Master Archaeologist

"Is this the Tiger Ridge Dam?"

Stretching out his hands to support his sore waist, standing at the foot of the mountain, Kong Jianwen overlooked a green depression below, and heaved a long sigh.

Finally found a place.

The overall structure of the water conservancy system around Liangzhu Ancient City was discovered in 2018 and officially announced in 2021.

The water conservancy system is distributed in Pingyao Town, Yuhang District, HZ City, located in the north and west of Liangzhu Ancient City, and consists of 11 dams.

These dikes and dams can be divided into three types according to their location and shape: the long dikes in front of the mountains, the high dams connecting the valley mouths, and the low dams connecting the plains and hills.

To put it simply, it is a water conservancy dam that is almost parallel to the foot of the mountain range to the north of Liangzhu Ancient City.

As we all know, the end of the plain outside the ancient city of Liangzhu is surrounded by mountains on three sides, only the east side facing the sea has no mountains.

Because Liangzhu once experienced an overwhelming flood, which seriously changed the local hydrology.

So what the water system near Liangzhu was like 5000 years ago is no longer clear.

However, according to the dam built by the Liangzhu people on the mountain, it can be seen that when the Liangzhu people lived here, there was a danger of flood discharge in the north and west.

That's why Liangzhu people built 11 dams around the mountains in the north and west.

This can also be said to be the earliest, most mature, and largest group water conservancy project in China.

Let's say that.

Liangzhu people were able to build such 5000 dams 11 years ago, which is no different from the difficulty of building the Three Gorges Dam by modern people.

They are all projects of the century, and they can only be built with the power of a country.

This is why there is no objection at all to the Liangzhu civilization being a country rather than a tribe at home and abroad.

Where can a tribe build such a large water conservancy project?
This is the same as Qin, Zhao, Yan and other countries that said they built the Great Wall were just a few small tribes.

Isn't this a mess!

However, when the dam is discovered, it is natural to explore later, it does not mean that the traces are found, even if the archaeology is completed.

In fact, the archaeological work has only just begun.

In order to further understand the structure and construction method of the dam and obtain the basis of archaeological stratigraphy, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the ZJ Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, in conjunction with the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Social Sciences, will conduct a survey of the high-rise dam from July 2023 to April 7. Excavation was carried out at Laohuling, Diba Shizishan, Liyushan and Changqing Lake in the middle section of the Tangshan long embankment, and some dam bodies and reservoir areas were explored.

The main goal of this excavation and exploration is to obtain important information on the structure of the dam body and construction technology, and at the same time explore the overlay relationship of key strata in the age of the dam body, and verify the reliability of the conclusions from the previous carbon 14 dating of the dam.

To put it simply, it is to find out the structure of these dams, what they are made of, and the most important age, whether they are in the same period as the ancient city of Liangzhu.

Make no mistake, it is a big oolong.

This time, the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Social Sciences is responsible for the key exploration and small-scale excavation of the Tiger Ridge Dam, which is in a relatively good state of preservation and working conditions.

It is expected to take three months.

The Gukou high dam system to which Laohuling Dam belongs is located in Penggong Township in the northwest of Liangzhu Site Group, and consists of six dams: Ganggongling, Laohuling, Zhoujiafan, Qiuwu, Shiwu and Beebee Nong. …

According to the location analysis of the dams, the above six dams are divided into east and west groups. Laohuling Dam, together with Ganggongling and Zhoujiafan Dams in the east, block the main valley on the west side of Gangongling and the branch valley on the east side of Qianshan Mountain. water, forming a reservoir.

Laohuling Dam connects Laohuling on the east side and Dustpanwu on the west side, in a northwest-southeast direction, with a length of about 135 meters and a residual height of 13.5 meters.The existing dam crest is about 24 meters above sea level.

That is to say, the dam back then was more than 100 meters long, at least 14 meters high, and could reach a maximum of 24 meters.

This size, for modern engineering dams, can only be regarded as pediatrics.

But consider that it was built 5000 years ago.

Building an earth dam more than 5000 meters high and more than 20 meters long 100 years ago was no small project.

Of course, compared to the Egyptian pyramids of the same period, it is really incomparable.

Holding a few blueprints, Kong Jianwen looked at them in detail and said:
"Combining the direction of the dam, the preservation status of the dam body and the academic purpose, determine the basic plan for archaeological exploration."

"In order to avoid causing greater damage to the dam body, the Luoyang shovel is still used as the main tool for exploration work."

"A total of four rows of exploratory holes were laid out for the exploration work, roughly distributed in the shape of a "well"."

"The first row of probe holes is located in the middle of the top of the dam, in the same direction as the dam, with a distance of 5 meters or 10 meters, and the distance between individual probe holes is 20 meters. A probe hole near the east end is moved westward by 1.5 meters because it is located in the reservoir. "

"The second and third column will do the same!"

What do you mean?
To put it simply, Chen Han and others will drill holes like the oil workers.

They wanted to drill a probe hole with a Luoyang shovel every five or ten meters along the trace of the dam on the site of the dam.

A total of three rows should be drilled horizontally and vertically, about forty or fifty probe holes.

The reason for this is very simple. In fact, it is to explore the location of the entire dam and determine the soil structure of the site, which is a kind of preliminary archaeological investigation.

In fact, most archaeological projects require exploration first and then excavation.

Generally, only those archaeological projects in which tomb robbery is discovered and then salvage excavations are carried out, because the tombs have been identified, and there are no tombs rather than "relics", so there is no need to use Luoyang shovels for exploration, and they can be excavated directly.

A water conservancy project like this 5000 years ago has not been excavated, and archaeologists do not know the specific situation. Of course, a lot of caves have to be drilled to find out the detailed situation.

Fortunately, the workload of [-] or [-] caves is actually not too big. The archaeological team has more than ten people, and each person only drills three or four caves on average.

It's just that the hole is a little deep.

But the result is still very gratifying.

Soon, Chen Han and others had a model judgment on the dam.

The existing width of the dam should be about 54.5 meters, and the overall shape is a gentle slope with a small slope.

The original width was nearly 100 meters.

The accumulation can also be divided into five major layers. According to the soil brought out of Luoyang City, it can be judged that there are five soil layers: gray-yellow soil, gray-brown soil, yellow-brown soil, light yellow clay, and green paste mud.

As for the five soil layers, which periods are they, and which soil layers are part of the dam, it is necessary for the explorer to conduct detailed excavations before making a judgment.

On the basis of previous archaeological investigation and exploration, Kong Jianwen determined the work area for this archaeological excavation.

In order to reduce the damage to the dam body caused by the excavation work, the excavation method of trench anatomy was adopted.

The two trenches named "T1" and "T2" were officially excavated at the order of Kong Jianwen!