Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1491 How important is the Three Gorges Culture?

The collection here is not only rich, but also has continuity in its history.

There are a large number of fossils in the museums in the Three Gorges area, including hundreds of species including Gigantopithecus buxianus, Chinese Mastodon, Pre-Oriental Stegodon, Saber-toothed Tiger, Bihorned Rhinoceros, and small species of Giant Panda.

The most important thing is a fossil found in Longgupo, Wushan. It is the earliest human being excavated in China. It dates back to about 2 million years ago. It was later revised to 2.14 million years ago and was named "Wushan Man".

On the Hubei Province side, a "Yunxian native" appeared, and there were two relatively complete skulls.

The importance of Yunxian Man lies in the fact that the time period during which humans evolved to Homo erectus was between 300,000 and 2 million years ago.

In this region of East Asia, the Yuanmou people are 1.7 million years old, and the Lantian people are 1.6 million to 1.2 million years old.

Peking Man is 800,000 years old.

After Yunxian Man appeared, everyone found that he was about one million years ago, which just filled the long-term evolutionary gap between Yuanmou Man, Lantian Man and Peking Man in East Asia. It has irreplaceable research value and status. .

By the time we entered the Paleolithic Age, the Three Gorges Civilization had continued uninterrupted from 8,000 to 4,200 years ago.

在这个“文明走廊”里，先后发现了距今约8000到7000年前的楠木园文化，7000到6000年前的柳林溪文化，6200到5000年前的大溪文化，5000到4500年前屈家岭文化，4500到4200年前石家河文化庙坪类型。

By the time we entered the Pre-Qin, Spring and Autumn, and Warring States periods, more and more cultural relics and cultural relics were discovered.

Moreover, during this period, many evidences of cultural integration and conquest can be found, as well as a very important branch of knowledge in archeology - comparative studies.

For example, the Xiaotian Xi Bawang Chimes have a Chu-style overall style, but the decoration also shows the characteristics of Ba culture. The two sections of the chime's wooden frame and the top of the column are not decorated with the phoenix bird admired by the Chu people, but with tiger head-shaped decorations.

Another example is that the folk customs and costumes of the two ethnic groups have many similarities. Both ethnic groups are good at fishing and hunting; both are good at making bamboo and lacquerware; the Chu people are good at witchcraft, while the Ba people believe in ghosts and gods.

In the later period, the two gradually began to merge. Among the cultural relics of the Warring States Period unearthed in various places, there are often lacquer wood wares such as "tiger seat with phoenix hanging on it" and "crouching tiger with phoenix standing". The characteristics of the artifacts confuse the Bachu cultural customs and habits. The characteristics are clearly revealed.

However, what is even more interesting is that many artifacts in Chu culture show phoenixes stepping on tigers, while in Ba culture, tigers are extremely noble and noble, and other animals will never be allowed to step on tigers. What is shown here are the different results of development after cultural integration, as well as the strength and weakness of the nation.

After that came the Han Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms... until the modern cultural relics stored here - the stone carvings of the "Yiling Pass" closed here after the country was forced to open to trade in the late Qing Dynasty.

The ship began to turn around when it arrived in Yichang. On the way back, Zhou Zhi's summary report was completed.

"It's really hard for you." Lin Wanqiu looked at Zhou Zhi's report: "I can give you ten values ​​of the cultural relics of the Three Gorges ruins."

"If I really want to finish writing, there will be more than ten items." Zhou Zhi pretended to be modest: "Pick up the important ones and write them down. If you have any additional comments, I will add them."

"Just be proud of it." Li Laosan said with a smile: "Our expertise is not in this."

"It's also everyone's credit. I just made a summary of the information collected by everyone." All the friends held a report in their hands. Fang Wenyu took the report and read seriously: "One, sixty There are many Paleolithic sites and paleontological fossil sites (of which 14 Paleolithic cultural sites have not been disturbed and are particularly important), including the rare Late Paleolithic open-air stone tool making workshop in Gaojia Town, Fengdu. A large number of large-scale chopping tools and scrapers with the characteristics of the Paleolithic in southern China are important areas to resolve the division between the north and south of the Paleolithic culture in my country.”

"2. The more than 80 Neolithic Age sites are the key areas to resolve the dividing line between the two cultural systems of the East and West from the Jianghan Plain in the Yangtze River Basin to the west of the Three Gorges and the Sichuan Basin."

“3. More than 100 ancient Ba people’s sites and cemeteries, including the political, economic and cultural center of the Ba people during the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties and the Ba king’s cemetery from the late Warring States period to around the Qin Dynasty, are key to unlocking the history of the ancient Ba people. Main location of Mystery.”

"4. Dozens of sites and cemeteries that can illustrate the historical process of the Chu and Qin cultures entering the Three Gorges area. The Chu culture entered the Xiling Gorge area to Zigui in the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty, and reached the Zhongxian area during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States; Qin When the people captured the capital of Ying in the state of Chu in 278 BC, they occupied the entire Three Gorges area."

"5. More than 470 sites and cemeteries from the Han to the Six Dynasties, including Yufu County and Quren County in the Han Dynasty, are important locations that explain how the Central Plains culture and the local Ba culture gradually merged."

"Six, six ancient low water inscriptions and dozens of flood inscriptions since the Song Dynasty constitute a rare ancient stone hydrological record corridor. Among them, Baiheliang is known as the world's first ancient hydrological station."

"7. Two stone towers from the Eastern Han Dynasty and dozens of cliff statues, steles, and cliff poetry inscriptions from the Tang Dynasty. Some are world-famous precious works of art, and some can illustrate important local historical conditions."

"8. Nearly 300 buildings from the Ming and Qing dynasties, including temples, ancestral halls, residences, bridges, etc., combined with the natural scenery of the Three Gorges, are a gathering point of natural features and traditional culture."

"9. The ancient plank roads and towpaths are the largest ancient shipping relics in the world."

"10. A large number of folk cultural relics of the Tujia and other ethnic groups are living fossils of the four thousand years of Ba culture and other traces that continue to this day."

"Eh?" Wei Fei asked, "It seems like we haven't investigated Article 10? When did it come out?"

"Hi!" Zhou Zhi shook his head: "Didn't we stop at Badong on the way? But when we got to Yiling, Director Gao told me that Badong is not only an ethnic minority area, but also an important site for the discovery of ruins."

"There is the earliest discovered site in the Three Gorges - the Nanmuyuan site. It was discovered in 1926 by Nelson, an American who came to inspect the Three Gorges."

“In addition, there are also Flame Stone ruins, Xishangkou ruins, etc.”

“Many of the Ba bronzes we saw in Yiling were found in Badong, and there are many Ba relics in the customs and culture of local ethnic minorities.”

In fact, there was something Zhou Zhi was too embarrassed to say. The reason why Curator Gao talked to him about the importance of Badong was because Zhou Zhi found several pieces of porcelain in the Yiling Museum.

This was his professional field. Zhou Zhi recognized it at a glance and couldn't help but be shocked. This thing was one of the five famous porcelains of the Southern Song Dynasty - official kiln porcelain!

After further inquiry, it turned out that a fairly complete ancient county seat of the Song Dynasty was excavated in Badong a few years ago, which was during the period when Kou Zhun was the county magistrate here. That excavation was very important for the study of the county-level ruling areas of the Song Dynasty. Planning, institutional settings, city layout, etc. provide important evidence.

Compared to those archaeological discoveries, a few pieces of official kiln porcelain are nothing!

(End of this chapter)