4,200 years ago, Chinese ancestors were already driving cars?

The Pingliangtai Site in Huaiyang was selected as one of the top ten archaeological discoveries in the country in 2019.

Regarding the status of Pingliangtai Ancient City in the history of urban development in China, the famous cultural scholar Yi Zhongtian once made such a vivid metaphor that the ruins of Pingliangtai Ancient City in Huaiyang are like the "ancestor" of the palace city or imperial city in later generations. It is the "basic version", the Erlitou site is the "upgraded version", and the Forbidden City of Ming and Qing Dynasties is the "deluxe version".

The earliest physical central axis of a city discovered in my country

You must be familiar with the city's central axis. Beijing's central axis starts from Yongdingmen in the south and ends at the Bell and Drum Tower in the north. Kaifeng's central axis has remained unchanged for a thousand years. So, when did the city's central axis first appear?

Archaeological excavations have revealed that the Pingliangtai Longshan culture city site is square in plan, with symmetrically distributed city gates, with the south, north and west gates in the middle, and the east gate being destroyed in the later period.

In 2019, a north-south Longshan period road was discovered in the center of the city, with the two ends corresponding to the south and north city gates respectively. This road obviously has the practical significance of a "central axis" layout.

Cao Yanpeng, associate researcher at the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and project leader of the Pingliangtai city site, believes that Pingliangtai should be the earliest and relatively clear urban construction planning method with a central axis symmetry. The central axis has been used from the beginning of the city's construction to the latest stage of the ancient city ruins, indicating that the central axis symmetry layout has been used consistently in the ancient city.

In the view of Liu Guoxiang, executive deputy director of the Public Archaeology Center of the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the central axis layout of the Pingliangtai site traces China's urban layout concept of "respecting the center" back to 4,000 years ago, becoming an important witness to the continuous and sustainable development of Chinese civilization.

Wang Wei, director of the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, once said in an interview with the media: "The ancient city of Pingliangtai was planned in a very square manner, with a main road in the city. This kind of planning was the earliest, and the tradition continued to later generations until the Beijing city of the Ming and Qing dynasties. There are rows of houses beside the road, and the sequence between the rows of houses is very clear. The central axis is a very important feature of ancient Chinese cities. This concept was discovered in Erlitou before, and the discovery of Pingliangtai this time is even earlier."

Discovered the earliest and most complete urban drainage system in China

The Pingliangtai site in Huaiyang 4,600 years ago actually had the most advanced urban water management system in the world at that time. It could not only drain water but also take in water. This was the earliest and most complete urban drainage system in Chinese history.

Cao Yanpeng introduced that as early as the 1980s, ceramic water pipes were found at the south gate of the Pingliangtai site, which were identified as "drainage pipes" at the time. During the continued excavation between 2014 and 2016, two more sets of drainage pipes were found on the south gate. In addition, drainage ditches for water intake and drainage ditches for outflow were also found. Together with the drainage pipes found, it is believed that it is a "drainage system with both inflow and outflow."

"In 2019, we found east-west drainage pipes on the padding of houses inside the city site, which merged into the north-south drainage ditch," Cao Yanpeng said. "The drainage pipes and drainage ditches in the city, together with the drainage facilities on the original south city, have been combined with our many discoveries to piece together a relatively complete city drainage system."

Urban water management is a hot topic in archaeology, but the functions of water management in different cities are different. Some cities dig a large pit in the city to store water, storing water in the rainy season and releasing water in the dry season; some cities are close to rivers and build ditches to bring water into the city or discharge sewage into the river, which are all water management.

Cao Yanpeng said that Pingliangtai is relatively advanced in terms of being well-preserved, well-maintained and clearly planned. The Dinggong site in Shandong, which is the same period as the Pingliangtai site, also has water supply and drainage functions, but it does not use the drainage pipes found in the Pingliangtai site, but drainage channels, and there are only drainage channels, so water cannot enter.

"So far, we believe that Pingliangtai is the earliest and most complete urban drainage system."

The Earliest Wheel Tracks in China

The origin of car use in my country was advanced by at least 500 years

At the Pingliangtai site, archaeologists also discovered the earliest traces of wheel tracks in my country, which pushed back the origin of vehicle use in my country by at least 500 years.

There are many wheel tracks near the southern gate of the site, ranging from 0.1 to 0.15 meters wide, with the deepest being 0.12 meters, and the most obvious one being 3.3 meters long. Among them, there is a section of wheel tracks with two tracks running side by side, 0.8 meters apart, which was initially identified by experts as the track of a "two-wheeled vehicle".

Archaeologists have discovered wheel tracks from the Xia Dynasty at the Erlitou site in Yanshi, pushing the history of my country's use of vehicles back to about 3,700 years ago. The discovery of wheel tracks at the Pingliangtai site in Huaiyang has pushed the origin of China's use of vehicles back at least 500 years.

The wheel tracks discovered at the Pingliangtai site in Huaiyang are at least 4,200 years old. They are the earliest wheel tracks discovered in China so far and have important academic value for studying the invention of the wheel and the origin of the vehicle in my country.

In recent years, in order to better protect, display and utilize the ancient city ruins and fully demonstrate the historical, scientific and artistic value of the ruins, Huaiyang District, with the strong support of the national and provincial cultural relics and archaeology departments, has integrated resources from all parties and is vigorously promoting the planning and construction of Pingliangtai National Archaeological Site Park. At present, the first phase of the project is implementing environmental improvement projects. It is expected that by the end of this year, the first phase of the Pingliangtai National Archaeological Site Park and the Pingliangtai Site Museum will be completed, opened and put into use.