Master Archaeologist

Chapter 369 Liangzhu who missed out on bronze and iron
The carpentry mortise and tenon structure of the Chinese nation has been used for thousands of years!

This is a reasonable, but somewhat unexpected discovery.

It is reasonable because the mortise and tenon structure has been a traditional Chinese carpentry craft since ancient times, and no one will doubt that it has been passed down for a long time.

Unexpectedly, I didn't expect the inheritance to be so long, and it can be traced back to the ancient Liangzhu Kingdom in the late Neolithic Age.

The most optimistic scholars in the past believed that the mortise and tenon structure first appeared in the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties.

After all, this is a design that requires a lot of ingenuity, and it still requires "wisdom".

Not just mortise and tenon structure.

In fact, Liangzhu has brought many surprises to archaeologists.

One of the earliest surprises was the textile culture of Liangzhu.

There are unearthed tools for weaving in Liangzhu.

It's not like in some places, if you find a silk fragment or a jagged bone, you can say that your side is the birthplace of silk.

If it is like that, the places on the Silk Road will probably become the birthplaces.

"The beauty of clothing is called Hua." Why do we say that Liangzhu has silkworms and weaves, which is one of the origins of China?

Because in the early sites of Liangzhu culture, many bamboo weaves, grass weaves and silk and linen fabrics were found.

Bamboo weaving utensils include bamboo mats, baskets, baskets, baskets, dustpans and so on.

Linen fabrics include linen and twine.

Silk fabrics include silk flakes, silk threads and ribbons.

The above-mentioned bamboo weaving utensils and silk and linen fabrics are of a very high level of craftsmanship!
For example, the weaving method of bamboo ware is one warp and weft herringbone pattern, two warp and two weft herringbone pattern, plum blossom eyes, diamond-shaped lattice and dense weft and sparse warp cross pattern.

The appearance of silk fabrics shows that Liangzhu had already started to raise silkworms and weave 5000 to [-] years ago.

Bamboo knitting and hemp fabrics are also a major feature of Chinese civilization.

Until the Qing Dynasty, China was the largest user and manufacturer of bamboo weaving devices and linen products in the world.

Not to mention the Qing Dynasty, in the 80s and [-]s, people in some remote areas still mostly made bamboo mats, baskets, baskets, baskets and other items from bamboo sticks.

Until now, there are still craftsmen who specialize in making bamboo ware, and they are still using the craftsmanship handed down from generation to generation to make handmade bamboo ware.

And these handicrafts can be traced back to the Liangzhu civilization 5300 years ago, which is simply a matter of tears.

Huaxia inheritance, immortal for 5000 years, immortal for 5000 years, is still glowing today.

This sense of national pride cannot be felt by Indians, Middle Easterners, or Egyptians.

Because the ancient civilization that existed at the same time as Liangzhu has long been annihilated in the long river of history, and no culture has been handed down.

The so-called ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and ancient India are just pages of written records, and even the people who live in these places have changed their races.

But China is different, China does not have ancient China.

The Chinese civilization 5000 years ago is the Chinese civilization 5000 years later. We have never lost, lost, or lost our inheritance!

Not just bamboo, but also pottery!

In human society 5300 years ago, pottery was the main carrier of cultural inheritance.

Not only in China, but in the entire earth 5000 years ago, the most brilliant technology was the making of pottery.

Throughout the Eurasian continent, pottery shone with the light of civilization at this time.

Although it is said that when the ancestors of human beings, the southern apes, came down from the trees and separated from their relatives, chimpanzees, human beings embarked on another route to dominate the world and became a unique animal on earth.

However, when it comes to the beginning of human beings, they are truly separated from their relatives from the "soul".

That had to start with learning how to make pottery.

Although, in anthropology, when humans learn to make and use stone tools, they are obviously different from other relatives, because humans have mastered IQ.

But, although stone tools are useful, humans are not the only ones who can use them.

In fact, some African chimpanzees have already learned to use stone tools. Occasionally, one or two chimpanzees can do preliminary processing of stones. In a sense, they can be regarded as "making" stone tools.

Chimpanzees are only one step away from overturning the consensus that "making and using stone tools is the biggest difference between humans and other animals."

However, pottery is different!
It can be said that the appearance of "pottery" is what really made human beings the light of civilization on earth.

Pottery is not like stone tools, which can be used simply by polishing. It requires a very complicated process.

Even if modern people want to figure out how to make pottery by themselves without anyone teaching them, to be honest, it is quite difficult.

The pottery production technology of the Liangzhu civilization has reached a very high level, and it should be regarded as the peak level among the civilizations of the same period.

Because a considerable part of the pottery of the Liangzhu civilization has used the fast wheel technology.

Don't underestimate this fast wheel technology.

Until now, this technology is still the main production technology of ceramics.

After 5000 years of technological explosions, humans have mastered bronze, iron, steam, electricity, and even nuclear energy and information technology, but the production technology of pottery has not improved much.

Human beings 5000 years ago had already played pottery to the peak. Even from the perspective of modern people, it is impossible to improve the craftsmanship of pottery.

Of course, modern equipment can be added to make machines and the like, but this obviously does not improve the technology, but only improves production efficiency.

The Liangzhu civilization learned the methods of making black pottery and black pottery from the Hemudu culture on the south side of the Qiantang River. This black pottery and black pottery must not be underestimated. In fact, it contains two technologies.

The first is the use of charcoal to obtain a high-temperature kiln, which is one of the prerequisites for later bronze smelting.

The second is carburizing technology, which is related to the quality of bronzes and irons.

The difference between pig iron and wrought iron lies in the amount of carburization.

That is to say, Liangzhu people had mastered the technology of iron and bronze smelting unintentionally.

They use this process of making pottery to smelt primitive bronze. In fact, there should be no problem and it can be done.

It's just a pity that during the more than 1000 years of development of the Liangzhu people, it seems that they have not discovered bronze, a mineral that can trigger a technological revolution. Unfortunately, they missed the bronze civilization.

Liangzhu’s representative black pottery is that after the kiln is fired to a certain extent, the kiln fire is deliberately extinguished, so that the incompletely burned carbon dust fills the entire sealed kiln, and the carbon is infiltrated into the pottery. Made in one firing.

This kind of process, with a little improvement, can also be used for ironmaking!

Unfortunately, the development of civilization has never been linear, but full of surprises.

(End of this chapter)