"Sanxing Village" is not "Sanxingdui", which may solve the mystery of the origin of civilization in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River

On November 18, the much-anticipated Sanxing Village Archaeological Site Park officially started construction in Jintan District, Changzhou City. This project aims to protect and display the Sanxing Village site from the late Majiabang culture to the early Songze culture in the Neolithic Age.

The Sanxing Village site in Jintan, Changzhou dates back 6500-5500 years. It is a distinctive site on the west side of the Taihu Lake basin of the same period. It is also an important node of prehistoric civilization in Jiangsu Province, and it strongly proves the brilliant prehistoric culture in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Comprehensive display of the Neolithic civilization in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River

From 1993 to 1998, the Sanxing Village site was excavated for the first time, unearthing more than 4,000 cultural relics. It was selected as one of the "Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries in China in 1998" and was listed as a national key cultural relic protection unit in 2006.

In April 2023, the second archaeological excavation of the Sanxingcun site was launched. The total area of ​​the existing site is 350,000 square meters, more than 300 new Neolithic tombs have been excavated, and a large number of relatively well-preserved ancient human remains have been unearthed, providing precious samples of the early "ancient country era" for the study of the civilization process in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

During the opening ceremony, Dr. Long Xiao, a member of the Sanxing Village Site Joint Archaeological Team, introduced the archaeological excavation work at the Sanxing Village Site. Long Xiao said that the preliminary archaeological exploration and excavation revealed that the site is roughly composed of the northern residential area, the central earth platform and the southern burial area, with a clear zoning layout. The human bones in the tombs are well preserved, and many previously unseen funeral behaviors have been discovered, providing new information for understanding the burial system and customs of this period. At the same time, it also provides rare materials for scientific and technological work such as ancient DNA research in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and even the entire southern region. Judging from the tombs, Sanxing Village has begun to show initial social differentiation in the late stage.

Lin Liugen, a professor at the School of Art and Archaeology of Zhejiang University, said that the lower reaches of the Yangtze River are the most typical representative of the high level of development of early regional civilization in China, with many important sites, including Sanxing Village. The unearthed cultural relics and various relics of Sanxing Village show that the lower reaches of the Yangtze River had a relatively developed primitive culture and agricultural civilization in the late Neolithic Age.

It is reported that the construction of Sanxing Village Archaeological Site Park is not only to protect the site itself, but also to fully display the Neolithic civilization in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. It will further enhance the understanding of the ancient civilization in the Yangtze River Basin and provide important materials for archaeological, historical and cultural research.

Progress of ancient DNA research on unearthed human bones announced

Jintan is located at the junction of the Taihu Plain and the Ningzhen Hilly Area, with dense water networks and a humid environment. The lower reaches of the Yangtze River and even the entire southern region have acidic soil, making it difficult to preserve prehistoric human bones.

For example, archaeological discoveries at the Liangzhu site have revealed that in many tombs, only funerary objects such as jade and pottery remain, with almost no human bones, making it impossible to accurately identify basic characteristics such as age and gender. However, the Sanxingcun site not only has a large number of human bones discovered, but most of them are well preserved.

On November 18, at the on-site meeting of the archaeological work at Sanxing Village, Fu Qiaomei's team from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences introduced the progress of the human bone research in Sanxing Village. The team has collected 202 human bone samples, of which 133 individual samples have low contamination rates and nuclear DNA data, 28 individuals have only mitochondrial data, and 41 individuals have no data.

Due to their age, the ancient human remains are seriously affected by microbial DNA, making it extremely difficult to extract human DNA from them. The team used endogenous nuclear DNA capture technology and designed DNA probes to "fish out" only 0.0003% of the ancient human DNA from Sanxing Village from the DNA of a large number of microbial bacteria, and amplified it to 46.8% of the human DNA content, greatly expanding the range of samples that can be used for ancient DNA research in Sanxing Village.

At present, the laboratory of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences has completed experiments such as bone powder drilling, ancient DNA extraction, library construction, and capture, and has ended high-throughput sequencing, raw data preprocessing, and evaluation. It has fully entered into data analysis and research and is in the stage of in-depth analysis and article submission.

Human bone samples in the study of physical anthropology of prehistoric China mostly come from the Central Plains and northern China, mainly concentrated in the Yellow River Basin. Human bone samples in the area south of the Yangtze River are difficult to preserve, so data is very scarce. The discovery of a large number of ancient human remains in the Sanxing Village site is undoubtedly a valuable and huge gene pool resource, which is of great significance for studying the close contacts between clans and people in other regions and the integration of human genes.

The design of the ruins park is similar to a "pottery bean"

What does Sanxing Village Heritage Park look like? How was the venue designed?

It is understood that the design team used the "one hidden and one visible" architectural technique to create a site museum that blends into nature and dialogues with the past and the present. "One hidden" refers to the fact that the terrain of the museum decreases from the main road to the riverside field. The design follows the trend and uses the exploration square at the archaeological site as inspiration to bury the main body of the museum underground and hide it in nature; "one visible" refers to the fact that the designer raised the communication and research functional block above the main exhibition of the museum, symbolizing the refinement and continuation of Sanxing Village culture based on history.

Its bucket-shaped architectural form is derived from the cloud-thunder-patterned pottery beans unearthed from the Sanxing Village site. It is scattered along the Xuebu River, overlooking the entire site park. Between the "hidden and visible", the building and the environment blend and coexist, resonating with the ancient and modern times, as if a time tunnel is looking at the museum from the Xuebu River, with overlapping silhouettes, like a giant time ship sailing from the long river of history.

The building facade is inspired by the red-baked earth walls and cloud-thunder pattern pottery surface decoration textures excavated locally. It uses local materials and combines modern techniques to reinterpret the Sanxing Village culture, allowing visitors to truly touch the traces of history through the building.

Entering the archaeological site, the design adopts a low-intervention strategy to pre-plan the existing exploration pit area and future excavation area, and combines the wetland ponds, Bailu woodland, and economic farmland on the site to create a viewing experience that preserves the landform to the greatest extent. At the same time, the existing residential buildings are transformed into functional spaces that meet the needs of archaeology, popular science, research, and supporting facilities, taking into account the two major needs of archaeological research and sightseeing.

According to reports, the Sanxing Village Archaeological Site Park project is divided into three phases: the Sanxing Village Ancient Culture Experience Center, the Jiangnan Agricultural Civilization Revitalization Experience Zone, and the Cultural Museum Cluster. The first phase of the project started this time, mainly including the site museum and entrance area, archaeological workstation, visitor center, site protection and display, environmental improvement, and the construction of a beautiful Sanxing Village village.

Comprehensive China News Network, Phoenix Network, etc.