Wucheng site is the first large Shang Dynasty site discovered south of the Yangtze River. It is located in Wucheng Village, Qian Shan Township, Zhangshu City, on the hilly slope in the upper reaches of Xiaojiang River. 1973 discovered during the construction of Qiuwucheng Reservoir.
After six scientific excavations, * * * revealed an area of more than 2,000 square meters, with cultural accumulation ranging from 2 meters to 3 meters. It is divided into seven levels and three periods of culture. * * * Clean up 2 building foundations, 2 kiln sites 12, 55 ash pits and 6 buried foundations 16. More than 900 relatively complete stone tools, pottery, bronzes, jade articles and tooth carvings have been unearthed, especially Wen Tao, primitive porcelain and bronze casting tools, which is a new major archaeological discovery in Jiangxi. The cultural connotation reflected by unearthed cultural relics is strongly influenced by the culture of the Central Plains and has distinctive local characteristics. The discovery of this site is of great historical significance and scientific value, which denies the assertion that "Shang culture is not beyond the Yangtze River". Wucheng site was listed as a municipal and provincial key cultural relics protection unit in 1984 and 1987 respectively, and was listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit in 1996. Wucheng Shang Dynasty site has become the practice base of archaeology major in Peking University, Xiamen University and Sun Yat-sen University. Jiangxi Provincial Museum has established an archaeological station in Wucheng, which is the first rural archaeological station in Jiangxi. Wanzai county has beautiful scenery, pleasant scenery and rich tourism resources. The old "Goose Peak Green", "Tang Zhou Xue Ji", "Purple Cover Cloud", "Pen Rack Ring", "Stalagmites Flying in the Air", "Woodcut Songs of Xiaoling", "Spend the Night in Longjiang" and "Kunshan" are the main tourist attractions nowadays, such as Bamboo Cave Scenic Area, March 8th Nature Reserve Scenic Area and Chenghuang Temple.
What was Jiangnan like more than three thousand years ago? How did our ancestors live and multiply in this land? With the development of the protection and exhibition of Wucheng site in Zhangshu City, a mysterious historical mystery is about to be revealed.
"Yin ruins culture spans the Yangtze River, and there is another spring in Jiangnan." Facing the ruins of Wucheng, a national key cultural relic protection unit, Su, an archaeological researcher of China Academy of Social Sciences and former chairman of China Archaeological Society, can't help but sigh. According to the analysis of stratigraphic superposition and archaeological data, Wucheng culture can be divided into three periods: the middle of Shang Dynasty, the late of Shang Dynasty and the third day of Zhou Dynasty. This is the capital of Wucheng culture, which lasted for 400 years. 400 years is only a short moment in the long river of history, but it has become the "key" to open the treasure house of ancient culture in Jiangnan and the "ruler" to study chronology. According to the survey, there are city walls, houses, pottery kilns, tombs, wells, religious places of worship, etc. in this Shang Dynasty city site, which is known as the "soul of Jiangxi". This is a fairly complete capital structure. At present, more than 4,000 complete cultural relics such as stone tools, bronzes, ceramics and jade articles have been unearthed, more than 200 pieces of Wen Tao or symbols have been carved, and more than 40 kinds of geometric printed pottery patterns have been found.
It is undoubtedly an exciting archaeological excavation project that such a treasure sleeps under the camphor tree. After repeated argumentation, the Zhangshu Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government decided to fully protect and display the Wucheng site from now on.
Ancient Culture Ancient Civilization in Ancient City is a trilogy that reproduces the civilization of Wucheng. According to the protection exhibition plan, the Wucheng Site Museum will be built next year, and the Wucheng Shang Dynasty Site Protection Exhibition Park will be built to comprehensively and vividly display the research results and great cultural value of Wucheng Site. From 2003 to 2005, important sites such as Shang Dynasty dwellings, smelting and casting workshops, sacrificial places and pottery workshops were restored and displayed on the ground. From 2006 to 20 10, the ecological environment or the natural and humanistic environment conducive to the protection of existing sites will be gradually restored, thus establishing a permanent national historical and cultural heritage park.
