Taosi Cultural Site is located between Taosi, Zhongliang, Song Cun, Dongpogou and Gouxi Village in the northeast of Xiangfen County, Shanxi Province, at the foot of Chongshan Mountain. It is 2000m long from east to west and1500m wide from north to south, with a total area of 3 million square meters. This is a super-large website. The site was first discovered in the cultural relics survey in the 1950s. 1978 to 1987, the Shanxi team of the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences conducted a comprehensive and systematic excavation and inspection of the site, excavated ordinary houses and early big noble cemeteries, and determined the Taosi culture.
1999 to 200 1 year, the ruins of the middle period of Taosi culture (about 2 100 BC-before 2000 BC) were discovered in Taosi, with a total area of about 2.8 million square meters. The walls on the north, east and south sides of the site have been determined, and the site plane is a rounded rectangle.
Through continuous excavation, the palace area in the early and middle period of the site was discovered, and the royal noble tomb in the middle period was also discovered. A large-scale building that may have the function of observing images and timing was found in the mid-term small town sacrifice area, which is what our aunt falsely called "Dongpogou" Observatory.
This large-scale building, which has not yet been archaeological named and may have the function of observing images and timing, is located in Dongpogou Village, southeast of Taosi City Site. There is a three-layer rammer structure at the excavation site, which is semi-circular platform with a diameter of about 50 meters. There is a semicircular observation platform at the top of the pedestal, which is centered on the observation platform and radiates in a fan shape 13 pit from west to east.
According to archaeologists, there are 65,438+03 rammed earth columns on this platform. The ancients used the space between the two columns to observe the sunrise in the east of Tal Mountain. According to the light and shadow of the sun, we can infer the solar terms of 12 a year. Compared with the current lunar calendar time, the seasonal accuracy of solar terms is very high through field simulation observation. One of the main functions of rammed soil column joints on the upper platform foundation may be to observe the image and give time, thus guiding farmers to cultivate in time. Judging from the findings at the excavation site, this platform was also used by people at that time to offer sacrifices.
This building is the largest single building of Taosi culture discovered so far, with an area of about 1.400 square meters. It has a very strange shape, complex structure and many ancillary building facilities, which may be amazing, because it combines the functions of observation and sacrifice, the scale and momentum of the building and the huge project of foundation pit treatment.
More importantly, if the rammed earth column of the upper platform has the function of observing images and timing, it will give us a glimpse of the astronomical knowledge system of Taosi culture and confirm the true historical background of the so-called "calendar is like the sun, moon and stars, teaching people time" in Shangshu Yaodian. Archaeological evidence of observation time can be pushed back to 4 100 years ago, which will greatly promote the study of ancient astronomical calendars in China.
This observatory was formed at the end of primitive society in 2 100 BC, which is obviously nearly 500 years earlier than the Stonehenge Observatory (BC 1680) recognized in the world. Therefore, this observatory at the site of Taosi City is undoubtedly the earliest observatory discovered in the world so far.