Master Archaeologist

"Cultural layer", in the academic term of archaeology, specifically refers to the accumulation of soil layers formed by human activities in the site.

In archaeological fieldwork, the cultural layer is one of the most important conditions for judging a site.

Deng Xin is now facing difficulties.

She has discovered some relics from the Sanxingdui civilization period more than two meters underground, including pottery fragments and stone tools.

But, she couldn't tell, what period was the Sanxingdui cultural relic.

You should know that although the several sacrificial pits unearthed in Sanxingdui are all from the same era, that is, the late Shang Dynasty.

But this does not mean that Sanxingdui people only existed in the late Shang Dynasty.

Said it before.

At present, archaeologists have divided the existence time of Sanxingdui civilization into four periods.

That is, the first phase of Sanxingdui, the second phase of Sanxingdui, the third phase of Sanxingdui, and the fourth phase of Sanxingdui.

The age of the entire site group ranges from the late Neolithic period to the end of the Shang Dynasty and the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, lasting nearly 2000 years.

The sacrificial pits No. 1 to No. [-] are only the products of the fourth period of Neolithic Age at the top.

There are three more issues overlapping below.

And even in the fourth period, it will be subdivided.

For example, in geochronology, the "Song Dynasty cultural layer" is regarded as a layer.

But in this layer, spanning the Northern and Southern Song dynasties, the intervening years have also gone through different stages.

Moreover, things like dividing cultural layers may not necessarily be in order.

Unlike what some laymen imagine, it is enough to divide it according to modern times, modern times, Qing Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, and Song Dynasty.

it's out of the question!

Because the soil layers in many places do not have traces of human activities in every era.

Some places may have been a village in the Qing Dynasty, but in the Ming Dynasty it was a wilderness, and in the Song Dynasty it was a metropolis.

In this way, in terms of geology, the cultural layer of the Qing Dynasty may be a little more obvious, and then the layer below is directly the soil layer of the Song Dynasty, without the soil layer of the Ming Dynasty in the middle.

Because there are no traces of human activities in the middle, that is, there is no artificial "dumping garbage" on the ground, so there will be no cultural layer left.

"Scrape it and see."

After asking Deng Xin about the problem, Xie Dafei jumped off Tanfang with a shovel in his hand.

Chen Han quickly followed him down.

To be honest, he is not very familiar with the stratification of cultural layers.

When I practiced with the teacher before, the teacher was doing this kind of thing, and the students were studying on the sidelines.

After that, I followed Kong Jianwen across the country, and the tombs were all directly dug, not the kind of archeology of the nature of the site.

At least the archeology before the Shang and Zhou events can be used for cultural investigation and judgment.

Before the Shang and Zhou dynasties, whether it was a ruin or a tomb, you basically only needed to enter the tomb to find the cultural relics of the relevant age.

Therefore, Chen Han is actually not very good at investigating at the cultural level.

He and Deng Xin, just like the two students, stood obediently behind Xie Dafei, watching him divide the cultural layers.

"Needless to say, the top layer must be the cultivated soil layer of the topsoil."

"The second floor is modern."...

Xie Dafei held a hand shovel, skillfully began to draw lines on the wall of the pit.

In fact, the most obvious difference between different generations is the difference in earth color.

Generally speaking, the higher the soil layer, the more light yellow the color appears.

The lower the soil layer, the darker the color will be.

Of course, this is not absolute. In some places, the color of the soil layer will be different. After all, there are red soil and black soil.

However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with distinguishing cultural layers based on different colors. It is the most basic way to distinguish cultural layers.

However, it would be nice if the cultural layer really had such a good score.

In fact, at the third floor, things start to get complicated.

"The third layer is currently set to be the layer of the Song Dynasty." Xie Dafei pondered: "There is no trace of human activities on the Moon Bay side from the Song Dynasty to modern times."

"Even after modern times, this area has always been used as a farm."

What does that mean?

From the Song Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Moon Bay area was a deserted wilderness.

Some people will think, this is not right!

Sichuan, the Land of Abundance, has always been an important granary for the Central Plains Dynasty of China since the Song Dynasty. Human activities are very intensive. Why is there a blank here?

Hey, that's true.

Ancient people are different from modern people. In fact, even in the Ming and Qing Dynasties when the population exploded, except for the Central Plains and Jiangnan regions, the population density in other places was still very low.

Sichuan is indeed a land of abundance, but not every place has always been populated by human activities.

In fact, until the period of the Republic of China, most Sichuanese also gathered around Chengdu and Chongqing.

As for other cities and counties, they only live around the city.

Although it is said that Guanghan has a city for a long time, it was an important city in Shuhan when it was Shuhan.

But the Sanxingdui Moon Bay site is an area far away from Guanghan City, and it may have been a mountain forest in the past.

At least from the Song Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it has not been developed.

On the contrary, there is a layer of cultural legacy of human activities in the Song Dynasty.

This shows that Moon Bay had traces of intensive human activities in the Song Dynasty, or it was a village, or it might have a city.

But after the Song Dynasty, it was abandoned.

Maybe it has something to do with the chaotic war at the end of Yuan Dynasty.

"And the fourth layer below the Song Dynasty directly reaches the Shang and Zhou Dynasties."

"However, the age of this fourth layer may be relatively late, and it will not be earlier than the Twelve Bridges Culture Period at the earliest."

Xie Dafei taught Deng Xin while drawing the line with a shovel.

The so-called Twelve Bridges Culture Period is another peak in the history of the development of ancient Shu civilization after the Sanxingdui Culture in Sichuan.

Because it was discovered on Shierqiao Road, Shudu Avenue, Chengdu, it was named Shierqiao Culture.

Shierqiao Culture is a settlement site centered on Shierqiao Road. It is an architectural site from the Shang Dynasty to the Western Zhou Dynasty (1700-771 BC).

The writing on the pottery spinning wheel unearthed at the Shierqiao site is different from the so-called "Bashu writing" and is close to the Yin Ruins oracle bone writing system.

Bashu characters refer to some images and symbols cast and engraved on Bashu bronze wares in the Warring States Period.

The characters of Shierqiao culture are different from those of Bashu culture, which shows that there is no connection between the two.

In other words, after the Twelve Bridges Culture was destroyed later, it was not inherited by the State of Shu in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

According to the current research, the Shierqiao Culture should have appeared after the Sanxingdui Civilization.

And the geographical location has also moved from Guanghan in Sanxingdui to Chengdu.

According to the current continuous research, most domestic scholars tend to believe that the Twelve Bridges culture is the continuation of the Sanxingdui civilization.

However, there is a transitional period from the Sanxingdui culture to the Shierqiao culture, and there are many ruins.

In the past, the relics of this stage were generally classified into the Shierqiao Culture, but in recent years, it has been proposed to classify it or part of it into the Sanxingdui Culture.

On the side of Moon Bay, the distribution of cultural layers during the "Twelve Bridges Culture" period was discovered, which once again shows that there should be a connection between the Sanxingdui civilization and the Twelve Bridges culture!

"And under the layer of Shang and Zhou culture, there is the stage of Sanxingdui!"