As a key protection project in National Cultural Heritage Administration during the Tenth Five-Year Plan, the protection and exhibition project of Wucheng site is huge and magnificent, which lasted 10 years. It is estimated that the investment will be nearly 60 million yuan, mainly funded by the state. The work to be done is also quite complicated. In order to protect sites and build museums, not only capital investment is needed, but also high technology is needed to overcome various difficulties. By 20 10, Wucheng Site will become "Huangshi National Park" in China. Relying on its existing historical sites, combined with the restored style of Wucheng, it will become a semi-closed park scenic spot, showing the elegance of Wucheng in Shang Dynasty to the outside world and making the lost Wucheng civilization reappear in the world.
Brief introduction of the Shang Dynasty ruins in Wucheng: In the upper reaches of the ancient river in Wucheng Village, Qian Shan Township, 44 kilometers southwest of Zhangshu City, there is a famous country (Du Yi), which is the Shang Dynasty ruins in Wucheng. Some experts believe that the legendary Taibo ran to Wu, which used to be a passing place. Taber ran to Man Jing first, and then went down the Ganjiang River to wuyue from here.
According to the genealogy of Huangcun Village in Wucheng, there was a Temple of King Wu in Wucheng's early years, which was later abandoned. Since the discovery of Wucheng Site in September 1973, under the guidance of leaders and experts from National Cultural Heritage Administration and the Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University, Xiamen University and Sun Yat-sen University, together with provincial and municipal departments in charge of cultural relics, have carried out nine large-scale excavations. With an exposed area of more than 6,000 square meters, three building foundations, 12 pottery kilns, 92 ash pits and caves, 20 tombs, 2 water wells, a bronze relic, 1 road and a complete and grand religious sacrificial place were cleared, and 65,438 stone tools, pottery, primitive porcelain, bronzes, jade and tooth carvings were unearthed. The discovery of Wen Tao, primitive porcelain, bronze relics and Longyao in the ruins is a major discovery in the archaeological history of Jiangxi, which indicates that Wucheng area entered the era of human civilization as early as 3,500 years ago, and denies the assertion that "Shang culture is no match for the Yangtze River".
A large number of physical materials such as Wen Tao and symbols show that in the Shang Dynasty, Poyang area in Jiangxi Province was not a wasteland, but a highly civilized area. The excavation of bronze relics, tools and exquisite bronzes shows that as early as 3000 years ago, just like the Central Plains, we were able to master the casting technology and produce high-quality bronzes, which solved the important academic problem of whether the southern region could cast bronzes in the Yin and Shang Dynasties. A large number of complete artifacts, especially more than 40 kinds of printed pottery patterns, are a "key" for studying ancient culture in the south of the Yangtze River and a "ruler" for dating, ending the chaotic situation of cultural dating in Jiangnan archaeology for a long time.
Wucheng site is the first large-scale human settlement site of Shang Dynasty discovered in the south of the Yangtze River, and it is also the only site in Jiangxi Province with many elements of Shang culture in the Central Plains. Now it has been named Wucheng culture, which is still a hot topic in archaeology and historiography at home and abroad, and has important historical, artistic and scientific research value. Shang Bronze _ Shang Bronze Ding Xi Zhong Glazed Ear Furnace Shang Bronze Spear Bole Xiang Ma Pen Bucket Dou Jin Chai Yu Wa Xi Zhong Lian Petal Pattern Hand Pot Original Porcelain Bean Pot Bottom Carved Stone Knife Surface Bronze _ Saddle Pottery Knife As an important part of the three major cultures of the Chinese nation, Wu Culture's birthplace has always been concerned by historians and cultural circles, and even more by Wu clan at home and abroad. As early as 1907, Cai Yuanpei, Wu Mei, Liu Yazi, Tian Han and others began to study Wu culture; 1937, Cai Yuanpei, Wu Mei, Gu Jiegang and others initiated the establishment of "wuyue History and Geography Research Society" and began to publish "Wu Yue Culture Essays", which set off the climax of Wu Culture research. 1984, at the initiative of Wu Ze, a famous historian in China, a member of the State Council Academic Degrees Committee and a professor of history at East China Normal University, the China Wu Culture Research Association was established in Suzhou, which set off a new upsurge of Wu culture research and construction.
