Remember the "Yangshao Man" in textbooks? Archaeologists are trying to reconstruct their appearance!

China's archaeological sanctuary, the source of Chinese civilization. Archaeology is an important source of knowledge for shaping national historical cognition. The Yangshao culture, which dates back about 7,000 to 5,000 years, is an important cultural development stage in China's Neolithic Age and the longest-lasting archaeological culture in my country.

The Yangshao Village site is located at the southern foot of Shaoshan Mountain, 6 kilometers north of Mianchi County, Sanmenxia City, Henan Province, covering an area of ​​about 300,000 square meters. In August 2020, the fourth archaeological excavation of the Yangshao Village site was launched. The life scenes of the ancestors of Yangshao Village more than 5,000 years ago are being continuously restored based on rich archaeological evidence.

With the continuous advancement of the fourth archaeological excavation and research of the Yangshao Village site, new archaeological discoveries represented by it continue to bring us surprises and shocks, and answer the grand question of "Why China".

Multidisciplinary collaboration enables science and technology to empower new archaeological knowledge

"Before launching the fourth archaeological excavation of the Yangshao site, we formulated a scientific, reasonable and detailed archaeological work plan." On August 16, Li Shiwei, deputy director of the Prehistoric Archaeology Research Office of the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and on-site person in charge of the fourth archaeological excavation of the Yangshao Village site, told reporters that this archaeological survey adopted a systematic investigation and exploration, attempting to gain a more comprehensive and systematic understanding of the distribution range of the Yangshao Village site, the concentration of relic sites and the classification and zoning of settlements. A large amount of multidisciplinary research work was carried out, and a lot of results were achieved, filling the gap in multidisciplinary research work on the Yangshao Village site over the past century.

Li Shiwei said that this excavation is different from previous ones in that a combination of archaeological investigation, archaeological general exploration and key exploration was adopted before the start... Aerial photography and precise mapping of the Yangshao Village site were carried out on a large scale, and a three-dimensional coordinate system and geographic information system were established. Field investigations determined the direction of the exploration work, and exploration holes were drilled in the site in the form of a general survey, and key areas were covered with key explorations.

It is reported that through this systematic investigation, experts have gained a more comprehensive understanding of the distribution range of the Yangshao Village site, stratigraphic accumulation, distribution of relics, layout of settlements, and the distribution scale of the Yangshao culture and Longshan culture. Moreover, because of the large-scale and intensive drilling exploration, a "profile" connecting several exploration holes can be made. In this way, without excavation, the stratigraphic conditions at a certain location and the general distribution of relics can be clearly seen.

"The artifacts obtained in this excavation have also been dated in detail, which allows us to more accurately identify artifacts from the early, middle and late Yangshao culture and the Longshan culture period." Li Shiwei introduced that many problems can be solved through systematic and comprehensive exploration and investigation, and the cultural connotation and settlement layout of the Yangshao Village site will become clearer.

Trying every possible means to revive the broken pottery

"When you go to the scene, you have to try your best and leave no regrets." For Li Shiwei, what impressed him most was that when he was cleaning the bottom of the cellar, a large piece of painted pottery appeared, and a large number of painted pottery pieces with the same patterns began to be discovered around it.

However, there was still a piece of pottery missing from the bottom of the painted pottery, so he encouraged everyone. Then everyone selected and compared all the pottery pieces unearthed in the pit, and finally found the missing piece of pottery.

They cleaned the painted pottery pieces, packed the unearthed cultural relics with plastic wrap, and took them back to the laboratory to draw pictures, take photos, clean them, and piece them together. When Li Shiwei glued the pottery pieces at the bottom tightly, his teammates cheered. This painted pottery jar with staggered parallel lines has become the only relatively complete restored painted pottery unearthed in the fourth archaeological excavation of the Yangshao Village site.

In Li Shiwei's view, although archaeology is a dialogue with history, the integration of modern technology can often produce many wonderful chemical reactions. He told reporters that during the entire archaeological excavation process, the field archaeological excavation management system, which is currently at the forefront of archaeological operations, was fully utilized to digitize the entire archaeological excavation data, as well as photos and images, for permanent preservation and later analysis and research. While talking, Li Shiwei took out his mobile phone, logged into the "Archaeological Excavation Geographic Information System", and entered the excavation progress.

Multidisciplinary residue analysis on the bottom of the bottle, electrochemical testing on soil samples... "Archaeological methods are changing with each passing day, and scientific and technological means have been widely used," said Li Shiwei.

The latest achievement: The appearance of ancient people in the Yangshao period is about to be restored

"The latest multidisciplinary and multi-technical archaeological research work we are currently carrying out mainly focuses on the restoration of the facial features of ancient people in the Yangshao period and the study of ancient DNA from the Yangshao and Longshan periods." Li Shiwei said that before the excavation, a relatively large number of multidisciplinary research tasks had been formulated. During the entire excavation process, experts also adhered to this multidisciplinary and multi-technical research concept and carried out more than a dozen multidisciplinary research tasks including animal archaeology, plant archaeology, environmental archaeology, human archaeology and residue analysis.

According to reports, the multidisciplinary research work is still ongoing, and some of the research has achieved amazing results. "Through our efforts over the past year, the multidisciplinary research team has fully applied physical anthropology, craniofacial reconstruction technology, and carbon-14 dating technology, and now has initially made a relatively accurate and scientific restoration of the appearance of ancient people in the Yangshao and Longshan periods." Li Shiwei excitedly showed the latest research results to reporters.

At the same time, experts also studied the ancient DNA from the Yangshao and Longshan periods at the Yangshao Village site. "Through the ancient DNA research, we can have a deeper understanding of the development and genetic relationship of the prehistoric population in the middle reaches of the Yellow River." Li Shiwei said that he hopes that through continuous research, the historical dynamics of prehistoric populations can be more comprehensively revealed.