Science in Zhejiang Culture | Hemudu Civilization: The “Land of Fish and Rice” in the Neolithic Age Takes Shape

Starting from Ningbo Station and driving about 30 kilometers, the Yuyao Hemudu Site is getting closer and closer.

At the end of October, it was the late rice harvest season. When the reporter arrived, the rice fields on the roadside looked golden from afar. I couldn't help but think that if the ancestors who had learned to domesticate rice 7,000 years ago saw this harvest scene, they would probably excitedly dance a celebratory dance.

51 years ago, a drainage station project made this ancient village site from the Neolithic Age stunningly visible. In the two official archaeological excavations carried out in 1973 and 1977, the living conditions of the prehistoric ancestors in the southeastern coastal areas of my country gradually became clear.

Living by the water, growing rice and fishing, sleeping on mats and wearing linen clothes, the ancestors at that time had used their wisdom to bid farewell to the era of eating raw meat and drinking blood, and the seeds that were just beginning to sprout in accordance with the will of heaven started a simple and stable clan life.

The hardworking nature of the Chinese people was already evident 7,000 years ago

Walking into the first exhibition hall of the Hemudu Museum, the fiery red background color represents the rising sun that nourishes all things. The local tour guide introduced that the Hemudu people have been living a life of working from sunrise to sunrise, with men farming and women weaving.

At that time, the climate was more humid and hotter than that of Zhejiang today. When the sun just rose, people began their day's work in the primeval forest outside the village. They used the flat beaches along the banks of lakes and rivers to cultivate rice fields and ridges that were convenient for walking. They used bone hoes (made from the shoulder blades of large animals such as bison) to plow the farmland and remove reeds and weeds; stone knives or bone sickles to harvest rice ears; wooden pestles and stone grinding rods to husk rice and process starch.

This is similar to the traditional farming techniques that people have in mind. "From carbonized rice to this set of tools from farming to shelling, it reflects the history of artificial rice cultivation in the Hemudu culture," the guide told reporters.

At that time, the ancestors had already mastered the empirical methods of domesticating rice. They also learned to accumulate the "fruits" of hard work - during archaeological excavations, a rice accumulation layer of about 200 to 300 square meters was discovered. After identification by experts, it was believed that this "granary" stored about tens of thousands of kilograms of grain, which could sustain the diet of about 200 to 300 people in the entire village for a year.

When rice farming developed to a certain level, our ancestors became more "particular" about cooking. After a series of "physical changes" and "chemical changes" in mud, pottery was born. People then put rice into pottery cauldrons (the earliest rice cookers) of various shapes, added water, and cooked vegetables, meat, porridge and rice. You should know that when the closed-mouth pottery cauldrons were unearthed at the Hemudu site, many of them still had the rice crust of the time.

Hemudu pottery Photographed by Lin Chenchen

In order to make food more delicious, the ancient recipes have been constantly upgraded over the years. In a set of pottery stoves, we can see that the ancestors dug many holes in the bottom of the pottery, just like the steamer in the modern kitchen. When heated, steam can enter through the holes and steam the food. It can be seen that for the sake of "delicious food", even the Hemudu ancestors would rack their brains to create inventions.

Mortise and tenon structures appear in large numbers, creating a "happy hometown" built with wisdom

The south of the Yangtze River has beautiful mountains and rivers. During the Hemudu period, the ecology was excellent. In this environment surrounded by mountains and rivers, elephants, rhinos, four-legged animals, whales and other animals have "settled down" here. In order to make life better, the Hemudu people who worked hard to open up also left behind many survival "crafts" in the Neolithic Age.

They would grind game bones into pointed needles to sew clothes, grind stones into balls to hit passing beasts, and even row boats and make oars to sail to the far sea. What is most worth mentioning is that the earliest known stilt house was created by the Hemudu people.

They have a scientific building method to create safe and comfortable living space -

For example, in order to cope with the complex outdoor environment, the house is usually located at the foot of the mountain or on the hillside. In order to prevent moisture and make full use of space, the appearance of the house at that time was like today's "stilted house". The first floor is four rows of piles driven into the ground, and the second floor is equipped with beams to support the floor, forming an elevated building base. Then, columns are erected on it and covered with reed roofs, presenting a triangular living space, which can even be said to be the earliest wooden building. A "luxury house" with a height of 1 meter, a width of 23 meters and an outer corridor was unearthed at the Hemudu site. A single wooden ladder was used to go up and down the building, which could accommodate dozens of people at the same time.

In addition, the mortise and tenon structure, the embodiment of wisdom and strength in Chinese architecture, appears in large numbers in these stilt buildings. It has smooth lines, is stable and strong, and is still a green building technology worth inheriting in modern times, with far-reaching enlightenment significance for future generations.

With the "Happy Hometown", my hometown has taken shape. Every household is separated by wooden fences along the river, and different functional areas such as food storage area, processing area, pottery kiln firing area are set up. A primitive village began to operate normally.

Pottery bowl with pig pattern. Photo by Lin Chenchen

Animal-shaped ceramic sculptures, photographed by Lin Chenchen

A better life began to flow. In their spare time, music lovers made musical instruments out of animal teeth or bird bones to play primitive melodies; skillful craftsmen painted patterns such as piglets and rice ears on pottery, or made pottery sculptures in the shape of birds and lambs; those who pursued a more "advanced" life used jade or stone to create their favorite "jewelry"... In the Hemudu Museum, these unique and lovely handicrafts that have been passed down for 7,000 years attract waves of tourists to stop and watch.

