Master Archaeologist

Chapter 376

"This is the Yaoshan Altar?"

Climbing up the hill, a red square filling area came into view of Chen Han and Kong Jianwen.

The Yaoshan altar is located in the northeast of the ancient city. In order to build the altar, the Liangzhu people flattened the top of the mountain and used stones to wrap the edges. They built a rectangular earthen platform with a bucket-like shape, which is generally north-south.The mountain below the earth platform is also built with stone ridges according to the situation to strengthen the slope or repair the activity plane.

The four sides of the platform face east, south, west and north respectively.The mesa is built with reddish-brown soil, and a back-shaped groove is dug on the east side, and then the groove is filled with gray soil, so that the mesa forms a triple earth-colored structure.

Later, the altar was abandoned and used as a cemetery, where 13 high-level tombs were buried.

In addition to the Yaoshan altar, there is also a Huiguanshan altar near the ancient city of Liangzhu.

The Huiguanshan altar is also quite similar to the Yaoshan altar. It is located in the northwest of Liangzhu ancient city, and the altar plane on the top is also built using the natural mountain.On the west side of the top of the altar, there is also a gray soil frame in the shape of "Hui".

These two altars are not ordinary.

It is not only an altar for Liangzhu people to engage in sacrificial activities, but also an observatory for them to observe celestial phenomena.

The mid-latitude region of the northern hemisphere where Liangzhu is located is divided into four seasons. The vernal equinox, summer solstice, autumnal equinox and winter solstice are the dividing points of the four seasons of the year, which play an important role in guiding agricultural production.

In order to confirm the specific dates of these times, the people of Liangzhu used the directions of sunrise and sunset, combined with the altar, to distinguish the dates.

The 24 solar terms can be distinguished through the sun's sunrise and sunset sunlight shining on different areas of the altar.

Of course, there should be no 24 solar terms in the Liangzhu era.

but!

The purpose of the 24 solar terms of the Chinese people is actually to guide agriculture.

On the Yaoshan altar in Liangzhu, the four seasons can be distinguished precisely by the light of sunrise and sunset. This is definitely not a coincidence, but Liangzhu people really use the altar to distinguish the date and guide agricultural cultivation.

Specifically, for example, the sunrise direction on the winter solstice coincides with the southeast corner of the two altars, while the sunrise on the summer solstice coincides with the northeast corner.

On the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, the sun happens to rise from the due east of the altar and set due to the west of the altar.

Such an accurate pattern obviously cannot be a coincidence.

Through the four corners of the square and a central axis in the middle, the three key dates of summer solstice, autumnal equinox, and winter solstice can be identified through sunrise and sunset.

If you want to subdivide, you only need to divide the perimeter of the altar into 24 parts, which can correspond to 24 solar terms.

The specific method of use is somewhat similar to that in the "Mars Search and Rescue" movie, when the hero wants to communicate with the earth, he communicates through handwritten letters.

The Mars rover is the sun, and the various letters placed on the ground by the hero are the Yaoshan altar.

When the sun points to which direction, it represents which solar term it is now.

Simple and easy to use.

The shape of the entire altar is a square Hui character structure, which looks a bit like a "Hui" character. The whole is red, which is very different from the yellow soil next to it.

In the center of the altar is a square laterite platform, surrounded by gray soil ditch, the outermost surface is gravel, and the outer side is about 20 meters long.After the altar was abandoned, it was used as a cemetery. There are 7 tombs in the south and 5 in the north.

These tombs have all been cleaned up.

The burial objects in the tomb are rich, including more than 1050 pieces (groups) of jade, pottery, and lacquerware.

Assemblage of stone tools, the types of stone tools unearthed from the Yaoshan site include ax, pillars with covers, stone ornaments around the waist and pillars.

The types of jade wares include crown-shaped vessels, cylindrical vessels with lids, trident-shaped vessels, grouped cone-shaped vessels, axe, cong, huang, round medals, bracelet-shaped vessels, plaque decorations, belt hooks, spinning wheels, birds, etc., but among them Grouped ornaments such as small tubes, beads, cones, etc. account for a large proportion.

Pottery combination, pottery was unearthed from 12 tombs in Yaoshan.

A total of 55 pieces of pottery were unearthed from the entire cemetery.

Among them, there are 13 pieces of sand-filled pottery tripods.

From the number of unearthed objects, it can be seen that the tombs buried in Yaoshan are all very high-end tombs. There are few utensils used by commoners such as pottery, and jade ware is the most, and there are also high-end crown-shaped utensils.

As I said before, crown-shaped vessels in Liangzhu are generally only worn and used by nobles who have the power of the gods or kings.

At least one must be a high priest level person.

Tridents, groups of cones, and crowns matched with crowns are very Indian-style.

It's just that Indians put feathers on their heads, while Liangzhu people use high-grade jade to make jade cones.

Judging from the specifications of the tombs and the identities of the nobles buried at the altar in Yaoshan, it can be judged that although royal power, military power and divine power were equally emphasized in Liangzhu society, divine power was still the main one.

It belongs to the rule mode of "theocracy above all else".

The unrestrained squandering of social wealth on the construction and activities of non-productive religious sacrificial facilities has hollowed out the foundation for the normal operation and sustainable development of the social body, and made the society lose the motivation for further development.

At the same time, wizards who hold theocratic power do not rely on their own military and administrative skills to manage the country, but to achieve leadership by offering sacrifices to gods, talking with gods, adhering to the will of gods and personal imagination.

This can be regarded as overturning the previous widely held opinion in the academic circles that the early Chinese civilization emphasized royal and military power and rejected the impression of theocracy.

The dissemination power of the Shaman religious tradition integrated in Liangzhu is particularly noticeable.

Liangzhu’s most important jade wares, cong and bi, are widely popular in various places. The images of fangs gods, dragon-shaped animals, divine birds and cicadas representing insects’ transformation and emergence from the Liangzhu religion are widely popular in various places. Culture, Taosi culture, and Shimao culture are highlighted in different ways, and jade becomes an important carrier for these cultures to express power and rank.

These phenomena are reminiscent of the imitation of this holy place by the city-states of the Mayan civilization after the decline of the Teotihuacan civilization in Mesoamerica; and the widespread popularity of the new Feathered Serpent belief after the decline of the Mayan civilization.

In fact, these shamanic religious elements were also inherited by later Chinese culture, and continued until the late Shang Dynasty.

In fact, Chinese civilization, like other native civilizations around the world, attaches great importance to religious theocracy, and does not believe in "gods" as much as imagined, but only believes in ancestors.

Of course, the influence of the Liangzhu culture should not be limited to religious traditions. The Shimao site and the Yaowangcheng site of the Longshan culture also have a city layout with double walls surrounding the high platform. The Yaowangcheng site found a city-building technique similar to that of Liangzhu. .

These are all technologies and layouts that were obviously influenced by the Liangzhu culture.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Liangzhu culture is an important part of Chinese civilization, and that the emergence of Liangzhu's early state is an important evidence of Chinese civilization for more than 5000 years, and it is "the original China".

(End of this chapter)