The important birthplace of marine civilization
- Details
- Category: Governmental News
- Published: Wednesday, 07 August 2024 16:20
adds empirical evidence that Ningbo fish hooks have been “industrialized” in the Warring States Period
Bronze fishhook from the Warring States period. (Photo by Huang Yinfeng) Recently, the Ningbo Institute of Cultural Heritage Management announced the latest archaeological discovery - Cixi Wanshan site, the archaeological relics unearthed at the site have been
transported to the National Underwater Cultural Heritage Protection Ningbo Base located in Chunxiao Street, Beilun District.
The Wanshan site is located on the south side of Wanshan in Henghe Town, Cixi City, and is divided into two areas, east and west, with a total distribution area of 3,600 square meters.
From March to July this year, the Ningbo Institute of Cultural Heritage Management, together with the Jingzhou Museum and the Cixi Cultural Relics Protection Center, carried out a 1,000-square-meter rescue archaeological excavation of the Wanshan site.
The site is stacked to a depth of about 0.5 to 1.2 meters, and can be divided into five cultural layers from top to bottom. A total of 10 relics were cleaned up, and nearly 90 small specimens were unearthed. The unearthed relics are dated from early to late, including the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Period, the Han Six Dynasties and the Tang and Song Dynasties.
“The relics of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were found to have house sites, stoves, ash pits, etc., and there were many unearthed remains; The remains of the Han Six Dynasties period were destroyed by late disturbances, and only a few ash pits remained; Two ash pits were found in the relics of the Tang and Song dynasties, and a small number of celadon bowls and plate fragments were unearthed. Ding Fengya, the archaeological director of the project and deputy director of the Archaeological Research Center of the Ningbo Institute of Cultural Heritage Management, said.
“At present, the pre-Qin site settlements found in the Yuci area are mainly distributed in the eastern and southern foothills of Cuiping Mountain, and there are few archaeological discoveries in the northern foothills in the past. The archaeological excavation of the Wanshan site has unearthed more relics from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and the preservation status is good, which provides new materials for us to understand the distribution characteristics of pre-Qin settlements in this area and the changes of the times. Ding Fengya said.
Judging from the discovery of relics in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there is no obvious law in the distribution of pillar holes at the house site, the structure is unknown, and the stove is located in the northeast of the house site. The unearthed pottery is mainly printed hard pottery, clay gray pottery, and sand-filled red pottery, and the recognizable vessel types include ding, pot, urn, bowl, etc. The original porcelain is mainly small living utensils, and the recognizable types include bowls, beans, bowls, cups, etc. Bronzes include copper shovels, bells, fish hooks, etc. Stone tools include stone axes and gravel stones.
The relics unearthed from the Han Six Dynasties period are mainly pottery and porcelain. Most of the pottery is clay pots, and there are a small number of bricks and tiles. Porcelain has bowls, plates, bowls, bowls, pots, etc., mainly Yue kiln celadon.
A bronze fish hook from the Warring States period on display is quite eye-catching. The hook is well-made, with a large shank, curved and curved shape, with an inner barb, 4.2 cm long and 2.5 cm wide.
“This well-preserved bronze fishhook is one of the representative artifacts of maritime culture.” Ding Fengya pointed out that before this, archaeological discoveries in the coastal areas of Ningbo, including the site of Sigu Mountain in Beilun, had unearthed fish hooks in the Warring States Period, and bronze fish hooks in the Shang and Zhou dynasties had been unearthed at the Tashan site in Xiangshan, which showed that fishing with fish hooks was more common in the coastal areas of Ningbo at that time, and the technology was mature.
It is worth mentioning that there are seams left by the clay casting method on both sides of the fishhook body unearthed at the Wanshan site. “This shows that the Ningbo area has the technology of mass production of fish hooks during the Warring States Period, which can accelerate the development process of marine fishery resources and the diffusion of technology, which is of great value for the study of the development and evolution of marine civilization in Ningbo.” Ding Fengya analyzed