No one knows where the Hemudu people ended up after so many changes. But the production technology used by our clever ancestors and the splendid culture created by the technology will live forever.

Expert Interview

Sun Guoping, Director and Researcher of the Prehistoric Archaeology Research Office of Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology:

Stilt buildings are well developed

There were villages during the Hemudu period

50 years ago, archaeologists unveiled the Hemudu site in Yuyao, Zhejiang, proving that the Yangtze River Basin and the Yellow River Basin are both the birthplaces of Chinese culture. The Hemudu site is also recognized as one of the "Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries in China in the 20th Century", and is a milestone in understanding the history of ancient civilization development in the Yangtze River Basin and even the entire southern region of China.

After systematically understanding the daily production, life, and ideology of the Hemudu ancestors 7,000 years ago, we will be amazed that the ancestors at that time already had such wisdom and technology to improve their lives.

Sun Guoping, director and researcher of the Prehistoric Archaeology Research Office of the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, is a guest on this issue of "The Science of Zhejiang Culture". Sun Guoping has been engaged in the investigation, excavation and research of prehistoric archaeology in Zhejiang Province, and has participated in or presided over dozens of field archaeological excavations of sites in Zhejiang Province. Among them, he has presided over the proactive archaeological excavation and multidisciplinary research of the Tianluoshan site, a representative site of the Hemudu culture, for 15 consecutive years.

Q: The Hemudu site vividly reproduces the historical origins of the rice-growing society in China's southeastern coastal areas and the "land of fish and rice" in the south of the Yangtze River six or seven thousand years ago. Based on archaeological discoveries, what level had primitive agriculture reached at that time?

Answer: The Hemudu ancestors took advantage of the flat, low-lying, water-convenient coastal tidal flats, wetlands and swamps that had just been formed under the influence of rising sea levels. They used the shoulder blades of captured wild buffaloes to process bone hoes and other advanced (compared with other prehistoric cultures of the same period) production tools to reclaim larger areas of rice fields, harvest more rice, and feed a larger population than supported by traditional economic means such as gathering and fishing. Their way of harvesting and processing rice was much more primitive and simpler than modern methods. They harvested rice with bone sickles and stone knives, and ground and processed rice with millstones and wooden pestles.

Archaeological scene of stilt building foundation Source: Hemudu Site Museum

Question: The Hemudu people herded rice and made pottery, dug wells for water, and made oars for boats. How did they use these tools scientifically?

Answer: The Hemudu ancestors were quite skilled in making pottery, and their daily utensils were mainly pottery. The shapes were diverse and regular, and the decorative techniques were rich and colorful; early pottery was mainly charcoal-mixed pottery, which was hand-made, fired at a low temperature, and irregular in shape. There were mostly flat-bottomed vessels, round-bottomed vessels, and ring-footed vessels, but no tripod vessels. In the late period, the number of charcoal-mixed pottery decreased significantly, while the number of sand-mixed pottery increased, and clay pottery appeared.

The well with a well pavilion and a wooden well ring has an advanced structure and is convenient to use. This invention of water use has greatly guaranteed drinking water hygiene. Seven thousand years ago, the Hemudu ancestors lived in an area with crisscrossing rivers, lakes and swamps, and a vast area of ​​water, so the ancestors had an indissoluble bond with water. More than 40 wooden paddles have been unearthed from several major sites of the Hemudu culture, all of which were cut from a whole piece of hardwood. The wooden paddles processed from a whole piece of wood vary in size and shape, with the longest reaching more than 1.5 meters. They show that the ancestors at that time may have had the technology to sail near the coast.

Q: The Hemudu Site Museum exhibits the evolution of pottery spanning more than a thousand years. From a technical perspective, what was the level of development at that time?

A: In fact, from the early Hemudu culture, which started 7,000 years ago, to the end of the Hemudu culture more than 5,000 years ago, the pottery making technology showed obvious development and stage characteristics. The shapes tended to be regular, and large and small pottery were made in sets. Some utensils had obvious innovations in shape, especially the cooking utensils from the early simple pottery cauldrons to the diversification of pottery cauldrons, and the appearance and application of pottery stoves and pottery tripods. The temperature of the fire was also gradually increased. The Hemudu ancestors had very advanced technical performance in all aspects of craftsmanship and technology in the Neolithic culture of various parts of China.

Question: Several early "stilt wooden houses" were unearthed at the Hemudu site. What is the scientific basis of this design?

Answer: The Hemudu ancestors created stilt-style wooden buildings (China's earliest "wooden buildings") based on local conditions, which were the main architectural form of clan villages. At that time, they took advantage of the natural environment of mountains and rivers to build a small-scale village consisting of multiple wooden "buildings" arranged in an orderly manner. However, in the same clan, the entire village or a single long row of houses was the smallest "cell" of social life at that time, with common production and consumption, and a warm atmosphere.

Stilt wooden houses use large and small pieces of wood as the main frame materials, mortise and tenon joints as the main connection method, and gable roofs as the basic architectural style, which can adapt to the warm, humid and rainy climate conditions of ancient Jiangnan.