5,000 years ago, there were three-story buildings here!

About 5,000 years ago, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River had a well-developed water system and fertile farmland. The ancestors of Qujialing who lived here were diligent and wise. They consolidated the "foundation" and built three-story pavilion-style buildings; they built large-scale, multifunctional water conservancy facilities to resist floods and irrigate farmland... A series of new archaeological discoveries have shown the world the early civilization of the Jianghan Plain.

Recently, the top ten archaeological discoveries in China in 2023 were announced in Beijing, and the Qujialing site in Jingmen, Hubei Province was selected. The Qujialing site is a large Neolithic site with Qujialing as the core, including more than 10 sites such as Yinjialing, Zhongjialing and Zongziba, dating back about 5900 to 4200 years. The large central settlements, high-level buildings and water conservancy facilities here have become precious material evidence for studying the process of prehistoric civilization in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

A corner of the Qujialing ruins (drone photo). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xiao Yijiu

01 The large building of more than 500 square meters is unveiled

Since the 1950s, the Qujialing site has been excavated many times. Since 2015, in order to promote the "Archaeology China" major project to study the civilization process in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and other units have carried out a new round of archaeological work here and made a series of new discoveries.

In the autumn of 2021, the archaeological team accidentally discovered a pure loess platform on a high ground in the central area of ​​the site, followed by a "stone pier" that looked like red baked earth. "Soon, more stone piers were revealed. They were arranged in an orderly manner, connected in a straight line, and the corners were also vertical. It can be confirmed that the foundation of the building has been discovered," said Zhang Dewei, the on-site person in charge of the Qujialing site archaeological project.

After nearly two years of archaeological excavations, the Qujialing palace-style building that has attracted great attention from the archaeological community - the large building F38 with an area of ​​about 510 square meters - was revealed for the first time.

Inside the building area, the most eye-catching thing is the numerous large-scale and exquisitely constructed piers. In the five "houses" enclosed, more than 70 piers are eye-catching, and the largest one is about 3.3 meters long and 1.7 meters wide.

02 The earliest form of pier discovered so far

"This is the earliest form of pier discovered so far. If you are not a professional archaeologist, you can only see the 'pit'. In fact, this architectural structure is extremely innovative, providing a solid archaeological basis for ancient Chinese civil engineering technology and filling a gap in China's architectural history." Xu Yitao, a professor at the School of Archaeology and Museology of Peking University, who is responsible for the restoration of the F38 building, told reporters.

Xu Yitao said that the central pavilion of F38 is a sleeve-type structure, which bears the building loads on both sides, allowing the houses on both sides to form an open space without internal columns.

Tao Yang, the person in charge of the archaeological project at the Qujialing site, said that the production of the pier required high technical content. "First, the original soft base of the pier area was dug away, and then a pure loess platform was built. Then a deep pit was dug on the platform, and the pit wall was roasted to form a hardened surface. Then, the deep pit was filled with red roasted soil mixed with clay and a small amount of burned pig bones to form the pier."

During the Qujialing culture period, the settlement scale of the Qujialing site expanded rapidly and society developed at an accelerated pace.

"Water control is an important activity in settled agriculture." Tao Yang said that the Xiongjialing water conservancy system located in the northeast of the site, including dams, water storage areas, irrigation areas and spillways, is the most complete prehistoric water conservancy system known to date. The early dam dates back 5100 to 4900 years.

03 Many “firsts” of the Qujialing site

Arriving at the Qujialing National Archaeological Site Park, the brown, earth-like solid exterior of the museum building is particularly eye-catching. The museum displays many "firsts" among prehistoric sites in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River - "the first to be named as an archaeological culture", "the first to publish an archaeological excavation report", "the first to identify the rice remains in my country 5,000 years ago"...

"This year marks the 70th anniversary of the discovery of the Qujialing site. A series of major discoveries are the result of the hard work of generations of archaeologists." Tao Yang said that in the next three years, the Qujialing site archaeological team will focus on clarifying the complete layout of the high-level building area, selectively excavating related locations in the periphery, further deepening the value connotation of the Qujialing site, and telling the story of prehistoric civilization in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

Source: Xinhua News Agency