First of all, the age of Yu site is the same as that of Dayu. According to Zhu, deputy director of Bengbu Cultural Bureau, the village ruins are distributed from the levee on the east bank of Huaihe River to the village. It is about 2 kilometers long from north to south and 300 meters wide from east to west. At the same time, a large number of pottery, stone tools, bones, mussel shells, snail shells, stewed soil layers, burnt clods, ash pits and so on have been unearthed. Comparatively speaking, its cultural nature belongs to the category of Longshan culture in Neolithic age.
Longshan culture was first discovered in Chengziya, Longshan Town, Zhangqiu County, Shandong Province in 1982. It refers to a cultural relic in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in China in the late Neolithic period, with a history of more than 4,000 years. The legendary Dayu happened in this period, and the time coincided.
Secondly, the excavation site is very close to the place recorded in history. According to the results of textual research and demonstration of historical materials, experts generally believe that the "Earth Mountain" in the "Summer Tour" and "Yu He is a vassal of Earth Mountain and a country with jade and silk" is located in Bengbu City, Anhui Province.
At the end of June 5438 +2006 10, researcher Wang Jihuai of the Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences led a team to try to dig at the Yu site, and found that the head of the "A"-shaped site was a large-scale building base of Longshan culture with an area of more than 2,000 square meters, and the historical remains of "Hui Yu Wang Gong" seemed to exist.
In fact, the origin of China's ancient civilization has always been controversial in the history circle. From 22 1 BC, Qin unified the six countries back to the early Neolithic age. Due to the lack of literature, 89,000 years of pre-Qin history is also called "legendary era". Heroes of this era, their images are intertwined with human beings and gods, surpassing reality, leaving only a few words and ambiguities.
The same is true of Dayu. According to historical records, after Shun's death, the first dynasty in China's history was officially opened, and China's history was brought into a civilized era. Therefore, reconstructing the history of Dayu era is helpful to "clean up the roots" of China's ancient civilization. On the morning of May 3 1 2007, the continuous light rain did not weaken the enthusiasm of archaeologists for the Yu site. A number of well-known experts in domestic archaeology gathered at the Yu site in Bengbu to inspect the archaeological excavation site of the Yu site. It is understood that experts agree that Yu site belongs to the late Longshan culture, and expressed their opinions on some signs of the site excavated by researcher Wang Jihuai in the early stage, especially the key point of rammed soil layer.
Yucheng was discovered more than 4000 years ago.
The sudden rainstorm on the night of May 30th made the excavation site of Yu site muddy. This also forced the experts who entered the excavation site on March1morning to put on shoe covers. At the two excavation sites of the Yu site, many villagers spontaneously gathered around and listened carefully to the opinions of experts.
Earlier, because of the entry of the archaeological team, they were all very curious about this familiar and unfamiliar land under their feet. It is understood that most experts rushed to the excavation site as soon as they got off the train, and some even carried huge backpacks. It seems that the experts at the scene don't want to let go of any detail, and always look at every place on the scene carefully.
It is understood that the laboratory experts from the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who came to Bengbu this time, also brought a carbon 14 dating report, which obtained the exact age of the Yu site.
It is understood that the archaeological team led by Wang Jihuai conducted a trial excavation at the Yu site on May 38, 2006+10, and the unearthed charcoal and other specimens were sent to the laboratory of the Archaeological Research Institute. According to the expert's appraisal, the age of this specimen is determined to be 2350-2 190 BC, which provides a scientific basis for the dating of Yu Xu site, and also confirms the dating inference made by archaeologists based on the cultural relics unearthed from the site.
Rammed soil layer has become the focus of expert investigation
At the site of rammed earth excavation, the previously discovered tomb pit of Qing Dynasty has exposed some soil structure, which has become the focus of expert investigation.
Experts expressed their views on the clear soil structure such as braised soil, loess and gypsum soil shown in the profile of the tomb pit. He Nv, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the nature and structure of rammed earth displayed there are different from the typical rammed earth in the Yellow River Basin. The traces of rammed earth and rammed nest in the Yellow River Basin are clear, and the overlapping relationship is obvious.
The soil in Jianghuai area is different from loess, with high water content and inconspicuous rammed layer structure. Moreover, the amount of rammed earth found in Jianghuai area is small, and there is only one rammed earth altar in the Western Zhou Dynasty, which is difficult to compare. The rammed earth here may also be accumulated and rolled by the ancients.
Because there is already a cultural layer in Longshan period on this rammed soil layer, the age of rammed soil layer should be equal to or earlier than that of cultural layer. Because there is no large profile showing the boundary and accumulation thickness of rammed soil layer, further excavation and verification are needed.
First excavation of Dayu related sites
Although there are many "big names" among the experts who came to Yu site this time, they all spoke cautiously and no one came to a conclusion, which reflected the rigorous and realistic style of study of archaeologists. "Sichuan, Zhejiang, Shaanxi and Anhui all have legends of Dayu, but it is the first time to explore the sites related to Dayu, which is very important for studying the origin of Xia Dynasty and Chinese civilization." Dr. Zhao from the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said: "This unusual phenomenon was discovered in an important part of the Yu site. We must first solve whether this floor is artificial or natural, and then we can discuss whether the buildings on this floor are related to Dayu. The current findings are very valuable and the results are very worth looking forward to. " Researcher Fu suggested digging a ditch along the tomb pit in the rammed earth site to explore the scope of rammed earth and gain more research clues. On April 28th, 2008, at the archaeological excavation site of Yu Xu Site, the staff had excavated four squares of 10 square meters, each with a depth of about 50 cm.
