Were the Yue people 2,500 years ago "tide-proof architects"? Archaeological excavation of the kingdom of Goujian, King of Yue →

Recently, the "Yue State Archaeology: Shaoxing Dahutou Site Excavation Results Exhibition" opened at the Zhejiang Shaoxing Museum. For the first time, the archaeological excavation results of the Dahutou Site in Yuecheng District, Shaoxing City since 2021 were displayed in a concentrated manner.

At the end of 2020, in conjunction with the investment promotion plan of the Shaoxing Municipal People's Government, the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted a preliminary archaeological survey and discovered a large-scale ancient cultural site. From 2021 to date, the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology has jointly carried out archaeological excavations on the site with the Shaoxing Yuecheng District Cultural Relics Protection Institute, fully revealing a settlement site within the capital of the Yue Kingdom during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty - the Dahutou Site.

The State of Yue was one of the most important vassal states in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and it was also the beginning of Zhejiang's history with clear documentary records. Shaoxing was the capital of the State of Yue, where the State of Yue grew and prospered, and established its hegemony. Therefore, the archaeological work of the ruins of the capital of the State of Yue in Shaoxing is naturally the focus and key.

The main period of the Dahutou site coincided with the rise and heyday of the Yue State, that is, the era of Yun Chang and his son Gou Jian. It is the most typical and core representative of Yue culture. A wealth of Yue cultural relics have been unearthed at the site, which is the most informative and comprehensive archaeological work in the current research on Yue culture and Yue history.

First, let's look at the number. There are more than 3,000 intact and restored small artifacts unearthed. This exhibition has selected more than 400 pieces (sets) of cultural relics from more than 3,000 pieces.

Let's look at the quality. Let me list a few firsts -

For the first time, a group of primitive porcelain musical instruments were unearthed at the site; the Yue wooden paddles and bronze spear-shaped objects unearthed for the first time in scientific excavations reflected the living environment, architectural and residential forms, bronze smelting and other production technologies in a relatively comprehensive manner, and displayed the unique cultural features of the Yue people more than 2,000 years ago.

Taking the Dahutou site as a new starting point, in recent years, Shaoxing, especially Yuecheng District, has discovered a number of large-scale Yue culture settlement sites such as Dahutou, Tingshan, Nanshan, Muzhaqiao, and Jizhong, and has obtained clear unearthed information, providing physical evidence of the history of the Yue Kingdom, which is a new breakthrough in Yue archaeology. This year, the Tingshan site group was officially included in the proactive archaeological project of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, and will continue to carry out refined archaeological excavations.

The curator of this exhibition is You Xiaolei, the person in charge of the archaeological excavation project of the Dahutou site. Young people from the Shang and Zhou Archaeology Room and the Project Management Department completed the preparations for the exhibition together.

They are the ones who know Da Hu Tou best.

"At first, no one was sure there would be such a large site, and why people would choose to live in such a low-lying and humid environment."

You Xiaolei said that the excavation happened to be during the rainy season, so they could only work for half a month in a month because the area was too low-lying. Once it rained, it would take several days to pump out the water in the pit.

Of course, the Yue people also thought about this problem.

2,500 years ago, the Yue people built stilt houses to adapt to the humid environment and muddy foundations. Different types of stilt house foundations have been discovered at the Dahutou site, which may have different functions and uses.

For example, House 3 is a large building with an area of ​​at least 600 square meters. Many original porcelain cups were unearthed in the surrounding depressions, which may also be related to the function of the building. "There are at least more than 300 of them. I even suspect that it is a place for drinking." You Xiaolei said with a smile.

Recently, the Jizhong site discovered for the first time the original form of foundation construction, the raft-shaped ground burden. There is also another form, the "wooden pad + square column", which was quite common in the Yue State and was also discovered at the Tingshan site.