Wucheng Site in Zhangshu City is the first large-scale inhabited site in Shang Dynasty discovered south of the Yangtze River. After eight excavations by China Academy of Social Sciences, National Cultural Heritage Administration, Peking University, Sun Yat-sen University, Xiamen University and cultural workers from provinces and cities, important sites such as Longdong, water wells, tombs, cast copper, "_ corridor" pavement and religious sites were discovered. More than 200 pieces of relatively complete cultural relics 1 100, such as stone tools, pottery, bronzes, jade articles and tooth carvings, have been unearthed, with more than 40 patterns and 200 characters. Especially, the discovery of the dragon kiln in Shang Dynasty was the first discovery of the early dragon kiln in China, which pushed forward the history of loong kiln for nearly a thousand years. The excavation of the Shang Dynasty ruins in Wucheng negates the argument that "Shang culture is no better than the Yangtze River" and becomes a "key" to the study of ancient culture in the south of the Yangtze River, which has aroused great interest from historians and cultural circles. Important journals at home and abroad have published hundreds of papers on Wucheng culture.
Moreover, the ruins of the Acropolis in Zhangshu City and the tombs of Shang Dynasty in Xingan County have attracted the attention of many experts and scholars. In 1930s, Chinese famous historians Guo Moruo and Gu Jiegang, when studying the 1 1 piece of the 15th People's Palace in Wu during the Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty unearthed in Linjiang Prefecture, Jiangxi Province, pointed out: "Wudi City was far away from Jiangxi in the early Spring and Autumn Period", "Linjiang Prefecture is now Qingjiang County (now Zhangshu City), and the west bank of Ganjiang River.
199 1 year, Mr. Lu, executive vice president and secretary general of China Wu Culture Research Association, formally put forward the view that the birthplace of Wu culture was in Jiangxi in the Journal of Social Science published in Shanghai. 1992 Comrade Jin Yuan, the former Jiangxi Provincial Museum, published "A Word from Wu Shuo and Wucheng Cultural Family" in Southern Cultural Relics. His main point is that Wucheng culture was before Wu culture in Taihu Lake Basin. Where is the birthplace of Wu culture? Jiangxi is known as the "tail of aconite" and has become a "hot spot" concerned by relevant experts and scholars.
On June 22nd last year, 1 1, two Wu culture experts Lu and Zhang Fuyu visited Wucheng Shang Dynasty site and Zhangshu Zhucheng site successively, and visited various cultural relics unearthed from Zhangshu. At the subsequent "Seminar on Wu Culture's Economic Development Strategy", Mr. Lu, a researcher and vice president of the Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, after studying archaeological discoveries for more than half a century, thought that the inscriptions and Wu bronzes discovered in Anhui and Jiangsu were all after19th century, and the remains of Wu before the late Spring and Autumn Period had not been found in the east of Taihu Lake. Zhejiang unearthed in Jiangxi is still the earliest bronze ware of the State of Wu. At the same time, hundreds of bronze ritual vessels of the Western Zhou Dynasty were unearthed in the Jiangxi-Poyang Lake basin, especially a large number of cultural relics were unearthed in the site of "Wu Culture" in Zhangshu City, the tomb of Shang Dynasty in Xingan and the tomb of Lieding in the Western Zhou Dynasty. It shows that "Wucheng Culture" is a self-contained bronze culture which is composed of the pre-Zhou culture in Shanxi and Shaanxi, the culture in Hanshui River basin and the Yi Yue culture in Poyang Lake basin in Jiangxi Province. Its family belongs to Cinnamomum camphora, and Xingan in the middle reaches of Ganjiang River is the birthplace of Wu and Wu culture.
