Master Archaeologist

Chapter 370 Liangzhu Advanced

There are still many types of pottery in Liangzhu people.

As for cooking utensils alone, there is Tao Ding—this kind of Tao Ding can only cook porridge, and if you want to eat dry rice, it cannot make it.

For cooking dry rice, Liangzhu people have special pottery barrier tripods and pottery tripod retorts, both of which have a compartment inside the tripod, with water on the bottom and steamed rice on top, so that dry rice can be cooked.

In terms of how to cook, the Liangzhu people who have mastered professional rice cultivation certainly did a lot of research, and the research seems to be good.

Cooking methods such as pottery dingzhen still exist until modern times, but the tripod is changed into a pot.

Of course, if there are cooking utensils, there will be food serving utensils, that is, bowls for serving and eating.

The food containers used by Liangzhu people are mainly "beans", and they are black pottery beans with Liangzhu characteristics.

Bean is something like a tall plate.

Pottery beans have been unearthed at the Dawenkou site, which were mainly used to contain grains such as millet and millet, and were later used to contain condiments such as pickles and meat sauce.

The Dawenkou site is located in the Shandong area to the north of Liangzhu, and it first appeared 6100 years ago, and there were exchanges with Liangzhu.

Obviously, Liangzhu's "bean" culture may have originated from the influence of Dawenkou culture.

However, beans in Liangzhu also have their own evolutionary style.

In the late Liangzhu period, the bean handles became more and more slender.

It doesn't look like a food container anymore, but more like a lamp. I don't know if it is troublesome for Liangzhu people to eat with such a tall "bowl".

However, the "bean" food container has always been popular in China. Until the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, it was commonly used by most Chinese people. It can be seen that this container is very durable and easy to use.

Of course, Ding is the same.

Huaxia's inheritance is really amazing.

The same food container and cooker that first appeared 6000 years ago are still in use three to four thousand years later, and more people use them.

This kind of inheritance that has been passed down for thousands of years, Europeans really dare not even think about it!
They did not develop their own characteristic food containers until the Middle Ages, only simple plates and bowls.

It is no wonder that Europeans have always been reluctant to admit that Chinese culture has a long history, and do not admit that it has been around for 5000 years.

With their poor culture and imagination, they can't believe that a culture can last for so long.

Just a frog in a well.

Of course, storage containers (jars), wine containers, wine containers (cups), and even wine filters have all appeared in Liangzhu and are very mature.

Liangzhu's wine glasses are basically the same as several types of wine glasses commonly used by modern people.

On the contrary, there is no such complicated equipment as the jue.

Our ancestors used cups and cups with handles 5000 years ago. After 5000 years, modern people have returned to the basics and returned to this simple and easy-to-use utensil.

It can be seen that after going around for a while, we still found that the simplest type of device used by our ancestors is the most convenient and easy to use.

Of course, for modern people, Liangzhu jade is the most astonishing thing. If you want to use something to represent Liangzhu civilization, the first choice is jade.

Among the six Chinese utensils, four are from the Liangzhu culture.

"The etiquette is so great, so it is called summer." Jade is used for sacrifices, praying for good weather, offering sacrifices to ancestors, and paying homage to the dead.

Many later cultures had jade wares, so why don't we say they are the origin of the jade culture of the Chinese nation?
The main reason is that either the method of using jade (ritual system) has not been inherited by Chinese culture, or the jade of this culture was originally inherited in Liangzhu.

For example, Yujue, Majiabang, Songze, Lingjiatan, Hongshan, Shijiahe, Shandong Longshan, etc., have many cultures and have different shapes.

But before Liangzhu, jade rings were used as earrings.

Until the beginning of Liangzhu, the jade rings were pierced and used as accessories on clothes.

This method of use was spread to Shijiahe Culture in Hubei and Longshan Culture in Shandong. Until the Shang and Zhou dynasties, whether jade rings were used as accessories or earrings became the standard for judging Yixia.

That is to say, it is the Zhou Dynasty, and those who still wear jade rings as earrings are barbarians.

Moreover, the jade culture of Liangzhu is also very advanced.

In the Songze culture before Liangzhu, most of the jade wares produced were flat carving.

By the Liangzhu period, it had evolved to three-dimensional carving, and a piece of jade had to go through rough embryo-shaping-polishing-engraving-relief-polishing before it could be considered complete.

In addition, Liangzhu has perfected the most traditional and classic techniques of jade production, such as the method of subtracting the ground and cutting lines.

The production methods of these jade wares have been used until later generations.

Let's take an abstract example.

Liangzhu's technical research is like inventing electricity.

And the successor civilizations that followed were all based on Liangzhu’s foundation to study how electricity should be used better and more conveniently.

If Liangzhu hadn't invented these jade crafts, then perhaps there would be no unique Chinese jade craftsmanship in later generations.

Moreover, Liangzhu established the method of using "ceremonial vessels", which was inherited by later generations.

Jade cong, jade bi, jade axe, and jade huang are all funerary objects and ritual vessels.

Among them, the jade ax represents weapons, military power and royal power, and the jade cong is engraved with a divine emblem, representing divine power.

However, these things are known to Chen Han. Although he sighs, he no longer feels shocked.

What Chen Han really cares about is a question that he was very concerned about when he was in Sanxingdui.

Does Liangzhu have writing?
Whether Liangzhu has writing is a question that many people are very concerned about.

To be honest, quite a few runes have been found.

The reason why it is called a talisman is because we cannot understand its meaning.

It is impossible for such a systematic writing as oracle bone inscriptions to be suddenly thought of overnight and accepted and used by everyone. It must have its predecessor.

As I said before, the earliest 9000-year-old Jiahu site found primitive depiction symbols.

In the 7000-year-old Shuangdun site, a larger scale of traceable depiction symbols was found.

The 6000-year-old Jiangzhai and Banpo carved symbols.

In Dawenkou in the year 5000, inscribed symbols were also found, which can barely be counted as characters.

So, are the talisman inscriptions discovered in Liangzhu, a little later in the same period, written?
Not really.

However, although I dare not say that Liangzhu's talisman carvings must be the predecessor of oracle bone inscriptions, Liangzhu's talisman carvings do have something very unique.

First of all, the most special one is Liangzhu's unique facial pattern of god, man and animal.

The most exquisite pattern of the face of a god, man and animal is carved on jade.

The actual width of this ornament is less than 4 cm and the height is 3 cm.

However, with the fine lines that are as fine as millimeters, the fine cloud-shaped and thunder-shaped hat, the character crown, the feather crown, the inverted trapezoidal face, the hanging garlic nose, the I-shaped nose bridge and nose end, and the oval eyelids are carved out. Characteristic beast eyes, huge mouth and upper and lower rows of tusks.

And supplemented by densely packed fine lines, a picture of the face of a god, a man and a beast is constructed.

In such a small area, it is really amazing to carve out such fine and intricate figures.

Moreover, there are various versions such as simplified version and abstract version of this god-man-beast pattern.

(End of this chapter)