China News Service, Hangzhou, October 18 (Linbo) Recently, during the fourth "Liangzhu Forum", Chinese and foreign guests visited the Liangzhu Ancient City Heritage Park in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, and visited the Fanshan archaeological excavation site.
Wang Ningyuan, a researcher at the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and head of the Liangzhu Ancient City and Water Conservancy System Site Archaeological Team, revealed new archaeological results on site: Following the discovery of architectural remains on the earth platform on the east side of Fanshan Cemetery last year, the archaeological team completed the restoration of these prehistoric buildings this year.
Wang Ningyuan said that on the east side of the Fanshan King's Tomb where the "Jade Cong King" was unearthed, a group of high-level architectural patterns dating back 5,000 years have gradually emerged, providing important clues for exploring China's early tomb system.
Fanshan is the location of the tomb of the Liangzhu king, and the famous "Jade Cong King" comes from this high-level cemetery. Archeology shows that there are three buildings distributed in the center of the anti-mountain mound. The largest main building is oval-shaped, with two supporting small buildings, forming a special group of buildings next to the royal tomb.
Standing on the edge of the expedition, Wang Ningyuan introduced the details of the restoration to the guests. The archaeological evidence supporting the restoration of this building is the 120 post holes cleared out of the soil.
Li Songyang, a staff member of the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology, divided the pillar cave remains into three groups, corresponding to the three buildings F1, F2, and F3.
Among them, the oval building numbered F1 is a main building with railings, built on artificial slopes, with a corridor around the outside, and the indoor floor is higher than the ground of the corridor.
The building is 25.2 meters long from east to west and 16 meters wide from north to south, covering an area of approximately 316 square meters. Post holes and traces of burnt earth prove that a corridor connects F1 to the circular building F2. F2 covers an area of about 105 square meters and is significantly smaller than the main building. F3 on the north side of F2 is a square building with an area of only 23 square meters. It is the smallest of the three buildings.
The archaeological team's research found that the planar column grid structure of the building came directly from the underground excavation remains; no well-preserved wooden building has been found in the Liangzhu period. The shape of the upper beams of the building was restored with reference to the pottery house model and house patterns on the pottery unearthed in the same period.
The special location, unique shape and building volume next to the royal tombs have attracted academic circles to focus on the functions of this group of buildings. Wang Ningyuan speculated: "Is this oval main building the Xiangdian of the Liangzhu royal mausoleum, specially used for sacrificial rituals? Together with the outer courtyard walls, does this relic indicate the birth of the early tomb system in the ancient Liangzhu country?"
He said that the above speculation is currently an archaeological hypothesis and is not conclusive. The archaeological team will continue to excavate to find more evidence. "If it is a residential place, there will be a large amount of domestic garbage, stoves and other living remains in the surrounding area. We will rely on the unearthed remains to further judge the use attributes of the building."
It is worth mentioning that the Liangzhu Civilization had no writing, so archaeologists can only rely on material remains such as buildings and utensils to restore the social order of the ancient country more than 5,000 years ago bit by bit.
As the remains of the courtyard walls, trestles and three buildings are successively clarified, the complete spatial pattern of the Fanshan King's Tomb is being gradually put together. This group of ceremonial architectural remains next to the royal tombs continues to enrich the archaeological puzzle of the power system and ritual civilization of the ancient Liangzhu Kingdom, adding new physical clues to prove the history of Chinese civilization for more than 5,000 years.
