Liangzhu National Archaeological Site Park

Liangzhu ancient city site

synonym

Liangzhu National Archaeological Site Park generally refers to Liangzhu ancient city site

Liangzhu ancient city site is located in Pingyao Town, Yuhang District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province

With a total area of 3 square kilometers, it was built in 3300 BC

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Liangzhu culture dates from 5300 to 4300 years ago, with a sustainable development of about 1000 years. It belongs to the late Neolithic archaeological culture

. 136 sites have been found in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Liangzhu ancient city site is the first Neolithic city site found in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. It is the largest prehistoric city site in China before the discovery of Shimao site in Shenmu, Shaanxi Province

It has been known as "the first city in China".

The peripheral water conservancy system of Liangzhu ancient city is the earliest large-scale water conservancy project in China and the earliest dam in the world

Liangzhu ancient city is a regional center of power and belief in the Taihu Lake region in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

On January 26, 2018, the Secretariat of UNESCO National Committee of China sent a letter to UNESCO World Heritage Center, officially recommending "Liangzhu ancient city site" as the world cultural heritage declaration project in 2019.

On July 6, 2019, the ancient city of Liangzhu in China was approved to be included in the world heritage list.

In May 2020, Liangzhu ancient city site was selected as one of the first batch of "Zhejiang cultural mark".

Historical evolution

In 1936, Shi Xin, a staff member of Zhejiang provincial West Lake Museum, discovered the Liangzhu site in Liangzhu Town, Hangzhou county (now Yuhang District of Hangzhou City).

In 1959, Xia Nai, an archaeologist, named the Liangzhu site as one of the earliest named prehistoric archaeological cultures in China.

Since the mid-1980s, Fanshan mausoleum, Yaoshan and huiguanshan altars, and mojiaoshan large-scale palace sites have been found in Liangzhu ancient city. Later, it was proved that the users and owners of these large-scale architectural facilities and precious jades were probably the kings or nobles of Liangzhu ancient country.

In 1981, the Liangzhu archaeological work station was established in wujiabu, Pingyao.

In 1986, the Fanshan site in Liangzhu was first discovered. This is a man-made mound. Eleven large tombs were excavated, including more than 1200 pottery, stone tools, ivory and jade inlaid lacquerware. Yaoshan site is about 5 kilometers northeast of Fanshan. In 1987, 12 tombs and an altar were excavated. Huiguan mountain is about 3 kilometers away from Fanshan mountain. A complete altar and four large tombs were found. A large number of jades were found in the tomb.

In 2009, the Liangzhu archaeological work station of Liangzhu archaeological and Protection Center was put on the market and moved into the new Liangzhu international archaeological protection center.

On May 16, 2015, the investigation and excavation of large-scale water conservancy projects around Liangzhu ancient city site was rated as the top ten new archaeological discoveries in 2015.

Site features

Appearance size

Liangzhu ancient city site is located in the western Zhejiang mountains and hills and Hangjiahu Plain border zone

The terrain is high in the West and low in the East. Both the South and the north are the branches of the Tianmu Mountains. Dongtiaoxi and Liangzhu harbor flow eastward from the north and south sides of the city respectively. Fengshan and Zhishan, two natural hills, are used to the southwest and northeast corners of the city wall respectively. The ancient city of Liangzhu is a slightly rounded rectangle, with a length of 1500-1700 meters from east to west and 1800-1900 meters from north to south, covering a total area of more than 2.9 million square meters. The base of the city wall is paved with stones with a width of 40-60m. Above the base, pure loess is used to pile up. In some sections, the city wall is more than 4m above the surface. Six Watergates were found.

Distribution area

The ordinary residents of Liangzhu ancient city live on the outskirts of the city, and the nobles live on the 300000 square meters of Mojiao mountain platform in the middle of the city. In addition to the huge platform site of Mojiao mountain, there is also the highest level Tomb of the late Neolithic Age in China in the middle of Liangzhu ancient city, Fanshan cemetery. Both Tutai and Fanshan cemetery in Mojiao mountain were discovered in 1980s

. Five kilometers north by east of the city is the famous Yaoshan cemetery, which once unearthed a large number of the highest level Liangzhu Culture jade Cong, jade wall and other ritual utensils. Some people judge from the perspective of field archaeology that the "capital" of Liangzhu ancient country should be here.