Zhang Zhenzhong, deputy director of Huaiyuan Cultural Relics Management Office, said: "Our excavation work has been going on at a normal speed, and signs of accumulation have appeared in some places. Because there are some pits in some squares, as people used to say, we want to have a better look at the stratum through these pits. There are some bricks and pottery in the pit in the late Ming and Qing Dynasties and the Republic of China.
According to Wang Jihuai, a researcher in charge of the archaeological excavation project of Yu Xu site and the Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, according to the signs revealed during the first excavation in 2007, there may be a very important phenomenon of man-made pile relics under the four explorers excavated this time: "Last year, we dug a part, but it was less than half, so this year we should expose all the remaining parts of this area, and finally judge the final area of this relic and determine its nature, that is, what this relic is for.
Because the road construction and riverbank construction in Yu Hui Village destroyed the cultural layer of Yu Hui site, archaeologists chose the second and third sites for excavation. On the banks of the Huaihe River, eight 5-meter-square exploration points were also laid. Wang Jihuai: "This year's compilation is based on the excavation area of 1500 to 2,000 square meters, because only 500 square meters were issued last year, and the excavation area will be doubled, tripled or quadrupled this year, because we are very clear about the cultural nature and era of this site, but the content is relatively small. We are eager to get more information from the large-scale excavation area. Now we lack an excavation area, because the area is large and more cultural symbols are exposed. One is that we can provide some information from the source of civilization, which is also very important for textual research on Dayu. " As one of the main research topics of China ancient civilization traceability project, the third archaeological excavation of Yu Hui site in Bengbu was officially started in June 5438+1October 65438+May 2009. Compared with the previous two excavations 1000 square meters, the archaeological excavation area will exceed 5000 square meters, the largest ever. In addition, the scale of this excavation is also larger than the previous two times, which lasted for two months, and the mystery of "Hui Yu was a vassal of Tushan" with different opinions in history is expected to be solved.
According to Wang Jihuai, head of the archaeological project of Yu Hui Site in Bengbu and a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Yu Hui Village Site made great achievements in two archaeological excavations in 2007 and 2008, which proved that Yu Hui Village Site is a new cultural type in Jianghuai area and was selected as one of the top ten candidate archaeological discoveries in 2008.
Researcher Wang Jihuai told reporters that the third excavation will last for two months. On the basis of the first two excavations, the sacrificial platform, cultural layer and rammed soil layer will be fully excavated. In order to ensure the progress of the project, the manpower invested in this excavation will greatly exceed the previous two excavations, with more than 20 professionals and more than 100 migrant workers. Through the comprehensive excavation and arrangement of the sacrificial platform, the mystery of "Hui Yu was once a vassal of Tushan" with different opinions in history will be thoroughly confirmed, that is to say, the third excavation that is about to begin will have an exact answer made public.
Why did you choose to dig after the National Day? Researcher Wang Jihuai explained that autumn was chosen because there was less rain at this time. Archaeological work is most afraid of rainy weather during construction, which not only affects the work process, but also affects the initial unearthed state of cultural relics. The first two excavations were delayed by the weather, and this time it was specially chosen in autumn. On May 26th, 20 10, the fourth archaeological excavation began at the site. Many rows of column holes were found in the cultural layer, which were symmetrically distributed in the north and south. Experts judged that it was a relic of a large shack, with an area exceeding 1 10,000 square meters. The discovery of the shack area is another important material evidence in the history of Yu Hui princes.
Jude Wong Huai, head of the Yu Xu Archaeological Team, said that during the third archaeological excavation, the team found a row of column holes on the floodplain west of the Huaihe River levee, which experts speculated might be the remains of temporary buildings similar to sheds. On 20 10, rows of column holes were found in the cultural layer of rammed earth platform in the core area of the site. Judging from the arrangement, orientation, span, and the newly discovered signs of the foundation groove at the corner of the suspected earth wall, it is judged that this place is a shack-type architectural relic.
Wang Jihuai said that during the Longshan period, the degree of civilization was quite developed, and the living rooms in the settlement were more elegant. The walls and floors of buildings are generally compacted, and some of them have been burned to enhance the strength of the walls and floors. Some walls are decorated with white ash, which reflects the high level of architecture. However, the remains of shacks found in Yu site do not have the above characteristics, and there are no traces of tamping and other treatments on the ground. It is speculated that this kind of shack may be a temporary residence.
It is understood that the architectural relics discovered twice are located on both sides of the Huaihe River levee. If it is connected into pieces, the area exceeds 654.38+100000 square meters, which is quite amazing. Wang Jihuai introduced that the Yu Hui maharaja incident was a large-scale covenant activity before the establishment of the Xia Dynasty, and the sacrificial ceremony was essential. Yu site is characterized as a large-scale sacrificial site, and there is no dispute in archaeology.
The discovery of such a large living place near the rammed earth sacrificial platform provides an answer to explain where the people who sacrificed in those days lived and worked. There are a lot of pottery and burning pits scattered in the ruins of the shack, which indicates that it may also be a large pottery workshop group, providing sacrificial vessels and tributes for large-scale sacrificial activities. According to the age, orientation and historical records of Prince Yu Hui, it can be said that the discovery of shack area is another important material evidence of Prince Yu Hui's history. The reporter learned from the archaeological excavation project of Yu site in Bengbu City, Anhui Province that there were new discoveries in the archaeological excavation of Yu site. Archaeologists discovered prehistoric barley during the floating process of soil samples extracted from the first five excavations. It is understood that this discovery extended the history of human barley cultivation to 4000 years before Shang and Zhou Dynasties, which was a major breakthrough in prehistoric agricultural archaeology.