At this seminar, the participants unanimously agreed that this research achievement is not only a major breakthrough in historical research, but also a strong response from academic circles at home and abroad.
As an important cultural research activity, it is far from over. As a county-level city, Zhangshu actively participated in this cultural research activity and established a good cultural image in academic circles. With the improvement of Chinese content in economic development, it will have a great and far-reaching impact on the economic and cultural development strategy of camphor tree and the social activities of Wu family at home and abroad. Wucheng Culture and Ancient Red Bronze Civilization in China For a long time, among the early bronzes unearthed in the Central Plains, there were only bronzes but no red bronzes, which led many foreign scholars to think that China only had the Bronze Age without the Red Bronze Age. Other ancient civilizations in the world experienced the Red Copper Age before the Bronze Age. Whether China had a long bronze civilization before the bronze civilization is an important issue related to where the bronze civilization in China came from.
Since 1970s, with the discovery of Zhangshu Wucheng site and Shang tombs in Xingan Oceania, and the deepening of archaeological excavation and research, more and more evidences show that there was a long bronze civilization in China before the bronze civilization. Archaeologists in our province have tested the composition of some pre-Qin bronzes unearthed from Wucheng site and other areas in our province. These specimens date from the late Shang Dynasty to the early and middle Western Zhou Dynasty. Except for No.2 Pingshouzuding in Hengtang, Zhangshu, the copper content of other specimens is above 90%, and some of them are as high as 99%, and no metal elements such as tin are found or rarely exist. Although some pre-Qin bronzes unearthed in Jiangxi are so-called "black lacquer antiques" or "blue lacquer antiques". However, most of the vessel walls are rough and thin, and the surface of the vessel is seriously corroded, with a layer of verdigris and a purple heart. This is of course related to the acidity of the soil in our province, but the main reason lies in the bronze itself, which is made of red copper or pure copper.
When China's bronze civilization began remains to be discovered by archaeological excavations. However, the examination of some bronze specimens shows that the ancient ancestors in Wucheng or Poyang Lake-Ganjiang River basin still retained the original technology of using red copper castings from the late Shang Dynasty to the middle Western Zhou Dynasty. In the evolution of ancient civilization, the emergence, development and extinction of each technology have gone through a long process. Of course, the bronze civilization in China began much earlier than in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, due to the influence of bronze technology in the Central Plains, ancestors began casting bronzes. Zhangshu Hengtang 1 Ding is matched with No.2 Pingshou Ding, which is called Huercuo Ding, and its style is similar to No.2 Ding. Compared with the two pots, the pot wall of 1 is thicker, and the pot 2 is relatively thinner. The surface corrosion of the former is not very serious, and it is light green. The surface corrosion of the latter is quite serious, showing dark green; The former has higher hardness, while the latter has lower hardness. Although the composition of 1 Ding has not been tested, its tin content is obviously higher than that of No.2 Ding in terms of physical and chemical properties. It shows that the ancestors of Wucheng mastered the technology of adding tin and other elements to copper to improve its properties at the end of Shang Dynasty.
