Master Archaeologist

Chapter 368 Mortise and tenon 5300 years ago

"How brilliant is Liangzhu?"

Chen Han couldn't help asking himself in his heart.

5300 years ago, this is a magical time period.

It seemed that the civilization of the whole world exploded at that moment.

The ancient Egypt in the Nile River Basin was unified, forming the world's first unified royal country.

The Sumerians established a city-state civilization in the southern plains of Mesopotamia.

The Harappan culture emerged in the Indus Valley.

On the land of China, the Liangzhu civilization appeared on the north bank of the Qiantang River.

As for Liangzhu, it is now attracting worldwide attention.

Just now, Chen Han heard the latest news.

More than 20 mu of paddy fields were discovered at the Maoshan ruins more than 80 kilometers east of Liangzhu ancient city.

Among them, the east-west irrigation canals and the north-south braised soil ridges divide a neat row of rice fields, which is amazing.

Surplus food is the most important condition for the formation of culture and civilization.

To put it bluntly, only when we are full can we have culture and civilization.

The total amount of carbonized rice unearthed in Liangzhu Ancient City reaches 20 to 30 jin.

Such large-scale rice cultivation is inseparable from advanced production tools.

5300 years ago, when other farming cultures were still using Leisi, a tool similar to today's shovel, to plow the land one by one, the Songze Culture, the predecessor of the Liangzhu Civilization, had already used the split method after technical improvement. Stone plow.

In fact, cultural settlements in other parts of China at the same time also cultivated the land, but most of them used shovels made of animal bones or stones (called Leisi by the ancients) to dig the ground one by one to plant things.

Strictly speaking, it is not called "farming culture", but called "horticultural agriculture". To put it bluntly, it is impossible to scale up, nor can it feed a population of tens of thousands in a city.

But Liangzhu is different.

20 to 30 catties of carbonized rice can be preserved until today, more than 5000 years later, which shows that Liangzhu's food storage is very advanced and the output is very large.

At least one barn can have a stock of 30 to [-] catties of grain, which shows that Liangzhu was rich in grain at that time and the scale of farming operations was large.

The need for water conservancy projects in large-scale farming has become very urgent.The construction of water conservancy projects will inevitably require some people to leave food production to specialize in this work, and an organized leader is needed to manage it.

This is how civilization, that is, the state, arose in the first place.

The water conservancy project in Liangzhu is very grand. Although a single dam does not seem very "magnificent", at least it is not as impressive as the Egyptian pyramids.

But in fact, the engineering volume of the 11 dams in Liangzhu is comparable to the Egyptian pyramids.

The Liangzhu dam required 1 people to build it for ten years.

Such a large amount of engineering shows that the Liangzhu Civilization had a very strong agricultural foundation and high-yield grain production 5300 years ago. Only a large amount of grain reserves could support so many laborers leaving grain production to do such projects. Centralized rule can organize and lead such a large-scale project, which is an important basis for supporting Liangzhu as a national civilization.

The Liangzhu civilization has a huge inner and outer city wall of earth and stone structure. It was first discovered on February 1969, 2, 11 days before the Lunar New Year. The keyhole satellite of the United States took a photo overlooking Liangzhu.

It was winter, the vegetation was withered, and it was the age of revolution. Development and construction were not the main social activities, and the landforms were basically kept intact. The ancient city walls of Liangzhu and the dam system were clearly displayed, which helped Chinese archaeologists discover the 5000-year-old The former Liangzhu Ancient City.

The ancient city of Liangzhu has achieved the separation of urban and rural areas, and all agricultural settlements are located outside the city, providing food for urban residents.The ancient city of Liangzhu is a typical "water town in the south of the Yangtze River". The traffic in the city is mainly rivers, and the main means of transportation are boats.

Previously, the estimate of the size of the entire city was relatively conservative.

Simply based on the differentiation of the inner and outer city walls, it is believed that the Mojiaoshan palace area in the center of the city's power is about 30 square meters, and the inner city, which is the main handicraft industry area, is about 300 million square meters, or 3 square kilometers.

The outer city is the main grain-producing area, covering an area of ​​6.3 square kilometers.

This is the scope of Liangzhu Ancient City.

There is nothing wrong with this range. The ancient city of Liangzhu 5300 years ago was indeed so large.

However, new archaeological excavations have shown that although the city of Liangzhu is within such a range, it does not mean that there are no people living outside the city.

More than 20 mu of paddy fields were found in the Maoshan ruins, which was discovered more than 80 kilometers east of Liangzhu ancient city.

This shows that at least outside the ancient city of Liangzhu, within the radiation area of ​​20 kilometers, it still belongs to the agricultural work area of ​​Liangzhu.

There are still some "savages" scattered on the vast plains outside the city, carrying out farming operations and producing food to supply the lives of the people in the ancient city of Liangzhu.

Perhaps, Liangzhu Ancient City, the capital of Liangzhu, had more people living there than archaeologists imagined.

There are a large number of people in the city who rely on the food provided by agriculture with a radius of 20 kilometers, not just the 6 square kilometers of agricultural area in the outer city!

Moreover, more and more "technical" ruins have been discovered one after another.

In the temple site in the city, the archaeological team of Zhejiang University discovered an ancient well with a wooden shelf in it.

The wooden shelf itself is not uncommon, and people in the Neolithic Age have already used wood to make tools.

The strange thing is that these wooden shelves are fixed with a mortise and tenon structure!

Mortise and tenon is a main structural method of traditional Chinese architecture, furniture and other equipment. It is a connection method that uses concave and convex parts on two components.

The protruding part is called tenon (or tenon), and the concave part is called tenon (or tenon, tenon).

The framework of Huaxia wooden buildings generally includes basic components such as columns, beams, squares, backing plates, purlins (truss purlins), bucket arches, rafters, and watchboards.These components are independent of each other and need to be connected in a certain way to form a house.

In Huaxia architecture, tenon and tenon joints are used in principle, and iron nails are also used when necessary.

Huaxia Furniture's "mortise and tenon" method of connecting various parts is the main structural method of furniture modeling.Various mortise and tenon joints are made in different ways and have different application scopes, but they all have the function of "joint" in the physical structure of each piece of furniture.

If the mortise and tenon joints are used properly, the two wooden structures can be tightly fastened to a "seamless" level.It is a basic skill that ancient carpenters must have. The level of craftsmanship can be clearly reflected through the structure of mortise and tenon.

The ancient Chinese buildings and most of the wooden tools have always used the mortise and tenon structure, which is the biggest difference between Chinese civilization and Western civilization.

Westerners use nails to fix buildings, but Chinese people only use mortise and tenon structures in most cases.

Including the large-scale Forbidden City, all buildings are fixed with the help of mortise and tenon structures, which is the crystallization of the wisdom of the Chinese people.

However, when the "mortise and tenon" construction method first appeared has always been controversial in the historian circle.

Many people believe that this is a woodworking technique invented by Lu Ban.

Because Luban is a well-known woodworking inventor, and the legendary Luban lock uses the characteristics of mortise and tenon.

Lu Ban lived in the late Spring and Autumn period, around 600 BC.

However, this conjecture can now be overturned.

The mortise and tenon technology of the Chinese people was born far earlier than imagined!

It was born during the Liangzhu civilization period 5300 years ago!

(End of this chapter)