The low-lying terrain caused the rivers and lakes to be affected by salt tides, and the water in the swamps and wetlands was turbid, which could not meet the needs of life. In order to obtain clean water for daily life, the ancestors of the Neolithic Age already knew how to dig wells to get water, and the Yue people also acquired well-making technology early. The Yue wells discovered at the Dahutou site used bamboo poles and branches to interweave and reinforce the well walls to prevent collapse, and a sand layer was laid at the bottom of the well.

For us 2,500 years later, the "garbage pit" of the Yue people is a "treasure pot" and a real scene for restoring history. The professional term for the garbage dump we are talking about is ash pit. More than 500 ash pits, wells and other relics have been discovered at the Dahutou site, and many daily necessities have been unearthed.

"There are several garbage dumps that look like centralized landfills. If you go to the village garbage pits, you can find out what people eat and use," said You Xiaolei.

However, the ash pits of the Dahutou people are a bit special, with musical instruments with Yue characteristics, mainly made of primitive porcelain. In one ash pit, the pit mouth was covered with tree bark, and primitive porcelain diào and chún were unearthed in the pit, and they were a complete set, which is very special.

It should be noted that primitive porcelain musical instruments were previously unearthed as burial objects in high-ranking noble tombs. They were generally considered to be funerary objects, not daily necessities. This time, the primitive porcelain Ju-yu and Chu-yu unearthed from the Dahutou site are the first time that primitive porcelain musical instruments have been unearthed in groups at a living site.

The more we discover, the more questions we have. Why did primitive porcelain musical instruments appear in living sites, and in sets?

There is another special one. Many daily utensils were found in the ash pit, such as cooking utensils, including sand-tempered pottery tripods, cauldrons (cauldrons), stands, etc. In addition to cooking utensils, there are also containers of many types, including clay pottery basins, plates, and jars. The special thing is the stamped hard pottery and primitive porcelain.

The half-man-high stamped hard pottery jar looks like a pickle jar. What's in it? It's not clear yet. There are many other stamped hard pottery jars. What are they used for?

"The greatest value of this site is that it provides a lot of details and scenes of daily life, which are difficult to find in tombs."

Several woven baskets and a wooden paddle that was broken into several pieces were also unearthed in the garbage pit. This was the first time a wooden paddle from the Yue State was unearthed in archaeological excavations, providing physical evidence of the Yue people's boating life.

With such high-end daily necessities, there must be many foodies.

Because bones are not easy to preserve in a humid environment, relatively few animal bones were unearthed from the Dahutou site, only a small amount of deer antlers and fish bones. However, tools such as net sinkers and copper fish hooks were unearthed from the site. Fishing and hunting were one of the important sources of food for the Yue people.

The menu of vegetables, fruits and plants of the Yue people was rich, including basil, gourd, melon, plum, plum, peach, kiwi, grape... and Torreya grandis, which was also unearthed in the site for the first time. In addition, a large amount of carbonized rice and a large number of rice spikelets were found, which occupied an absolute advantage among grain crops. Rice should be the staple food of the Yue people. In addition to rice, a small amount of millet and soybeans were also found in the site.

After viewing this exhibition, the author has a feeling that the Dahutou people are probably obsessed with tools and weapons.

You Xiaolei said that more than 300 bronze artifacts were unearthed, most of which were small bronze artifacts such as tools, and there were very few containers. For example, production tools, stone adzes, bronze hoes, bronze chisels, bronze chisels, bronze scrapers (saws), copper pointed tools... from needles to scrapers, whatever you want, you can find it here.

In addition, there are some cultural relics that are eye-catching. There is a group of fine tools that can be carried with you, such as copper saws, which are very light and have many uses. They can be used to cut bamboo slips, open letters, cut fruits, and girls can also use them to shave eyebrows. The same tools were unearthed in the Chu noble tombs in Jiuliandun, Hubei (lacquered wooden dressing box) and the Chu tombs in Xinyang, Henan (writing tool box).

Not to mention the weapons of the Yue people, which were already famous in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Copper spears, copper heads, and various copper arrowheads were discovered at the Dahutou site. Although there are not many weapons, they still reflect the level of craftsmanship.