In the 1950s, Mr. Guo Moruo speculated that it was more likely that copper smelting and casting technology would be introduced into the Yellow River basin from the southern Jianghuai basin, because it was said that Jiangnan was a famous producing area of ancient gold and tin. Although the current archaeological materials are not enough to fully confirm Lao Guo's conjecture, the discovery of sites such as Wucheng can at least support Lao Guo's conjecture in the following aspects. For example, Jiangxi and even the south are the main producing areas of copper, with a large number of ancient copper mining and smelting relics, which have the material conditions for copper smelting; During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, clay casting (that is, one-time casting after locking several molds and cores) and stone casting copper were widely used. During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the production of red bronzes continued. We can imagine that China's copper metallurgy may have originated in Jiangxi and even the south, and after it was introduced into the Central Plains, it was improved to produce a new technology of bronze metallurgy. The bronze metallurgy technology in the Central Plains had a strong impact on all parts of the south, forging a splendid bronze civilization in China. A large number of Shang skulls were found in Wucheng site, Jiangxi Province? Following 1995 when Jiangxi Institute of Archaeology and other related units dissected the western toe wall of the Shang Dynasty in Wucheng, four Shang skulls were discovered. Recently, Jiangxi archaeologists found dense Shang skulls in an outer moat nearly 4 meters deep-nearly 20 skulls and some limb bones were excavated within the scope of 10 square meter. Experts speculate that there are many skulls on both sides of the moat.
Clear lines can be seen on nearly 20 skulls found this time. According to experts in Jiangxi Province, there are generally two ways to make skulls excavated by archaeology: one is that prisoners of war are beheaded; The first is the product of headhunting ceremony in sacrifice. Judging from the current excavation, these skulls are likely to be beheaded by a large number of prisoners of war, and the age and identity of each skull need further measurement and textual research. The discovery of the skull reflects the scale, mode and tragic degree of the war at that time, and provides valuable physical data for studying the offensive and defensive warfare in Shangcheng City. The skulls excavated so far have been well preserved.
Wucheng Site is located in Wucheng Village, wucheng town, in front of Zhangshu Mountain. It belongs to the national key cultural relics protection unit. 1973 discovered when building a reservoir. This is the first Shang Dynasty site discovered south of the Yangtze River. 200 1 was named "Top 100 Archaeological Discoveries in China in the 20th Century". Up to now, Jiangxi Institute of Archaeology and other relevant units have carried out nine archaeological excavations, and unearthed ancient cultural relics such as bronzes, pottery, kiln furniture and sacrificial squares. Among them, a large number of primitive porcelains have appeared, and some archaeologists in China believe that the primitive porcelains in China originated from Wucheng. Jiangxi archaeologists have set up a special archaeological workstation in Wucheng site, which they believe is an authoritative place to explore the origin, mode and materialized form of ancient civilization in Jiangxi and Poyang Lake basin. "China is the king of forks" found in Wucheng site.
Wei, an ancient cooker, is like a tripod, round, hollow and curved. During the 65,438+00 excavations of the Shang Dynasty ruins in Wucheng, hundreds of cultural relics of different sizes and shapes were unearthed. 200165438+February, when Jiangxi Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Zhangshu Museum excavated the site for the first time 10, a large Shang Dynasty Tao Ge was excavated in the area around the site. After more than a year of drying and repair, it has been completely repaired. It is 47.8 cm high, 40.2 cm in diameter and 38.7 cm in abdominal diameter. It is made of gray ceramics and fine sand, with an opening, an arc-shaped abdomen and three pockets. It is decorated with thick rope patterns all over the body, with wide-band rope patterns on its neck and rope patterns from its abdomen to its legs. Accompanying the excavation is Wucheng No.2, which is more than 3,500 years ago. Unearthed No.1 is 43.2 cm higher, 32.7 cm in diameter and 35 cm in abdominal diameter than the upper layer of Erlitou culture in Tao Ge and Henan, which is the largest in the third phase of Erlitou culture in Yanshi, Henan. The pattern of pottery is the same as that of 1 ... at that time, it was the early stage of the first phase of the Shang Dynasty site in Wucheng, and the largest two pieces were Tao Ge's big pieces, which is the largest one found in China at present. Experts call it "the king of China splits". The restoration of Wucheng No.1 is another major discovery after Wucheng Site won the honor of centennial archaeological discovery in China in the 20th century, which has played a very important role in studying Wucheng culture.