle with human head shaped mouth is one of the earliest sculptures in China. Carbonized millet of Gramineae and rapeseed of Cruciferae were collected from the ash pits of Dadiwan site. A pile of carbonized grain samples were found in the ash pit No. h398 of Dadiwan site. They were identified as broomcorn millet (commonly known as millet), but the grain size of broomcorn millet was smaller than that of modern species

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Research value

The research of Dadiwan site shows that the ancients successively experienced four economic development stages: primitive hunting and gathering, developed hunting and gathering Dadiwan site, the first stage of primitive agriculture in Dadiwan and the mature agriculture in early and late Yangshao, which provides detailed information for the study of primitive architecture, art, agricultural origin, writing and religion in Northwest China

. The discovery of Dadiwan site is of great significance to the establishment of the prehistoric cultural sequence in the upper reaches of the Weihe River, the study of the emergence and development of Neolithic culture in the Yellow River Basin, and the exploration of the historical process of the origin of Chinese civilization

. The painted pottery of Dadiwan site is of great academic value to the study of the origin of Chinese painting and the painting art of primitive society. The carved symbols found on the pottery provide extremely important information and clues for the origin of Chinese characters

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protective measures

In December 1994, Dadiwan site was designated as a patriotic education base by Gansu provincial Party committee

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On January 13, 1988, Dadiwan site was announced by the State Council of the people's Republic of China as the third batch of national key cultural relics protection units

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In May 2003, the Gansu Provincial People's government designated and announced the Dadiwan site protection area of 2.75 million square meters and the construction control zone of 10.6 million square meters

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In 2005, the Dadiwan site was listed in the "Eleventh Five Year Plan" period of the central government to guide the important large site protection project library

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In 2007, the national development and Reform Commission and the State Administration of cultural relics approved the Dadiwan site protection project. There are five subprojects in the project, namely, the construction of Dadiwan prehistoric site museum; the appearance reconstruction of f901 (the famous palace building site in Dadiwan) site protection hall; the reinforcement and maintenance of surrounding apron and slope protection; the restoration of original villages and site exhibition area

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History and culture

Dadiwan culture

Dadiwan culture is an ancient civilization created by Chinese ancestors in the Yellow River Basin, and it is one of the sources of Chinese civilization. Dadiwan site is the earliest and longest lasting Paleolithic and Neolithic culture in the middle reaches of the Yellow River in China, which existed 4800-60000 years ago. Dadiwan site has rich cultural connotation and distinctive characteristics. It is not only the prehistoric ancestors who first used painted pottery in China, but also the earliest agricultural culture in Northwest China

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Dadiwan culture does not include all the ancient cultures of Dadiwan site. Dadiwan site contains Dadiwan culture, Yangshao culture and lower Changshan culture. The main remains of the site are Yangshao culture. Dadiwan culture refers to the early painted pottery culture at the bottom of the site

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The ancestors of Dadiwan culture had planted millet crops, raised pigs, dogs and other livestock, and lived a settlement life. At that time, grinding was the main production tool, but there were still many stone tools and microliths. The pottery making process is relatively primitive, with red pottery and brown pottery mixed with fine sand as the main materials, low fire and few utensils, and color pottery is still in its infancy

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Tourism information

geographical position

Dadiwan site is located in the east of Shaodian village, Wuying Township, 45 kilometers northeast of Qin'an County, Tianshui City, Gansu Province. It is located on the second and third terraces and the adjacent gentle slope mountains on the South Bank of Qingshui River, a tributary of Hulu river

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traffic

Tianshui City -- Tianchan highway -- 304 provincial highway -- 462 County Highway -- Dadiwan site.

Address: Qin'an County, Tianshui City, Gansu Province

Longitude: 105.906373

Latitude: 35.008738

Tel: 0938-6751103

Opening hours: 8:00-17:00