On March 15, 2016, the expert's on-the-spot investigation confirmed that the peripheral water conservancy system of Hangzhou Liangzhu ancient city is the earliest large-scale water conservancy project known in China and the earliest dam system (not the earliest dam) in the world, with a history of 4700-5100 years

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Water conservancy system

The surrounding water system of Liangzhu ancient city is located in the northwest and north of Liangzhu ancient city. It consists of 11 natural dams. It has a total of two embankments. It is mainly built in the valley between the two hills. It is divided into two groups of dams in the north and south. They are the southern low dam group composed of Tangshan, lion rock, carp mountain, official hill Wutong lane and so on. The north high dam group, which is composed of the north high dam group, the north high dam group and the north high dam group. According to the preliminary archaeological knowledge, the water conservancy system has the functions of flood control, transportation, water use and irrigation, which is related to the economic and social development of Liangzhu Cultural Sites.

History and culture

Dispute over ancient city

Since archaeologists and field archaeologists announced the discovery of Liangzhu ancient city wall at the end of 2007, there has been controversy. Most of the dissidents are non field archaeologists. They can be called "skeptics of Liangzhu ancient city". The main attack point of the skeptics of Liangzhu ancient city lies in the structure of the city wall. They think that there is no precedent or subsequent example for the construction of part of the "ancient city wall"; the "ancient city wall" is built on the base of soil, with ramming technology instead of using; the "ancient city wall" has gentle slopes on both sides, without blocking the enemy; the "ancient city wall" is too wide (individual sections are as wide as 100 meters), obviously not like the normal city wall; the "ancient city wall" is not built in one time, but may be built by Different dykes in different periods happen to form a circle, and so on. Their intention is: as long as the most basic function of "Liangzhu ancient city wall" is denied - "resist the enemy", the "Liangzhu ancient city" will naturally fall down because it is untenable.

The discoverers and defenders of "Liangzhu ancient city wall" emphasize that the wall is a kind of ancient city. From their professional perspective of field archaeology, the ancient city wall is built as a whole, which is not to be discussed. As for why the base of the wall is so wide (at least 40 or 50 meters, some sections are up to 100 meters wide) and the slope is so small that it is convenient for the enemy or himself to go up and down freely, that is another problem. Perhaps, there was a fence on the top of the city wall, which could resist the enemy. In fact, judging from the existing urban relics in the south of the Yangtze River, there are many mounds like "high mounds", which are suitable for people living in the water network area and playing a defensive role.

Etiquette system

Does the discovery of Liangzhu ancient city mean that an ancient Liangzhu country may have appeared in the Liangzhu culture period 5000 years ago?

From the perspective of Liangzhu Cultural cemetery, the polarization between the rich and the poor was very obvious at that time, and the grade difference had appeared. The appearance of Cong, Bi, Yue and other groups of jade in the big tomb was an important sign of the emergence of etiquette system, indicating that there was a strict etiquette hierarchy system within the rulers at that time. On some jades and pottery of Liangzhu culture, there are a lot of carved symbols. These symbols are close to the early characters in form, which is an important sign of Liangzhu culture entering the era of civilization. Yan Wenming, a professor at Peking University, said that it's not easy to grasp when a country appeared. However, the site of Liangzhu ancient city is so large that it should be closely linked with the state organization. Liangzhu ancient city should be about to enter the stage of civilization or the initial stage of civilization, there should be a preliminary state organization, political power organization, because the ancient state organization should have a capital, there is a Mojiao mountain in the middle of the ancient city, which is very similar to a palace building. There is a view that the ancient Liangzhu country corresponding to the ancient Liangzhu city is probably the "chengjiu country" mentioned in the pre Qin ancient book "wuguanzi". According to Lu Dian, a famous scholar in Song Dynasty, "chengjiu" is the emperor's family. "Chengjiu's kingdom" in "wuguanzi" is located in the territory of Chu, while the land of Wu and Yue was already a part of Chu territory in the late Warring States period. It is said in the book "wuguanzi" that "chengjiushi" holds "Wanghe".

"Wang Kai" is an axe. On the other hand, the owner of tomb No. 12 of Fanshan cemetery in Liangzhu does have a unique jade Yue on his left. It is also mentioned in Zhuo Guanzi that chengjiu's family is "strong in arms, and the world cannot be seized.". The results of field archaeology show that during the 500 years from 3000 B.C. to 2500 B.C., Liangzhu Cultural Group carried out a "Northern Expedition", that is, large-scale use of troops in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. According to Shuo Wen Jie Zi, the ancient peoples in Wu and Yue took snakes as their clan symbol. "Lu Shi" records the emperor's "scale body". "Scale body" is the body of snake. It can be seen that the emperor's family in the ancient literature should be the Ren's family in the land of Wu and Yue. From the perspective of astronomy and archaeology, the land of Wuyue is the corresponding land of the first 12 times of Jupiter's "Astro period", and the second time of Astro period is the starting place of Jupiter's 12-year weekly sky survey.

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